Conflicts over natural resource access goes back a long way in history ever since national parks became the best insitu method of protecting endangered biodiversity and received legal sanction all over the globe. This paper reviews a case study that was conducted in Kanha national park, India to find out the causes of the conflict still existing in the park between the local communities and the park authorities. A household survey was conducted to find out the dependence of the local communities on the forest resources and also to find out the various sources of income they have which is the decisive factor behind the struggle to access forest resources. The main theme of the paper is to look at these findings, to establish the fact that the poorer income groups are more likely to use forest resources than the higher income groups due to lack of alternative sources of income. Thus the former are more likely to develop a negative attitude towards the park. This also means that they are more likely to resist park rules and regulations and access forest resources illegally.