Kalpavalli Forests

The Collective started mobilisation of this village through regular conversations in 1992. In 1993 the villagers agreed to regenerate 150 acres of their waste common lands. By 2004, eight villages in the area had started regenerating forests in their vicinity with the help of newly established village level forest protection committees (FPCs). The eight villages have also established a federation called Kalpavalli Adavi Samakya, which is protecting and helping regenerate 8,500 acres of contiguous forests.

The Samakya has 1320 members in the general body. The individual FPCs undertake activities like fire control, seed dibbling, soil and water conservation works, etc., with the help of the Collective. They have also appointed forest watchers for regular patrolling in the forest. The other activities of the FPCs include monitoring the forest watchers, planning activities to be undertaken in the protected forests, decisions related to the tamarind orchards (these orchards have been established on 273 acres in 9 villages with support from the district administration and the Collective), collection of fines from those cutting trees, sale of date-palm fronds and operating their respective bank accounts. All the FPCs meet regularly and participate in the federation meetings.

In the year 2003-4 there was a plan to construct windmills in this area. The federation wrote letters to the collector requesting him to not construct these mills in the area falling under the protected forests of villages Kogira, Kambalapalli, and Shyapuram.

Given the acute shortage of grass in this area, the Collective organised a number of awareness programmes about the need and ways of conserving grass and preventing fires.