Joint Forest Management

The Joint Forest Management (JFM) has been made the basis of Forest Management by the Chattisgarh Forest Deptt.Out of the total of 19720 villages in the State;11185 villages situated within the 5 k.m. range of the forest areas form the JFM area.

Circle wise number of total JFMCs formed in the state, the forest area allotted to them and total number of JFMC members & their description is as follows:

As per the revised JFM Govt. Resolution passed by State Govt. in October 2002; for any main felling in Bamboo/Timber Coup/Silviculture Thinning as per working plan prescriptions in the area allotted to JFMC ;the JFMC would be entitled to receive 15% cash benefit of the total sale price of forest produce or the forest produce equivalent to that amount.

Under the above stated provisions, the Forest Management Committees since 2000-01 to 2009-10 have so far received following amounts:-

The distribution of the 15% profits to JFMCs from fellings in the wood/bamboo main coups falling in the forest areas allotted to JFMCs is gained annually only by a limited number of Committees. Out of the total 7887 Committees in the State; only 300 to 350 JFMCs located in dense forest areas only are able to gain these profits per year & thus the rest of JFMCs remain unbenefited.

This situation led to State Govt.s proactive intervention in the year 2007 bringing an amendment in the JFM GR ; through which provision has been introduced that 30% of the 15% profits due to each JFMC would be kept at Conservator level as Revolving Fund. This fund would be made available to any JFMC within the Circle but only for Income Generation Activities and that too as loan only at 4% simple interest. This Revolving Fund at 6 CFs level for the past 2 years has been used to facilitate various Income Generation Activities especially by fund starving Forest Management Committees located in degraded forest areas who though had been contributing excellently in forest protection but didnt have funds for socio-economic development.

So for from this revolving fund; various Income Generating Activities to the tune of 6.53 crore have been executed upto Aug 2011.The Income Generation activities so far funded from Revolving Fund are NTFP Micro enterprises, Sabai Production Units, Irrigation Structures, Purchase of transport vehicles, Installation of Turbines, Digging Tube Wells; High Density Pulpwood Plantation etc.

For reducing the dependence of the members of JFMCs  on forests for sustainable livelihood; various Alternate Livelihood Activities being undertaken by the Department are as follows:-

The economy of the JFMCs predominantly is an Agarian economy meaning there by that the Agriculture income is the main stay of the JFMCs members. But due to the lack of irrigation facility in almost 90% of these agriculture lands, the agriculture productivity is very low and that is the main reason of this population living below the poverty line.

The availability of perennial, semi perennial streams passing through the adjoining the forest areas to the agriculture lands thus provided an excellent opportunity to the FD to take up the rain water harvesting as a major management strategy to enhance the irrigation potential of the dry & unproductive agriculture lands of JFMCs members.

This activity has become the major JFM activity since last 3 years & has ushered in a mini Green revolution in many of the JFMCs areas across the State. This has become possible by constructing various kinds of site specific Rain water harvesting structures like stop dam, anicuts, irrigation ponds, diversion channels and lift irrigation schemes. Where ever such rain water harvesting was unable to support complete irrigation of the village, JFMC members were provided subsidies by converging the State /GOI schemes for providing tube wells.

So far 25000 ha. of unirrigated agricultures lands of 15000 JFMCs menbers have been brought under irrigation through above means & the success stories are there for people to see.

Item wise rain water harvesting structures built under irrigation till date is given below :-

The fuel wood dependency both for bonafide domestic use as well as for commercial sale to semi-urban areas, has played havoc with the regeneration of the forests. This resulted in conversion of productive fringe forests into highly degraded state.  

It is very well understood that until the Alternate Fuel Resources are made available to JFMCs members for their bonafide requirement,s it is just impossible to stop fuel collection connected forest degradation. 

Thus the JFM wing to reduce the consumption of fuelwood in JFMCs households, introduced Improved Biomass Chullhas with roughly 48% fuel efficiency; did a Pilot in 3 villages on the efficiency & social acceptability of 3 versions of Improved Biomass Stoves; 5 liter Pressure Cookers and for the first time introduced Rice Husk based Bio-Briquette Machines with the capacity of 245kg/ hour.  Based on our experience, we have now decided replace 245kg/hr.Bio-Briquette Machines to 75kg/hr machines.

In last one year only; the growth of installing various Alternate Energy Sources division wise achievement by October, 2011 is given below in the table:

Kondagaon, Raigarh, Bastar & Narayanpur divisions of the State are known Internationally for their superb quality of traditional handicrafts like Bell metal, Wrought iron, Terracotta & Wood craft. Many of the JFMCs members have won national & international awards in their respective  fields of art but despite of holders of such excellent skills, these artisans have not  got due prices for their products due to exploitation by middle men. These artisans in their production process have also been consuming huge quantities of fuel wood from the nearby forests, thus adversely affecting the productivity of  adjoining forests.

Thus the Deptt. under JFM Programme started a unique project in 2008-09   by forming SHGs of these artisans; providing latest fuel saving technologies including improved gas bhattis, coal as well as bio briquettes buffing & polishing machines. The SHGs  were also provided  seed money to purchase raw material like wax, Bronze  etc. In the first year,  total 5 SHGs for bell metal, 2 SHGs for wrought iron & 1 SHG for terracotta were formed with average 12 to 15 artisans families per SHG.

After successfully running this, JFM wing launched a major expansion programme in 2010 converting all the artisans of various crafts in the four divisions of the State into 120 SHGs involving 1341 artisans families.  The division wise and craft wise SHGs formed are shown in table bellow-

The State Forests in the Lower canopy have bounty of MFPs as well as Medicinal Plant, many of them rare and in dangerous too. The economy of the JFMCs is very much depended on the collection as well as sale of these plants.60% of the Forest area allotted to the JFMCs are in highly degraded state with blanks available for the afforestation. Thus in order to boost the economy of the JFMCs, in year 2008-09 an afforestation Scheme of High-tech MFP/Medicinal Plant Plantation was introduce in the degraded forest area of the State. Under this scheme plantation was raise of grafted Amla, Harra and Baheda species were as in the second year Medicinal species like Baibidng were introduced. In 2009-10, 1000 hact., & in year 2010-11 2300 hact. of such plantation with a project period of 5 year have been completed. A project have been success with more 5000 families of 53 JFMCs have been benefited.

One of the main reason of degradation in the central and western forest of the state has been the increasing pressure for grazing on the forests.  Despite of maintaining 90% of the livestock as scrub cattle by the JFMCs members mainly as status symbol; the dependence for fodder available in forest has not been reducing.

Thus in the selected forest division of  Raipur, Bilaspur, Dharamjaigarh and Raigarh; Silvi- Pasture development in 105 hact. area was taken up in the year 2009-10.  The selection of fodder species was done with the technical support provided by Central Grassland Research Institute, Jhansi. The tree species too planted were Subabool, Siris, Shisham along with fodder grasses like Stylo, Napiar & Anjan etc.

In the league of creating forest based Income Generation Activities; the sabai Rope Production has emerged as an important Income Generation Activity for JFMCs. Under this programme; JFMCs in the Divisions of Sukma, Khairagarh, Raigarh & Dharmjaigarh; 32  Self Help  Groups have under taken  Sabai Rope production in the form of well established Micro-Enterprises. The Sabai production in all the 10 centers in these 4 divisions is purely mechanized by 68 powered machines. Annual Sabai Rope production by these SHGs is 6000 Quintals/Annum

In order to strengthen these  Micro-Enterprises the production of raw material i.e. Sabai Grass has also being enhanced through Plantations of Sabai Grass as follows:

The entire production of sabai rope  is being consumed by Forest Deptt. itself for its bamboo production and most  importantly the purchase price of sabai rope from SHGs fixed by the State in order to provide higher benefits to the SHGs members is much higher than the annual Tender Rates.

The JFMCs of Chhattisgarh have traditionally engaged themselves in lac cultivation. bearing in mind the prospects of sufficient income and employment in lac culture, through intensive JFM programme following has been achieved.

• Chhattisgarh ranked first in the country in lac production with annual production touching of 9868 tonnes in 2010.
• 58% rise in lac production during the past 3 years.
• FMCs members have so far earned an income of Rs. 17.60 Crores from cultivation of lac.

For enhancing the productivity of degraded forests alloted to JFMCs, afforestation plays a major role & more importantly if this plantation comes under the category of commercial production in an interval of 4 years only; These plantations have been planned on the basis of a minimum 3 rotations so to build it a as sustainable Income Generation Activity for JFMCs.

To provide additional income to the JFMCs members in 2009-10, 4.00 lakh clonal eucalyptus seedlings were planted on the private lands.

• On a Pilot basis, in collaboration with ITC & OPM; (Paper Mill) 5.50 lakhs Clonal Eucalyptus seedlings in 222 .hac. planted on JFMC Members Private lands.
• The selection of the Beneficiaries has been completed by ITC & OPM.
• Motivation, training & maintenance of such plantations would be the responsibility of OPM & ITC without any cost.
• Deptt. would to provide the cost of the seedlings only to the benefeciary.
• Such Pilot plantations would be done in Korea Forest Division in collaboration with OPM & Bastar Forest Division in collaboration with ITC.
  
  

• A Three Tier Master Trainer Training Programme for JFMC members has been designed to prepare at least 25-30 MasterTrainers in each forest division of the State.
• Subjects being taught include Watershed Management; Plantation Techniques; NTFP Collecting & Processing; Farm Forestry & Livelihood Projects by experts drawn from respective fields.
• A detailed Standard Training Manual along with a set of Video films has been prepared to act as base Training material .

This intiative under JFM has been taken in the remotest and seriously Naxalite affected district of Bijapur.

In such remote tribal areas, the JFMC members face serious problems to commute between villages and also to procure their daily needs since very few number of vehicles ply due to sensitivity of the region. Tribal youth are forced to join Naxalism due to lack of employment opportunities. Due to lack of local Public/Private transport; these poor JFMC members are also unable to move to main towns for the sale of MFPs, their mainstay of economy and thus face exploitation in the hands of local middlemen.

Thus the Forest Department in colloboration with District Administration has launched an innovative scheme Jan Suvidha Express Under this scheme; small Public Transport vehicles like 10 TATA MAGIC; 4 Tractors for inner routes & 4 Bolero for main highways were provided to 18 selected JFMC benefeciaries. The funding of the scheme has been done through convergence by taking 5% margin money from the beneficiary, 10 to 30% from Integrated Action Plan of GoI for LWE areas and the balance amount as loan by the Forest Department from the JFM Revolving Fund available with the Conservator of Forests at simple interest of 4%. The Scheme was inaugurated on 29.05.11 by Honble Chief Minister of the State & BJP President Mr. Gadkari by providing keys of the Vehicles to beneficiaries.

Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, is executing its National Afforestation Programme through State Forest Development Agencies (SFDAs) created at State Level and Forest Development Agencies (FDAs) created at Forest Division level.  In Chhattisgarh State 32 FDAs, i.e one in each Division have been constituted.  These FDAs are funded totally by GoI (MoEF).

The State Forest Department is really encouraged by the enthusiastic response to the introduced Improved Biomass Chullahs/Stoves; Bio-Briquette Machines & Pressure Cookers to reduce the dependency of the large population of fringe JFMCs on fuel wood.  

Fuelled by the popularity amongst JFMC members of accepting the Alternate Bio-Energy sources; the Deptt. has now launched an innovating scheme of providing LPG Gas Cylinders to BPL JFMC members by motivating the consortium of IOC, BPL & HPC to provide support under CSR to converge RGGLV scheme launched by Govt. of India for the JFMC members. 

In the 1st phase (i.e. by August, 2011); the Forest Department would be installing 35000 LPG connections @ 2100/- per connection. The cost of each connection would be born by BPL beneficiary himself.  The scheme also provides for personal loan facility to the BPL beneficiaries from the funds available in the JFMCs.  In order to ensure a sustained supply of LPG, all the 3 Companies have provided facilities for refilling cylinders direct from the godown of the RGGLV distributor, which would be undertaken by Samiti itself by arranging its own transport.

The physical target for the Phase - 2 and Phase - 3 of the scheme till March, 2012 has been kept at 30,000 LPG connections per phase.

This Nature Tourism Project has been conceived under the Joint Forest Management Policy of the Department of Forests , Government of Chhattisgarh. It is a unique sustainable alternate livelihood generation activity for the locals of this region which also fulfills the objective of educating the visitors about the importance of forest conservation. 

Under this project, a Self Help Group consisting of 15 JFMC members namely Achanakpur Eco Ethnic Tourism Development Society has been formed to generate awareness and self sustainability of the local people. 

This is probably one of its kind ventures in the entire country where the locals of the region have been empowered by the Department to generate their livelihood through this Resort. Hence, this resort by implying the features of Eco – Ethno Tourism, not only showcases the rich flora fauna of this place but it also provides as excellent tool for creating awareness about the initiatives being taken by the authorities under the JFM.