Baripada Village

Forest

445 ha

Dhule, Maharashtra

Contributors:

Description

Country	India
Area (ha)	445
Ecosystem Type	Forest
Number of households	-
Number of people	-

Origin and Establishment

Origin	Revived by community initiative, New initiative by external non-government agency
Year of Formation	1992
Motivations	Livelihood, Ecological functions

Governance, Management and Conservation Systems

Collective of CCAs	-
Decision Making Body	Others → Forest protection committee
Rules and Regulations	-
Community activities through the year	Regulation of harvest, Patrolling, watch and ward

Rules and Regulations

The rules and regulations for forest use were announced in the weekly markets and in all neighbouring villages. The rules included:

Anyone found destroying or taking anything from the forest would be punished as per the rules framed for regulating human and cattle activity in the area.

Only the inhabitants of the village were eligible for extracting resources from the forest, if at all.

Two elderly people in the village would work as watchmen and report to the FPC. The watchmen would be paid Rs 100 per month and would be changed every year.

Each family would pay Rs 3 in cash or 7 kg of grain to generate funds required to pay the watchmen.

Any person found removing any plant or animal material without permission would

be penalised Rs 151 per headload and Rs Board of the village development committee 751 if taken out of the forest in any other

manner. For cattle grazing in the forest the fine would be Rs 1000.

If someone other than the watchmen caught the culprit, then an award of Rs 501 would be given to the person.

Farmers whose lands lay next to the protected community forest would have the moral responsibility to report any theft they may encounter.

Nobody from within or outside the village would be allowed to enter the forest with a bullock cart for any reason.

Subsequently, there have been some changes in the rules and regulations. For example:

The neighbouring villagers are now allowed to extract some resources for social and religious purposes but only if the permission had been sought in advance from Baripada village.

For 30 days in a year 50 acres of forestland is given for grazing. The area allocated for grazing is changed every year. Grazing for sheep and goats is not allowed.

Villagers are allowed to remove dead/dried wood on social occasions or community gatherings (deaths, weddings, etc). In addition one month during winter (February/March) is a free time again, when only villagers are allowed to remove fuelwood.

Impact and Learnings

Impact on Livelihoods and Subsistence	Firewood
Social Impacts	Community empowerment, Empowerment of women/youth/disadvantaged sections
Ecological Impact	Good diversity and population of wildlife, Improved/sustained ecological services
Internal Threats and Challenges	-
External Threats and Challenges	-

The Indian government recognised the effort of the village by awarding it Rs 1,00,000. This amount was used in starting a village level jaggery-making unit. This unit now employs 25 young men from the village.

Inspired by Jan Seva Foundation, environment education camps for local school children are organised in community protected forests. In these programmes the schoolchildren get acquainted with local plants, including medicinal plants, birds and animals.

In 2003, Pawar helped the village women start a fish-farming cooperative using the common village pond. Jan Seva Andolan helped in the process. The women are now pleased as they can give up making liquor. Since alternatives are now available, the women have taken a strong stand on drinking alcohol. Men are now afraid of coming home drunk. Villagers have also undertaken cultivation of a common forest nursery as part of joint watershed development activities.

The villagers have developed a sense of unity due to the common goal of saving their forests. The regeneration of these forests gave the villagers many benefits and the village took up different forms of income like jaggery making and fish farming.

Social impacts:

Collective action in the village has now increased appreciably. Marriages are also organised collectively on an auspicious day, thereby reducing expenses.

The village has developed a more inclusive method of conflict resolution. One person from each family has to participate in resolution of conflicts, irrespective of the nature of the issue.

Jan Seva Foundation and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram have helped villagers in community-based development activities, like building improved toilets, setting up kitchen gardens that use recycled water, and so on.

Ecological impacts

The number of thefts from the forest has substantially reduced.

Illicit extraction of forest resources by the villagers has completely stopped.

Protection and conservation efforts have helped reduce water run-off.

The forest department has legitimised the informal village protection group under its Joint Forest Management (JFM) scheme.

Species like Tectona grandis, korfad, ghaypaat, among others, have been planted under JFM in the community protected forest.

According to Chaitram Pawar, plant and animal life has increased in the forest, both in terms of number and variety. More importantly, not only has Baripada become self-sufficient in terms of meeting its fuelwood and water needs, it can even supply water to surrounding villages.

Legal Status	-
FRA Applicability	-
Community Forest Resource Rights (CFR)	-
Date of filing CFR claim	-
Level of CFR claim	-
Date of recognition of CFR claim	-
Management plan status	-
Land Ownership	-
Other Recognised Status	United Nations Development Program award in 2003
Sacred Landscape	-

Data Source	From publicly available sources
Year of Study	2003