The women of Karundamuda decided to protect their forests through the formation of the VFPC (village forest protection committee) in 1990–1. This committee effectively managed to regenerate the forests and was subsequently included in the government-sponsored JFM (Joint Forest Management) scheme in 1994, where it received administrative recognition. In 1995, the village came into contact with an NGO called Sangata, which then led to the VFPC receiveing an award from the FD for being the best of its kind in the district.

One of the villagers of Karundamuda, Rajmanbai, recalls that the village had a dense reserved forest (RF) near the roads till the early 1980s. Thereafter the rate of the degradation of the forests began to increase at an alarming rate. She recalls that contractors would come to the village, cut trees and take them to the timber depot in Badrinarai located at a distance of 10 km from the village. In addition to this, resettled Bengali refugees from East Bengal would frequent the village at night to steal wood and cut trees. Due to indiscriminate logging and felling, 100 hectares of sal forests were destroyed, leading to a shortage of fuelwood for the villagers. The women of the village now needed to procure fuelwood for their personal consumption from the forest depot. Along with this, the villagers were facing a threat of increasing theft and crime from those who were involved in cutting timber. In this context the women of Karundamuda decided to protect their forests through the formation of the VFPC (village forest protection committee) in 1990–1.

The women formed a VFPC with the objective of regulation, management and administration of their forest. The members of this committee consist of a woman from every family, one of whom is elected as a secretary. The committee also carries out certain functions as a savings group. Rajmanbai took the initiative of committee formation into her own hands and went to the panchayats and the village elders. Having thought over the matter, the villagers, though skeptical initially, decided to support the venture on an experimental basis. Thereafter Rajmanbai called a meeting of 40 women in the village and asked them to choose the secretary of the committee. Rajmanbai was elected as the first secretary. 

The VFPC meetings are held on a weekly basis in order to review the protection measures. During the meeting the punishments for offences are finalized, depending on the nature and volume of the offence. The VFPC brings the cases to the gram sabha, where the issue is discussed and punishments are issued. For example, if someone is caught cutting green wood for fuel they would have to pay a fine of Rs 100, which is redirected to the village development fund that is operated by this committee.

Also, in order to make the villagers conscious of their duties towards the forest, the women followed a custom of tying a rakhi (a thread indicating that they have vowed to protect the tree) to the trees.

Within two years the system of regulated extraction had resulted in a more dense forest. This led to an increase in the income from non-timber forest produce. Rajmanbai notes that this was not the case earlier, when only the contractors and the rich had access to timber and hence income from the forests. Apart from putting in labour in afforestation programs, the women also sell forest produce. They sell amla, fuelwood and tendu leaves in the local market that is 6 km away from the village. The women’s group also decided to create some community assets from the income generated in the village fund. They, therefore, used the funds to install a tubewell for the use of villagers two years after forest protection had started. Simultaneously women also started realizing some income for their labour. For example, for pruning the trees the women get Rs 30 per day, and for sowing and watering they get another Rs 30 per day. This payment is made by the VSS that collects the funds from the village and also operates the village development fund.

The interface of the forest protection committee with the forest department (FD) poses a major constraint in the empowerment of VFPC. Whereas the protection was started spontaneously, the interference of the FD has reduced the power of the committee to intervene on the basis of its own experience. In 1994 the VFPC received administrative recognition from the FD under JFM. In the process, the committee suffered one setback: the forest guard replaced Rajmanbai as the secretary of the committee. Further the decisions of the VSS were now influenced by the rules and regulations of the JFM. This meant that the women VSS members were no longer in control of funds and could not make their own rules as freely as before.