Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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All rights reserved by VASUNDHARA(www.vasundharaorissa.org). For any clarification, contact author at sunlit1968@yahoo.co.in Changing times: Koduanpalli Koduanpalli is a village in the Kiajhar GP of Nayagarh district. There are about 48 HHs among which 20 belong to the tribals(kandha) and almost the same to the harijans(pana), the rest being occupied by the teli community. Agriculture and wage labour are the main sources of income. The villagers have been protecting on their own the nearby hill forest which is a part of the Barakhola RF. The forest under their protection has extensive resource of salia. Before they started forest protection, the bamboo had been commercially harvested from this area by the lessee, and some of the villagers worked as cutters; but after the protection they refused to allow for commercial harvesting by OFDC or any other agency appointed by the govt.. OFDC officials approached them first in 1997(), and then again after the super-cyclone of 1999; but failed. However, the villagers later realised that mere restriction on commercial harvesting would not be able to save the bamboo forests because flowering and several other factors can damage/destroy the clumps. In fact, they not only saw many clumps dying naturally, but also the damage caused by a forest fire last year. The local forester took advantage of the changing psychology, and persuaded the villagers to join the JFM programme. He personally assured them several benefits if they agreed to form a VSS and allow bamboo harvesting. Finally, the villagers formed the Nilamadhab Vana Samrakshyan Samiti in 2004. The forest under their protection has been currently demarcated as a coupe, and they are waiting to see the cutting operations begin, so that they would get some employment and other benefits. However, the local forest officials did not give any clear picture of the benefits the VSS deserves, and said that even 50% share in the profit could not be assured unless until the higher authority took a decision on the sharing ratio. As per the rule imposed by the village committee, the villagers are entitled to get 15 pieces of long bamboo free in a year, per household. For extra pieces, a payment was to be made @Re.1/piece. For applicants from other villages, there was no free quota but a payment @Re.1/culm was charged. After the formation of VSS, outsiders are now to pay Rs.5/culm. Earlier, penalty for smuggling was Rs.51/- if the accused belonged to the village itself, and in case of outsiders complaint was registered with the police/Forest Department. Now the forester has asked them to impose a penalty of Rs.1000/- even on the co-villager culprit. Similarly, a membership fee @Re.1/annum used to be collected per hearth(household/HH) which has been abolished after the formation of VSS (per comm.). Loharkhani is another VSS area of Nayagarh Forest Divn. where bamboo is available, but due to unsustainable harvesting by some lessee followed by uncontrolled felling by the local people reduced the bamboo forest to almost a shoot-crop. There are about 20 HHs in the village, all belonging to the kandha tribe and very poor. OFDC people came for harvesting in this area sometime back, but the villagers resisted on the plea that commercial exploitation would destroy whatever little hope they had from the clumps under their protection; so the operation was stopped (per comm.). 23
All rights reserved by VASUNDHARA(www.vasundharaorissa.org). For any clarification, contact author at sunlit1968@yahoo.co.in However, case studies in Puri(Khurdha) Forest Divn. indicated a comparatively clear stand of the local authorities(forest) in this matter. For instance, Paikasahi village has been rendering protection to the nearest forest patch of Jalanjali before mid-1990s. This Jalanjali forest is a part of Patia RF, and has a good potential of thorny bamboo. The villagers' protection was independent of the Forest Department, which(FD) therefore did not recognise the contribution officially. The local Range Officer informally clarified that the villagers' protection might have helped in the regeneration of the timber trees, but it had no contribution so far the bamboo forest was concerned. It may be noted here that there is sufficient resource of tenant's bamboo(sundarkani) in the village, hence the villagers had almost no need to depend on the bamboo forest(Jalanjali). Still, about 10 years ago() when OFDC staff came to work the bamboo coupe demarcated there, the villagers resisted saying that the unsustainable commercial harvesting by the Corporation would cause great damage to the protected patch. The resistance was so strong that OFDC had to yield to their pressure and go back. Since there was no case of gregarious flowering over these years, and also the villagers had a very effective fire protection arrangement; no case of any significant damage to bamboo due to non-working was observed; and hence the villagers never felt any need to hurry up for allowing harvesting of the same. Very recently, the Forest Department has succeeded in persuading the villagers to form a VSS, but the local DFO did not agree to permit registration of the protected patch in the name of this VSS simply because that is a potential area of bamboo where a coupe is likely to be demarcated, and since the villagers have no documentary evidence to support their claim that they have rendered protection to this patch since long, hence they would not be allowed to take advantage of the commercial potential of the proposed coupe. The Forest Department has recognised the protection effort only from the date of formation of VSS, but the villagers are not happy with this and their stand(as on 8-01-05) is that they would allow commercial bamboo working in the concerned patch only if they get their share(50%). On the other hand, the Department which has well recognised the protection of Dhanipanchamouza, has taken a stand on the bamboo-rich protected patch of Dhani RF that in case of final harvesting the villagers would get 50% share; and that this patch would be excluded from the normal demarcation of coupes. It may be noted here that five villages('panchamouza') of the Dhani area got united to protect and manage the highly degraded forest patch of their area and succeeded in an impressive regeneration of the forest(including bamboo) during last two decades. The dominant species of bamboo there is thorny bamboo. In 2002 they were allowed by the Department to harvest 36000 culms out of which only 1200 were harvested, and the Department got 600 culms as its share. The culms at their disposal were auctioned @Rs.9.50/culm, whereas the cost of production/operation was much higher. The cutters were paid @Rs.6/culm, and for transportation to the 'depot' labourers were employed on daily wage basis @Rs.60/day/person, each labourers being capable of transporting about 50 culms for the maximum distance. The Department refused to share the cost of operation, but at the same time insisted on the triangular method of harvesting which proved to be very costlier since thorny bamboo is very difficult to harvest. Moreover, the Department also wanted its share in the harvest. Realising the heavy loss in the operation, the VSS committee decided not to harvest the rest 34800 culms. In 2004 they again applied for harvesting bamboo, but requested the Department not to insist on the triangular method. There are reports that the 24
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Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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