DEVOLUTION OF FOREST MANAGEMENT - Vasundhara

32.0 Background of Suruguda Village2.1 LocationSuruguda is located 23 Kmsaway from the Districtheadquarters i.e. Sundargarhand just 8 Kms away from theBlock headquarter. The riverIccha passes through thevillage leaving Four of herhamlets on the other bank.This segregation hassignificant impact on the lifeof people. The four hamletsthough are part of the revenuevillage maintain a differentidentity have their ownmanagement system and havelittle alliance with the main.They are not involved inforest protection. So, we haveexcluded them from the scopeof the study. As far as thestudy is concerned Surugudarefers to 6 hamlets consistingof 155 no of HH at the time ofstudy.2.2 History of the VillageThe history of Suruguda isabout 300years old 3 . In thepast it was popular as ahunting ground. Kingsfrequented this place forhunting wild animalsespecially tiger, which were inabundance because of denseforest cover. The name‘Suruguda’ is said to havecome from the words ‘Suru’and ‘Guda’. The term ‘Suru’ June 25, 1998or ‘begin’ is said to refer tobeginning of hunting campsby the Britishers in this areaand ‘Guda’ refers to theabundant uncultivable lands scattered in the area.Village Timeline 1> 300 years Settlement of Suruguda villageAround 1856 Agharias came in1918-20 First Middle Vernacular passed(Ramcharan Patel 1 )Private pond constructed by RamcharanPatel in the village1949-50 100 HHs in the village (32 patta holdersand 68 landless)1949 Viswa Shanti Yagyna organised by ShriRamcharan Patel1949 Vegetables exhibition organised1950 Shri Ramcharan Patel became the firstnominated MLA of the constituency1951-52 First car brought to the village by RamCharan Patel1952-53 First Matriculate (Pankaj Patel)1954 – 55 Raghunath Patel became the first StateGovernment Service holder as SchoolMaster1957 Primary school established1958 First intermediate and also the firstgraduate of the village in 1961 (ShivShankar Patel)Around 1960 Metallic road from Sundargarh to Hemgiripassing through the village wasconstructed and a mini-bus started plying.1970 Control (Government Retailer) shopopened by a villager1973-74 The village connected to the Electricitygrid.1977-78 Upgraded Middle Education School startedin the village1977-78 Tube-wells set up in the village.1981-82 Rath Yatra (famous car festival of LordJagannath) organised & celebrated in thevillage for the first time1985 First haat (local market) estd. in thevillage. But due to degraded foresrtcondition no NTFP found in market1987 – 88 High School started in the villageIntroduction of hybrid variety of paddy1991 Anganwadi centre opened in the villageMost severe flooding in the area recordedtill date.3 . In the absence of written history, the history of the village has been drawn from oral sources.