Behroonguda Village

The area of Behroonguda was cleared of its forests mainly due to the resettlement of the gonds and naikpods. In 1990, the villagers began to feel the depletion of forest resources around them. There was no timber and no firewood that could be consumed by the villagers in the forest and thus their livelihoods were threatened. The villagers came to the conclusion that the remaining forest area needed to be protected in order to achieve a sustainable livelihood. Subsequently the villagers decided to take necessary steps to rejuvenate the natural resource around them. They organized themselves into a village forest protection committee (FPC). This posed a threat to the timber thieves from the neighbouring villages. The members of the VFPC had physical clashes with the timber smugglers, in which one of the villagers was fatally injured. In course of time they were able to establish their dominance and spread the message that their forests were now being protected from the plunderers.

In 1993, the forest department approached the village and the village was included in the state forest department’s joint forest management (JFM) Programme. At that time the FPC was headed by a woman president named Gouribai and comprised 50 per cent women representatives. Behroonguda Forest Protection Committee became the first in the state to gain official recognition. A micro-plan was drawn up with the participation of almost the entire village, along with two NGOs and the forest staff.

The FPC made it mandatory for everyone in the village to patrol the forest area; failure to do so resulted in a penalty of Rs 100 to be paid by the offender. Anyone who missed patrolling more than thrice was removed from the VSS.

The forest department has signed a MoU with the villagers and the FPC members have been issued identity cards with their photographs that give them the authority to take corrective measures against timber thieves and other encroachers of the forest.

The meetings of the executive council of the village are held at least once a month and sometimes more often if required. The minutes of the meetings, the details of the decisions taken and a record of those who attended the meetings are regularly maintained.

The women are equal stakeholders in the conservation efforts, as a majority of the wage labourers in employment generated under JFM are women. The Behroonguda FPC had a woman president for a period of five years. A random survey has shown that the women are well aware of the objectives of setting up a forest protection committee and the financial dealings of the FPC.

Through the interactions with the villagers it is clear that the prime interest of the FPC is not based on the economic benefits acquired from the forest resources. The goal of the FPC is, as stated by the head of the panchayat, to equate the health and well-being of the forests with the wealth of the village—a gond perspective on life. These sentiments are clearly reflected in the FPC’s decision to harvest only 30 trees in the first thinning exercise, whereas the silviculturalists had prescribed the removal of 173 trees from the forest. This suggestion would definitely have a positive impact on the quality of teak in these forests, although the action of the FPC is better for the forests from an ecological point of view. Besides, the villagers use the other forest produce and any step towards the creation of a teak monoculture will not be conducive to them. To adhere to this purpose the FD has planted other local species in the degraded forest patches.

The villagers’ far-sightedness towards conservation efforts is clearly reflected in a decision taken by them in June 1998, to deposit their earnings of a sum Rs 4,00,000 derived from the first sale of timber poles, firewood, and grass into a five-year bank deposit rather than distributing it amongst the VSS members. The VSS was guided primarily by the concern for future generations to follow certain guidelines that would provide sufficient incomes for conservation in future.