21st March 2002
A small, green village in Orissa
Suruguda in Orissa has been honoured with the Indira Priyadarshini Brukshaya Mitra Award for efficient forest management
by Satyasundar Barik
Third World Network Features
Suruguda village in Orissa houses approximately 550 people. To its credit, the tiny village has not only overcome the livelihood problem but also won the national Indira Priyadarshani Brukshaya Mitra Award in 1989 for efficient forest management. The forest protection bid, started by the lower caste people 20 years ago, has now become a source of inspiration for adjacent villages and for the district. Apart from an affluent 100, most of the villagers belong to the lower middle class. They eke out their livelihood from traditional occupations like bamboo-weaving, carpentry, dairy and from daily labour. Around 25 Harijan families are totally dependent on the forest for their livelihood. They are mainly engaged in sal leaf-plate making and bamboo-weaving.
Until 1960, the Khesra forest was under the direct supervision of the landlord and the villagers had little to do with the forest. They had no rights over it. Dry wood, leaves, fruits and flowers in the forest were free for them even though permission of the landlord was a must. The threat of severe punishment for culprits resulted in the preservation of greenery in the region. Though the village committee was in operation the executive body meeting used to be fixed according to the convenience of the president. After 1960, the degradation of the Khesra forest began. Development of mines and townships exposed the area to urbanisation at a very early stage. For Harijans, especially those in the lower income group, the forest became a quick money-making source. It led to timber smuggling. Moreover, people who had other businesses including regular dependence on agriculture also fulfilled their forestry needs from the same forest.
By 1980 the forest was reduced to a degraded patch. There were only stones visible in the forest with no signs of any green trees. Though forest degradation affected the life of each villager in general, the Harijans and tribals were hit hard by it. However, the affluent villagers in Suruguda were not equally affected by the state of the forest as they could afford to buy forest produce from outside, especially fuel wood and agricultural tools. Thus, the Harijan and the tribal were the first to seriously think about protecting the forest, which was crucial for their livelihood. “Though we were contemplating forest regeneration, the lack of unity in the village and the lack of will-power deterred us from doing so,” remembers Sasi Sa, member of the first village protection committee.
The adjoining villages were equally to blame for the depletion of Suruguda forest. In fact the conflict between Suruguda and Jhariapali village provoked the villagers to start protecting the forest. The incident goes like this; the poor Harijans of Suruguda were dependent on the control rice sold in the Jhariapali market. In one instance, the villagers of Jhariapali did not allow the Suruguda villagers to collect the rice. They ruled that Suruguda would not be allowed to buy rice from the Jhariapali market anymore. The Harijan villagers of Suruguda felt humiliated and wanted to teach Jhariapali a lesson. They decided to restrict the nearby forest area and humiliate the villagers of Jhariapali whenever they entered it. Soon after the Jhariapali case, the Harijans immediately initiated protection of the adjoining forest areas upon which the villagers of Jhariapali were not dependent. The tribal group cooperated with them. Strict rules were framed under which no one was allowed to enter the forest, and the rules were strictly followed in the case of Jhariapali.
Thus, the conflict between Jhariapali and Harijan sahi of Suruguda was the immediate cause of forest protection. The Harijans continued to protect the forest for two to three months after which they found it difficult to manage without the cooperation of the other villagers. “We approached the upper caste people, and after a lot of persuasion they came to realise the gravity of the situation. Soon they were ready to cooperate with us,” says Sukuru Gauda, a member of the present Forest Protection Committee.
The villagers formed a forest protection committee in the presence of the general body. Representation of all caste groups in the village was ensured in the formation of the committee. People who had taken the initiative for protection were included as members in the committee. The forest protection of Suruguda includes both reserved forests as well as Khesra forest areas.
A total of 256-hectare forest and 102 hectares of Bhindha Reserve Forest are under Suruguda protection. Suruguda received a major boost after twenty kisan households from Milupada of Chhetenpalli panchayat were included in the Suruguda forest protection committee in 1984. Their involvement was considered important because of Milupada’s strategic location. The village is situated close to the forest being protected by Suruguda.
In the beginning, thengapali (rotational patrolling armed with a baton) was adopted by the villagers. Four persons from the village went on thengapali each day. After two years of protection the number of palias was reduced to two because the initial pressure on the forest had come down. The nearby villagers had then come to know about the forest protection and stopped violating the norm. The committee members regularly monitored the protection arrangement and rectified its faults. Apart from formulating strict rules, the committee imposes a penalty on forest offenders, the amount varying from case to case. Chhatradhar Kallu says “In the initial periods of forest protection the villagers faced a lot of problems. The most difficult was dealing with the pressure from dependent villages. They had to put in a lot of effort to convince these villages that the forest was under their protection and the livelihood of the future generation depends on it.”
External threats over the forest from neighbouring villages continued even after the beginning of protection efforts. Gradually, the pressure declined as the message of protection by the Suruguda people spread. According to the villagers, there were no serious conflicts i.e. physical clashes with outsiders over the sharing of benefits from the forest. However, they did have a misunderstanding with their neighbouring village. Protection of a large area by the Suruguda people affected the Chettenpalli village, which was left with no forest area adjoining their village for protection. They too started protecting a portion from the same patch. Perceiving threat of future conflicts, villagers of Suruguda took steps for resolving the problem. They contacted the Conservator of Forests for allocation of area, and the forest department demarcated boundaries between the two villages. Chettenpalli village was given 56 acres from the patch being protected by Suruguda, and Suruguda retained 200 acres of forest areas. Boundary demarcation was done in the presence of the range officer.
Leadership in the community institution has played an important role in its functioning and resilience. After years of protection, the villagers of Suruguda have started getting benefits from the forest. In 1990, the protected forests gave them 266 cartloads of fuel wood, and in 1997 around 3,600 pieces of bamboo were produced. The forest department here made Suruguda village a 50 per cent partner in forest harvesting. “In a bid to save trees from being used as fuel wood, we villagers decided to switch over to chulla (a locally developed stove which uses paddy husk as fuel). The effect is visible in the increased greenery in the Suruguda jungle. Now we have numerous choices of fuel,” says Sarojini Patel. According to a survey conducted by Vasundhara, a Bhubaneswar-based non-governmental organisation, around 12 households possess gobar gas, 30 households use electric heaters, four to five households have cooking facilities. To reduce pressure on fuel wood, the VSS has identified beneficiaries at 50 per cent discount.
At present, the Van Samarkhyan Samiti is facing a crisis with the emergence of factional politics. Initially, all the sections in the village had an equal say in the decision-making process, but at present power is becoming concentrated in the hands of the upper-caste. With the forest regenerating, the value of the resource and perception of its value have gone up. As a result of this, positions in the forest management committees/samiti are being viewed as positions of power. Recently, there has been a major reshuffle in the committee. The individuals who had been leading the process so long have been dropped from the committee and all the responsible positions in the present committee are occupied by members of the dominant caste who are an inexperienced young lot. —Third World Network Features.
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About the author: Satyasundar Barik is a Bhubaneswar based journalist working for The Asian Age. He can be contacted at
satyasundar1@rediffmail.com.The article is based on a research being carried out by the organisation, Vasundhara with the support of CIFOR, Indonesia. This article first appeared in Humanscape December 2001.
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