Protected Area Network in Orissa - Vasundhara

coming under the category of forest villages, the R.I is not issuing residentialproof, which is a prerequisite condition for obtaining caste certificate.Issues related to Live & livelihood of Local People:The live & livelihood of the local inhabitants especially the scheduled tribes,scheduled castes and landless families from other castes critically depend onforests and forest products for their sustenance. Around 70 to 80 percent of theirtotal income comes from forests through selling of forest products like Kenduleaf, Sal Seed, Sal Leaf, Mushroom etc. and also from forest based works likeforest road repairing and bamboo harvesting. The reasons for such dependencyon forests are as follows:• More than 70% of the Sanctuary area is covered with continuous hillranges and dense forests.• There is very little land available for the agricultural purposes insidethe sanctuary. For example, in Bada Kheta and Tuluka village per capitaland availability is around 0.45 acre.• The production from the agriculture land provides only three to fourmonths of food in year.• Every year more than 40% of the total agriculture land has been lyingvacant or unused due to the elephants. In some villages those aresituated inside the dense forests the percentage goes upto 80%. Forexample, in Tuluka village, the total agriculture land is 206.530 acres.This year only 25 families out of 95 have cultivated an area of 30 acres(approximately) of land, which is 14% of the total agriculture land.Similarly in Tarava & Asan Bahal village, this year they have cultivatedin around 25 acres of land, which is 20% of the total agriculture land.• Most of the agriculture lands are under the possession of the non-tribalcommunities.86