Hot Spot in India

8/4/2019 Hot Spot in India

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Better practices for Raabcultivation in DangsForests of GujaratOf the many known causes of forest

fires in India, slash and burnagriculture practiced in the vicinity offorests is one.Raab cultivation, a form of shiftingcultivation practiced by the tribalcommunities like the Bhils andKonkans in the Dangs Forestsbetween the fertile plains of southGujarat and rugged plateau ofwestern Maharashtra, could also be apossible cause of forest fires in the

region.Raab farming is reported to be moreintensive in the Dangs district. Malkilands (ownership of which has beenconferred to the tribals of the regionby the government), where Raab ismostly practiced, is at present underimmense pressure. Once describedas .sea of forests. during the colonialperiod, Malki lands today appear asheavily lopped forests, rendering the

trees to extreme physiological stressand at times beyond the capacity torejuvenate.Historically, Dangs has been a regionof civil unrest particularly during theBritish rule. In 1970 the question ofconferring occupancy rights toDangis for the lands on lease beingcultivated by them in the protectedforests of Dangs district was underconsideration. The government after

careful consideration directed thatthe land be placed at the disposal ofthe revenue department for conferringoccupancy to the Dangis. This washowever subject to certain conditionsThe community forestry project ofWWF-India dates back to midnineties. At the inception WWF-India


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interected with the Forest Departmentand local communities to betterunderstand the Joint ForestManagement (JFM) processes andsuccess stories and also worked as

an interface between the localcommunities and the FD. Theobjective was initially to make peopleaware about the benefits of JFM andprovide a platform to bring the viewsand perceptions of the local peopleto the Forest Department. WWF-Indiainitiated work in three states in theWestern Ghats, viz., Gujarat,Karnataka and Kerala in 2001.In the year 2002, WWF-India

implemented a pilot project, onassessment of JFM at village Ahwatiin Maharashtra. Kunbar in Gujaratand Vanchiyode in Kerala. This wasan opportunity to develop a deeperinsight into status of JFM andchallenges ahead in these states.Experiences gained by theprogramme helped in implementationof the present project during 2003-2005 in the biodiversity hotspots.

These .hotpots. are areas of highbiological diversity high endemismand under high anthropogenicpressures. Western Ghats andEastern Himalayas are two hotspotsin India (Norman Myers 1988, 1990).The following sections discuss indetail the case studies in the abovementionedstates. All the casestudies have the potential to link withJoint Forest Management as a followup

of this programme. A briefaccount of the case studies follows :specified in the state government.sresolution in February 1992. Theoccupancy rights would be given onlyto the Dangis and not to outsiderswho may have obtained leases ofcertain lands in Dangs. Occupancy


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rights were given only in respect ofthose lands, which were actuallyleased to Dangis and in their naturalpossession as on January 1, 1970.The reserved trees on these lands

continue to vest with the forestdepartment but the cultivators areentitled to lop them for the purposeof cultivation. However, theresponsibility of cutting the trees fromthe reserve forests, rests with thestate forest department for revenuegeneration through auctions.The Forest Department, Governmentof Gujarat has been making attemptsto motivate the farmers to switch over

to better agricultural practices, forexample, the use of vermin-compostsin the fields has been suggested visa-vis the use of burnt litter. Timberauction has created lot of awarenessand there has been a realizationwithin the community that fires in theforest subsequently decrease thevalue of timber. It does not fetch therequisite price at the forest depositand results in a loss to the tribals.

The Forests and BiodiversityProgramme of WWF-India undertookan initiative, to understand thecompulsions behind cultivation ofnagli (millet) and rice through thetraditional methods. Socioeconomicsurveys were conducted in thevillages Enginepada, Bhujad,Chikhla, Devdiyavan, Masli, Khatar,Dhulda, Bandhpada, Mahal,Dhongiamba, Bardipada, Sajupada,

Hadaol, Lahnkasad, Girmal,Goundha, Devan Tembrun andJamlapada. Efforts were taken toencourage farmers to undertakecultivation through better practices.The challenge was to overcome themindset that cultivation of nagli andrice is not possible without Raab


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cultivation. An experiment cumdemonstration was undertakeninvolving the cultivation of nagli andrice without practicing Raab burning.Forest Protection in

Maharashtra and GujaratWWF-India associated with ruralcommunities in northern parts ofNasik district of Maharashtra Rajpiplaforest division of Gujarat with strongwillingness for forest protection. Thearea is inhabited by tribals and nontribalswho are dependent onagriculture as a main source oflivelihood. The rainshadow portionsof the region are almost devoid of

vegetation and most of the forestshave been destroyed by earliergenerations. Demand for fuelwood,timber and fodder might have beenthe major factors responsible fordecreasing the forest vegetation. Alarge percentage of populationreared goat and sheep for theirsustenance till a few years back.Realising the adverse impact ofdeforestation, the villagers accepted

the establishment of Joint ForestManagement (JFM) initiated byGovernments of Maharashtra andGujarat. The concept of JFM hastaken the shape of a movementwithin the last couple of years. WWFIndiaassociated itself with thismovement around three years backby playing a role of catalyst betweenthe government and villagecommunity. Initially, WWF-India was

restricted to monitoring andevaluation of the concept byorganising training programmes/workshops for testing criteria &indicators. It also used its expertise inthe area of public awareness andeducational techniques in the field ofnature conservation.


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An idea, of setting up a model projectin the cultivation of medicinal plantsfor economic benefits andenvironmental awareness of thevillagers, was initiated in one of the

successful project sites called Ahwatiin Nashik district. The project wasinitiated previous year with cultivationof ten medicinal plant species. Thepurpose was to reduce pressure onnatural forests for economic gains, tomake use of the extra portions ofland lying with villagers (nonConservationwith Communities in the Biodiversity .Hotspots. of India 9agricultural and degraded land), toreduce loss of certain species as a

result of extensive use of land underagriculture. The project motivated theneighbourhood villages as well. Thepublic awareness programmes,launched by WWF-India jointly withJFM active supporters, has resultedin the formation of new committees ina number of villages. From a meagernumber of a dozen JFM Committeestill about two years back, today thereare more than 150 villages working

under the JFM movement in Satanaand Kalvan, two sub-divisions of thedistrict. Today villagers talk about thegreening of their barren hills in mostof the forums.Capacity building ofForest Protectioncommittees in KeralaForests constitute about 9% of theland area in Kerala. Although it.salmost ten years since the Joint

Forest Management programme wasinitiated in Kerala it was strongly feltthat the Forest ProtectionCommittees (Vana SamrakshanaSamithies) in Kerala needsstrengthening through capacitybuilding.The present project focused on


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Capacity Building of VanaSamrakshana Samithies at villagesVanchiyode and Pottamava w.r.t. tonatural resource management. Afteran analysis of the NTFP usage in the

villages, extensive trainingprogrammes were organized for theirsustainable management. Whileimplementing the core programmethere were many occasions in whichthe two VSS had a chance to sharetheir experiences and problemsrelated not only to NTFPmanagement but also issues relatedto administration. It helped in thecommon sharing of ideas and

promoting links between the twodifferent types of VSS. This has givenorigin to the development of aconcept of inter & intra VSScoordination that could prove fruitfuland effective in enhancing theeffectiveness of sustainableutilization of natural resources and inturn forest management.Feasibility of GroupCertification of Swertia

chirayita in EasternHimalayaThe state of Arunachal Pradeshharbours a rich stock of high valuedmedicinal plants like Taxuswallichiana, Acorus sp, Picrorhizakurroa, Swertia chirayita etc. Localcommunities of the state withotherwise limited scopes of livelihoodare engaged in the trade of theseplants. Most of the Swertia chirayita

marketed from the state is harvestedin West Kameng district. The wholeprocess of marketing involves manyplayers at different levels such asagents from pharmaceuticalcompanies, retailers from Assam,local contractors, local subcontractorsand harvesters.


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Marketing of Swertia chirayita is aseasonal occupation for the localvillagers. The process starts fromSeptember and continues tillFebruary every year. In September,

traders from Assam contact the localvillagers and place orders as per thedemand in the pharmaceuticalcompanies. The collection of thespecies is presently banned by thestate government. However therewere reports of harvest of the speciesfrom the wild. An effort was made toexplore the possibility of introducingcultivation of Swertia chirayita andorganize the farmers for group

certification using Forest StewardshipCouncil (FSC) principles.10 Conservation with Communities in the Biodiversity .Hotspots. ofIndia1. An Introduction toParticipatory Forestryin India and the CaseStudiesParticipatory Forestry in India iswidely known as .Joint ForestManagement. where protection and

management of forests is jointlyundertaken by Forest Departmentand the local communities. JointForest Management (JFM), aprogramme of peoples. participationin forestry had been initiated from asmall village .Arabari. in Midnaporedistrict of West Bengal in 1972. Theobjective was to involve the localcommunities in protecting the forestsby sharing the benefits accruing from

resources collected from the forest.Similar exercises had beenundertaken in Sukhomajri village inHaryana. The success of theprogramme in these two states ledthe policy makers to rethink andreorient its emphasis from revenuegeneration to conservation and form


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a participatory approach to forestmanagement. However, JFM wasformally initiated in June 1990 afterreceiving an endorsement from thegovernment of India on the JFM

system. Certain guidelines likeformation of Village Forest Committee(VFC) or Village Forest ProtectionCommittee (VFPC) and the role andfunctions of these committees wereframed. All the state governmentswere advised to provide a formalframework for implementation of JFM.Twenty-three states in India have tilldate formally initiated JFM byconstituting FPCs. At present there

are 63,618 FPCs through out thecountry managing an area of morethan 14 million ha (RUFFOR andMoEF, 2002). Among all the states,Orrisa has the highest average areaunder one FPC (597 ha/VFC) andUttar Pradesh has the lowest area ofabout 4.69 ha. (Rabindranath, Murali& Malhotra, 2000). West Bengal hasthe largest JFM programme in Indiaof 53.81% of forest area of the state.

Remote Sensing assessments haveclearly indicated the improvement ofcrown cover in some parts of thecountry due to protection andmanagement of the forests. Microlevel studies in some states haveshown an improvement inproductivity and diversity ofvegetation and an increase in incomeaccruing to FPCs from Non timberForest Produces.

Large financial support have beenreceived for the programme fromdifferent funding agencies like WorldBank, OECF-Japan, DFID-UK, andSIDA .Sweden, EEC and UNDP.The ultimate goal of the JFMprogramme is to initiate participatoryforestry which can ultimately lead to a


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wider role, responsibility andauthority for the rural communities indecision making, infrastructuresharing and financial management.The approach in the present study

has been to work with the ForestProtection Committees. Although thishas been possible in the states ofMaharashtra and Kerala, our workremained confined to the localfarmers in Gujarat and ArunachalPradesh where the Forest ProtectionCommitties could be involved only inthConservation with Communities in the Biodiversity .Hotspots. of India11

1.1 The Case Studies :The community forestry project ofWWF-India was initiated in 1997. Atthe time of its inception WWF-Indiastarted interacting with the ForestDepartment and local communities tounderstand the JFM process and alsoworked as an interface between thelocal communities and the FD. Theobjective was not only to disseminatethe benefits of JFM among the local

communities but to also work as aplatform to bring the views andperceptions of the local people to theForest Department and to implementthe programme in a sustainable way.With support from InternationalInstitute of Environment andDevelopment (IIED), UK a series ofworkshops were organized in thestates of Gujarat, Maharashtra andKerala in Western Ghats in India

during 2001-2002.In 2002, WWF-India implemented asmall project on the assessment of aSFM at village Ahwati in Maharashtraby developing Criteria and Indicatorsbased on the local communitiesunder the aegis of the World Bank-WWF Alliance. The objective of the


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study was to gain a greater insightinto the benefits of JFM for thecommunities. While working with thecommunities it was realized that thesame exercise could also be

replicated in other areas where JFMis being practised successfully.Under the Ford US grant a projectwas designed to work with thecommunities on different issues ofcommunity forestry in Gujarat,Maharashtra, Kerala and ArunachalPradesh during 2003-2005. These.hotpots. are areas of high biologicaldiversity, high endemism and underhigh anthropogenic pressures.

Western Ghats and EasternHimalayas are two hotspots in India(Norman Myers 1988, 1990). Thefollowing sections discuss in detail,the case studies in the abovementionedstates. All the casestudies have the potential to link withJoint Forest Management as a followupof this programme.12 Conservation with Communities in the Biodiversity .Hotspots. ofIndia..

2.1 Western GhatsGujaratCase Study 1. Analysingreasons for intentional /accidental forest fires inDangs region, GujaratIntroductionThe Dangs district in Gujarat islocated between 200 33.40. and 2105.10. N Latitudes and 730 27.58. and730 56.36. E Longitudes. The total

geographical area of the district is1,764 sq. kms. In the east it isbounded by the Dhule district ofMaharashtra, in the west by Valsad,in the north by Surat district both ofGujarat while in the south by theNasik district of Maharashtra. Of thetotal geographical area, dense forest


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constitutes 1,008 sq.kms, degradedforest 500 sq.kms, thorn scrub (openforest) 2 sq.km and 184 sq. kmsunder protected area category. Atpresent in Dangs 58,758 ha is under

Malki land (private land) category,22,000 ha as protected forest and84,000 ha as reserve forests. Thetotal population of the district is 1,86,729. There are 311 villagescovering 8.9 % of the total land areaof the Dangs. (Census data, 2001)The Sahyadri Hills occupy the easternpart of the Dangs district while thewestern portion descends into theplains of Gujarat. The district also

forms the northernmost limit of theWestern Ghats ecoregion. Barring afew high hills in the east and south,most of the area is made up of aseries of flat-topped low hills. Theelevation of these hills varies from105 m in the west to 1,317 m abovemean sea level (amsl) on the easternborder. However, most of the areaMap : Project Locations in Dangs District, GujaratConservation with Communities in the Biodiversity .Hotspots. of India

13lies between 300 m and 700 m amsl.There are four distinct river valleysviz., Gira, Purna, Khapri and Ambikarivers in the area that emerge in thehills of the Western Ghats and flowtowards the west (Wohra, 1991).Almost all the annual rainfall occursbetween June and September. Theaverage annual rainfall in the districtis about 2,000 mm and the west

receives more rains than the east.May is the hottest month when themean daily maximum temperaturesoars up to 400 C while December isthe coldest month in the district.Minimum temperatures are usuallywell above freezing, and frost is notusual (Patel, 1971).


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The forests of the Dangs belong tothe subgroup .South Indian moistdeciduous forest., and within this aremore specifically classified as moistteak forests (Champion and Seth,

1968). According to the classificationfollowed by Puri et. al., (1983) theseforests are classified as deciduousteak forest types which areintermediate between dry and moistcategories. They are named as theTectona-Terminalia-Adina-Anogeissusseries. The forests are known to bethe richest in Gujarat and containmany invaluable timber species aswell as medicinally important species

(presently Dangs occupy about 30%of the forest area of Gujarat andgenerate 50% of its forest revenueand flora of Dangs is richest inGujarat). Teak (Tectona grandis) isthe most dominant species in Dangsand occurs throughout the area.Authentic information about theoriginal inhabitants of Dangs prior tothe early 18th century is scanty.However, it is clear that the original

inhabitants of the Dangs were theBhils. This is predominantly anadibasi region with tribals of Bhil,Gamit, Konkanas (kunbi) and Varlieswho are called Dangis. The recordedhistory of Dangs is 400 years old andwas first referred by Sir JohnHawkins, a British traveller in 1608.According to him Bhils were therulers of the region and practicedshifting (slash and burn) agriculture.

Although there is no record availableon exactly when the Konkanasentered the Dangs, it has beeninferred that they were called by theBhils in order to cultivate their lands(Patel, 1971). The Konkanas migratedhere from the coastal areas ofMaharashtra like Konkan. According


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reserves and protected categories

depends on the size of nursery,availability of labour within thehousehold for its collection from the

forest, and type of crop being grownin the nursery. On an average, in aplot of 50 sq. m 700kg -1000kg ofbiomass is burned. The unlockedelements from the burned biomasspool are the source of readilyavailable nutrients for the crops forwhich the nursery is prepared. Thegeneral belief of the farmer is that therobust seedlings grown in thismanner provide higher yields than

those which are raised in thenurseries where biomass is notburned. This can be corroboratedfrom the study done by Worah (1991).Once the seedlings attain the desiredgrowth (40-60 cm height), these aretransplanted into the larger plots. Nofurther inputs are required exceptoccasional weeding aftertransplantation of crop seedlings.The soil fertility of the bigger

agricultural plot is maintained byshifting the location of the nursery(where biomass is burned) every yearin such a fashion that practicallyevery chunk of land within the Raabfields becomes the nursery bed after5-7 years. The forest trees growingwithin the Raab fields also helpmaintain the fertility of soil over theyears by pumping out nutrients fromdeeper soil layers to the surface, litter

fall albeit smaller amount due tolopping of these trees and fine rootsturn over etc (Semwal et. al., 2002).In the distant past the Bhils used topractice shifting agriculture, in thisregion, which over the years due tosocio-economic and ownershipchanges, forest utilization policies,


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got transformed into settledagriculture known as Raab. In thisform of cultivation burning ofbiomass played an important role inthe maintenance of soil fertility and

good crop yields. This form ofagriculture is promoted by theKonkanas another tribal group whomoved into Dangs in the 13th centuryfrom the Konkan region ofMaharashtra due to famineconditions in Konkan at the time(Mark Poffenberger 1998).Degraded Forests in Dangs

Hot spot on the worlddepends on the size of nursery,availability of labour within thehousehold for its collection from theforest, and type of crop being grownin the nursery. On an average, in aplot of 50 sq. m 700kg -1000kg ofbiomass is burned. The unlockedelements from the burned biomasspool are the source of readilyavailable nutrients for the crops for

which the nursery is prepared. Thegeneral belief of the farmer is that therobust seedlings grown in thismanner provide higher yields thanthose which are raised in thenurseries where biomass is notburned. This can be corroboratedfrom the study done by Worah (1991).Once the seedlings attain the desiredgrowth (40-60 cm height), these aretransplanted into the larger plots. No

further inputs are required exceptoccasional weeding aftertransplantation of crop seedlings.The soil fertility of the biggeragricultural plot is maintained byshifting the location of the nursery(where biomass is burned) every yearin such a fashion that practically


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every chunk of land within the Raabfields becomes the nursery bed after5-7 years. The forest trees growingwithin the Raab fields also helpmaintain the fertility of soil over the

years by pumping out nutrients fromdeeper soil layers to the surface, litterfall albeit smaller amount due tolopping of these trees and fine rootsturn over etc (Semwal et. al., 2002).In the distant past the Bhils used topractice shifting agriculture, in thisregion, which over the years due tosocio-economic and ownershipchanges, forest utilization policies,got transformed into settled

agriculture known as Raab. In thisform of cultivation burning ofbiomass played an important role inthe maintenance of soil fertility andgood crop yields. This form ofagriculture is promoted by theKonkanas another tribal group whomoved into Dangs in the 13th centuryfrom the Konkan region ofMaharashtra due to famineconditions in Konkan at the time

(Mark Poffenberger 1998).Degraded Forests in Dangs

.

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Hot Spot in India