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Location | Ecosystem Type | Conservation Type | Area(hectare) | Legal status |
Chandrapur, Maharashtra | Forest | Ecosystem Conservation | NA | Reserved Forest |
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Location | Ecosystem Type | Conservation Type | Area(hectare) | Legal status |
Chandrapur, Maharashtra | Forest | Ecosystem Conservation | NA | Reserved Forest |
Satara Tukum is a small tribal hamlet in Pombhurna taluka about 25 km from Chandrapur District Headquarters. It falls under the Mul Forest Range of Chandrapur Forest Division. Legally the forest under conservation are Reserve Forest. Forest department initiated the Joint Forest Management (JFM) Programme here in November 1997. The forests of Satara Tukum once housed local species like dhaoda, ain, kalam, chinchawa, tendu, etc. However, unrestricted grazing and illicit felling in the past few decades left these forests largely degraded, although they still supported mammals such as tigers and panthers. Under JFM the forests are now recovering their past glory. These forests represent the last stretch of forests extending all the way to Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve.
The villagers of Satara Tukum have been watching the degradation of their surrounding forests and to some extent contributing to it. The general feeling among the villagers was that the forests belonged to the government and the government had the responsibility to protect them. Much of the protected forest around the village had already been encroached upon. Satara Tukum was brought under the World Banksponsored forestry programme in 1997. Mr. Chaphekar (Divisional Forest Officer) and Ms. Imtienla Ao (Assistant Conservator of Forests) persuaded the villagers to join the Joint Forest Management (JFM) scheme under this programme. An agreement to this effect was made in the gram sabha (village assembly) on 14 November 1997. About 285 ha were allotted to the village community for protection. A samiti (committee) was appointed, which had 96 members—i.e., one member each from all the 96 households. These 96 members included 84 men and 12 women. Since the government resolution prior to 1998 required only one person per household in the JFM committee, the Samiti is even today dominated by men, and women’s representation comes only from the women headed households. The executive committee consists of 12 members, three of which are women (as per the requirement under JFM resolution). The participation of women members in the decision-making process is nonexistent. The executive committee is elected every two years. After the appointment of the samiti, Imtienla Ao prepared the micro-plan for the area which was approved by the samiti. As per the micro-plan the FPC undertook the following activities to protect and manage the forests:
The FPC has an account jointly managed by the FPC and the forest department. This account receives money from the forest department for various developmental activities. The profits from catching and selling fish from a community fish-tank established under JFM also go to this account. Sometimes various forestry works are carried out through voluntary work (shramadaan) by the villagers and the amount meant for their payment is deposited in the FPC account. As of September 2004, the samiti had Rs. 1.26 lakh in its account. The Sarpanch (president) of the samiti and the forest guard (member secretary of the samiti) are the joint signatories. Before making an expense the samiti has to pass a resolution and the accounts are regularly announced at the meetings of the samiti but not at the gram sabha. The funds in the account are used to give loans to farmers. In the lean period, each member of the samiti gets a loan of Rs 1000. This loan is returned on 14 January (Makar Sankranti, the harvest festival) with 2 per cent interest. If the loan is not returned on time, some property of the concerned person is mortgaged. These funds are also used for some community activities, such as buying vessels for village functions, etc.
The effort was very successful till funding was available from the WB. However, after the forestry scheme ended the government was not any longer as interested in the initiative. This has demoralised the villagers; they are also not sure what kind of benefits they would eventually get, because till 2004 no Memorandum of Understanding had been signed between the village and the government. Lack of funding and lack of information at the village level of tapping various government schemes has made it difficult for people to continue to patrol the forests at the expense of daily wages that they would earn.
Bamboo harvesting from the protected forests was taken up in 2004 by the FD. Villagers, however, were only paid daily wage labour. No royalty or share of the harvesting was paid. Initially, the villagers refused to offer labour for bamboo harvesting because the paper mill was only paying Rs 2.60 per bundle of bamboo. When villagers raised the point that for similar work the rate elsewhere was Rs 8 per bundle, the company decided to get labourers from other villages. The village put an embargo on the outside labourers. They gave them food for 15 days but did not allow them to work. Eventually, the company agreed to pay Rs 3 per bundle. Considering that there are few opportunities available for employment, such incidents are extremely discouraging for the village, more so because they have protected the forests for nearly a decade now.
The samiti is demanding that the adjoining forest compartment should also be handed over to the village for protection. According to them, this will bring a larger area under protection and villagers would also benefit more when any harvesting eventually takes place. In discussion in 2004, the local RFO and ACF agreed that this could be done as there were no villages around. If the village would pass a resolution, this area could be handed over to the samiti.
During a village meeting in 2004 many villagers expressed concern that the accounts are not being announced to the entire village. The FPC members clarified that many people do not come for the meeting when these announcements are being made. In addition, alcoholism is still quite prevalent in the village. It therefore becomes difficult to elicit effective participation, particularly if the meetings are being organised in the evenings.
This brought home the reality that although forest protection by the village was very effective, much more attention should have been paid to building institutional capacity and systems of conflict resolution to ensure its long-term sustainability. Much of this could be done by facilitating regular dialogues among the villagers and between the villagers and government and nongovernment individuals from out side. A constant flow of information and regular dialogues could help strengthen the village initiative.
This case study has been compiled from ‘Joint Forest Management. Satara Tukum’; A report on the progress of JFM of the village on its 3rd anniversary (Chandrapur Forest Division, 2000). The information was further updated after a field visit to the site by Neema Pathak and Ashish Kothari of Kalpavriksh, Suryabhan Khobragade of Saigata village and Dilip Gode of Vidarbha Nature Conservation Society in October 2004. Information in the box is based on personal communication from Range Forest Officer of Mul Range, Shri A.N.Tikhe, and others, during a field visit by Kalpavriksh members Ashish Kothari and Neema Pathak in October 2004. |
Pravin Chichdhare
Village Satara-Tukum
Post Dabgaon
Tahsil Pombhurna
District Chandrapur
Maharashtra
India 441224
Ph: 07174 - 569626
Forest Guard
At and Post Chandrapur
Near Ram Nagar Thakkar Colony
Chandrapur
Range Forest Officer
Mul Forest Range
Chandrapur Forest Department
Chandrapur
Maharashtra
Ph: 07174 - 220404
Dilip Gode
Vidarbha Nature Conservation Society (VNCS)
Tidke Ashram, Ganeshpeth
Nagpur 440018
Maharashtra
Ph: 0712-22728942
Mob: 9822472660
This case study was part of the Directory on Community Conserved Areas (2009), published by Kalpavriksh. The directory can be downloaded here.
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A report on Joint Forest Management (JFM) practice in the village of Satara Tukum village in Vidarbha, Maharashtra
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