Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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The CFM challenge
Objection on the part of forest-protecting communities has been a matter of concern during
bamboo-working since some years. When the operations started in 2005, the Forest
Department and the RMPs reportedly took stock of this situation, particularly for areas like
the Nayagarh district where several forest-protecting groups have refused to accept any
kind of intervention on the part of the Department in their protected forest patches, be it a
RF. However, Pokharigochha, about 20 km from Dasapalla in the Nayagarh district turned
out to be an interesting case. The residents of this village are very poor tribals, and they
have been protecting the nearby hill-forest patch known as jajna-pahada which actually
belongs to the Pokharigochha RF. The area has a good potential of bamboo, while the
villagers themselves were free to exploit this resource for their bonafide requirement, the
village committee allowed applicants from other villages to harvest the bamboo @Rs.5 per
20 pieces for their own use. The committee was not in a mood to allow OFDC or Forest
Department to start working in this area, but when the RMP(BILT) approached them for
some negotiation, they got interested and asked the RMP to pay Re.0.25 per each
piece(long) of salia (i.e., Rs.1.25 per bundle since each long piece is converted into three
pieces of IB, and seven long pieces are required to make a bundle of 21 pieces) in lieu of
the permission. However, the RMP hesitated at this demand after which they have reduced
it to Re.1 per bundle. When this author first visited this place on 4th February '05, the RMP
was yet to assure them if it would accept this demand; but villagers were hopeful that their
demand would be accepted. They were also confident that if the RMP betrays them then
they would not allow for transportation of the harvest. Another village of the area has also
reportedly allowed the RMP with a similar kind of hope. However, field observations
supported the allegation of a district-level activist that it is not the villagers as a whole, but
particular individuals had negotiated with the RMP with a vested interest and were trying
to project this as the village decision taking advantage of the ignorance of the poor covillagers.
Finally, the outcome was quite disappointing when the RMP managed to remove
its harvest from the area on the plea that the village committee did not have any legal right
to claim a share. The Forest Department, which had tried long back to bring the village
under the JFM scheme, reportedly said that the compartment(forest) which the villagers
had been protecting was different than the one where harvesting was done. The villagers
had an argument with the RMP over this issue, but without any remarkable success.
Ironically, forest protection is basically done by the women of the village whereas the
president of the protection committee is a man who is allegedly said to have spoiled the
scope of a possible benefit from the RMP. During our second visit on 23rd June'05 while
one woman said that the RMP finally gave approx. Rs.500 for the village temple, another
lady claimed that the committee actually rejected this offer. This is how the apparent
strength of Pokharigocha was reduced to helplessness. Needless to say that same was the
fate of the other village. The production of the area is said to be around 20,000 bundles in
2005, which means that the villagers lost an equal amount of cash; thanks to some of their
weaknesses and the irresponsible as well as disloyal behaviour of some individuals.
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