RESEARCH

Joint Forest Management & Village Developmental Issue A case on Ghugimura Binodbari Forest Protection Committee, Panchyet soil conservation division, Bishnupur, Bankura

In the early eighties, the Ghugimura forest village of Panchyet soil conservation division under Bishnupur forest beat in Morar gram panchayat was covered by Teak, Bahara & Sal forests. The forest was ranging 150 Hectors of land. The village population is approximately 850 & most of the villagers actively involved in commercial fuel wood cutting. The residents of the town of Bishnupur 4 Km. to the north, would absorb any wood fuel that these communities could find for Rs. 10 to Rs. 20 per 20 Kg. head loads. Therefore the forest resulted in a badly degraded forest land. On the other hand any coppice or seedling growth in the Sal, Bahara & Teak forests was quickly suppressed through grazing.

Villagers became increasingly concerned over environmental changes such as:

• Regression of water table
• Decreasing of soil moisture,
• Lose of soil humus or agricultural sterility of soil,
• Random soil erosion etc.

And ecological changes such as:

• Forest growth & forest density was decreased,
• New species were not introduced,
• Lack of non-timber forest products.
• Less aesthetic beauty etc.

This case involved the process of evolution of traditional forest management institutions by the following stages:

1. The environmental awareness among a few village leaders,
2. Motivate forest community villagers to take forest management protection action & processing of Forest Protection Committee (FPC),
3. The spread of forest protection efforts to the villages,
4. Forming the web-coordination among FPCs,
5. Initiation of a village development fund & other benefits

1. The environmental awareness among a few village leaders

In the early eighties villagers were exclusively worried due to their extensive degradation of forest land in addition to their economic condition & environmental circumstances. Those forest villagers were entirely dependent upon forest resources for their income generation such as dry leaves, fodder, medicinal plants, fuel woods, several agricultural tools etc. Most standing trees had been felled & roots were extracted for fuel wood, exposing a stony ground cover. Therefore they were worried for the depletion of the resources which make threatened their own income generation & livelihood. On the other hand due to extensive degradation of forest, water table was going very downwardly so that cost of dug well or tube well formation was extensively increased which caused tremendous water crisis & ultimately drought. Over several years, after a numerous meetings among the villagers they made a conclusion of forest protection & a constant regeneration of the silviculture for their own economic benefit. The local people assessed environmental impacts in other ways & took more holistic view of the entire scenario. They had met with the staffs of forest department to discuss the needs of forest protection & made a demand of some training to maintain & continue their resources for ever to the forest department. The community elders played an important role which ultimately resulted to the formation of Forest Protection Committee named as “Ghugimura-binodbari Forest Protection committee”.

2. Motivate forest community villagers to take forest management protection action & processing of Forest Protection Committee (FPC)

Regenerating the natural forest required village leaders to mobilize enough support within their own village i.e., Gugimura, Binodbari & also subsidiary villages such as Adamispara, Got Para etc. Forest closure meant financially innumerable hardships for the local population who struggled a lot to adhere it. Therefore forest protection involved several conflict but the elders solved all the conflicts through regular meetings with the forest department & other political backgrounds and also with inter village meetings. The elders very soon progressed in leaders & they tried to motivate all the villagers for sustainable development of the forest. This growing participation of all the villagers resulted in the prosperous activity of the FPC to check the degradation of the forest & launch a proper forest management scheme. Many of the villagers initially attempted to exploit the newly protected forest but due to the intelligent leadership of the elders they were suggested to make their own management groups to participate in the forest protection activity directly.

3. The spread of forest protection efforts to the villages

Leaders realized that they need support from the neighboring FPCs to achieve their goal regarding forest management as the result they tried to motivate the other FPCs to make a network & shared all the information regarding forest protection & management scheme. As in all the neighboring FPCs they had faced water scarcity at the early stages of FPCs formation, they took a decision to form a cannel & informed to the forest department. As the result soil moisture content was increased due to the formation of the cannel. Very soon they had made some norms on the collection of the non timber forest products & they made a sale of that, which helped them financially.

Some oral rules were decided by the FPCs are as follows:

• Cutting of trees is an offence.
• Villagers should socially boycott the family of the offenders,
• Offenders should include in the fine system,
• Birds & other animals should be protected,
• Haunting should not be allowed,
• Frequent intra & inter FPCs meetings should be conducted.

Table 1: Shows the data of average GBHs & Heights of last three years:

Graph 1: Shows the comparison of GBHs (cm) in last three years:

Graph 2: Shows the comparison of Heights (m) in last three years:

The correlation value of the girth at breast height and height of the trees on the year 2006, 07 and 08 are 0.29, 0.32, and 0.31 respectively. This clearly indicates that these two factors are positively correlated. Again interestingly it is observed that the correlation value is maximum at the year 2007 which distinctly indicates very strong correlation. It may be explained in the version that some strong anatomical growth phase of the trees that accept the ideal physiological growth behavior of the plants.   

4. Forming the web- coordination among FPCs

Due to the formation of a cannel all the members of several FPCs i.e. Ghugimura, Binodbari etc. had got a lot of interest on the forest protection actions, however the message gradually spread to the other parts so that the whole forest region could be protected. The villagers initiated participatory vegetation monitoring. Some villagers who are literate and intelligent involved with forest department and NGOs regarding this monitoring issue. They played an important role in this monitoring. The following list show the name of those villagers who are directly related to the monitoring system;

• Sridam Das
• Sib Kumar Pandey
• Pallan Lama
• Suman Rai
• Kiran Nirwala
• Bisnu Cherti

Mr. Sridam Das who was the leader played a significant role in this regard. Meanwhile the Ghugimura, FPC initiated some programs such as village festivals, dramas, and religious occasions etc. to interact among all the villagers of all the FPCs & to make a wide participation of all the females & a partial satisfaction of their entertainment.

5. Initiation of a village development fund & other benefits

At last leaders of Ghugimura FPCs had satisfied to make a distinct web among the villagers & the members of the neighboring FPCs. They initiated a regular patrolling to check random illicit fellings & they included a strict fine system from the offenders that ultimately resulted to form a village development fund. On the other hand the 25% share from the forest trees was stored in that fund for village development & occasions. They constructed a puja mandap, a temple, repaired school, provided benches to the school, proper well system for drinking water etc. Due to this efficient forest management action now they are not suffered by water crisis & severe drought as water table is increased, agricultural production is increased due to the increase of soil humus, soil erosion is decreased & at last the aesthetic greenery of the overall forest is increased due to effective forest growth by controlled grazing & pest management.