Women best protectors of forests: Chandi Prasad

New Delhi, Mar 25: Hilly and tribal women are the best protectors of forests as they are the worst sufferers from their destruction, says Ramon Magsaysay award winner for community leadership Chandi Prasad Bhatt.

Providing basic daily household needs like fuel and fodder is primarily the responsibility of these women, but today they were finding it increasingly difficult to get the supplies in the face of systematic loss of forests.

That is one of the reasons why women of the hill state of Uttarakhand played such an active role in the 'Chipko Movement' launched to prevent felling of trees, says Mr BhAtt.

The women of Chamoli district launched the movement in 1977 to save their forests during which they found themselves in opposition to men of their own families.

The women directly questioned the district administration why they were not consulted while deciding to trade in their forests.

Mr Bhatt, who is associated with the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal, the body which spear-headed the Chipko Movement, said the Mandal has tried to understand the relation between tribal and hill women and forests and come to the conclusion that they were so much interdependent that their survival without the other was difficult.

That was the reason all the programmes for afforestation and tree plantation launched by the Mandal witnessed very enthusiastic participation by women.

''We first tried to grow the trees and shrubs of daily use on vacant land around the village, and found that women showed more interest in it, as they saw that it could lessen their difficulties in getting supplies of fuel and fodder,'' he said.

One more thing was noticed, which was that women were interested in growing trees with long life and which provided fuel and fodder, whereas men were more keen to grow crops which yielded fast cash.

Experience has shown that afforestation has been successful only where women have been involved in the protection of trees. However, the destruction of forests affects all tribal and hill people and landless farmers in general. The loss not only impacts on the material standard of living of these people but also their cultural and social values.

In the past, Mr Bhatt pointed out, each village used to have its own forest, but later the interference of the government eroded this system and gradually people were cut off from their lifeline, which led to discontent and consequently agitation in many areas of the country.

In the last century, the government had to form the Kumaun Forest Grievances Committee and on its recommendation had to provide for gram van(village forest) under the 1927 Indian Forest Act.

Rules were framed under the Act and van panchayats were formed after long years of struggle by the people of Uttarakhand.

According to Kumaun Van Panchayat Act of 1931, any public land falling under a village can be converted into van panchayat(forest panchayat) if one third of its people apply to the district magistarte for that.

Once formed, a committee of five to nine members is chosen to run the affairs of the panchayat. Today there are more than 11000 such bodies in Uttarakhand.

Mr Bhatt called upon people and governments in other parts of the country to emulate the Uttarakhand model. Underlining the importance of such institutions in the protection and conservation of forests, he said it was high time the government came forward to provide necessary economic, administrative and technical assistance for the functioning of village panchayats.

Involvement of the communities dependent on forets was the best way of ensuring their protection, he stressed.

Right management of forest can go a long way in removing poverty as about more than 1,70,000 villages were situated in or around forests and the people living there were directly dependent on them for their basic needs like water, fodder, foodgrains, fuel, medicinal herbs, material for house construction among others,'' said the environment activist.

Mr Bhatt also pointed out that forests were crucial in ensuring food security not only for those living near and around them but for the whole population of the country, as the green cover retained moisture for agricultural land and kept on supplying nutrients to the soil.

Moreover, the Chipko leader pointed out, forests also provided a major chunk of the domestic energy needs. Quoting Forest Commission figures, he said wood provided 20 to 30 per cent of the country's fuel needs.

Replying to a question, Mr Bhatt said the Joint Forest Management scheme of the government suferred from various drawbacks like excessive official interference and lack of a uniform law.

''Though at some places the JFM concept had yielded some results, but by and large there was not much enthusiasm among the people. The government should do a rethinking and try to find out a reason'' he said.

Mr Bhatt was recently in the capital to attend the World Forestry Day celebrations.

UNI