“One has to be in Ufrain Khal to see the forest. The humus is so thick one cannot walk on the land except for the designated pathways. There are trees with a height of more than 100 feet as well as a thick undergrowth. It is not a plantation as is seen on land planted on by the forest department but a full-fledged natural forest,” said Anupam Mishra, head of the environment unit of Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi.

Traditional, water retentions bodies “Chal and Khal”- Small ponds were dug near every tree to retain surface run-off water since 1993 by the villagers and grass planted around them.  Advantages seen today are – that the five perineal rivers have been revived and forest fires curtailed.

 A community movement of 136 villages has generated a forest on 700 hectares of mountain land and 20,000 ponds over the last 30 years. Entire Villages participated, Students, Men and Women.

In  1960s, due to unrestricted industrialization large tracts of the mountains were rendered mere warehouses for natural resources exported to the plains.

By the late 1970s, the deforestation problem had sufficiently alarmed the government to spur it to official action—it began planting pine trees in empty patches in reserved forests - Pine forests reduce moisture levels, their highly resinous content leads to forest fires, they don’t grip the soil well and are therefore poor protection against landslides.

1980- After his studies, when Sachidanand Bharati the man behind the restoration of Ufrain Khal forest, returned home, he found the same sorry tale of destruction there as well which was seen during Chipko-andolan ‘Around that time, the forest department decided to cut down a stretch of silver firs near Dera village. Coming from the Chipko movement, I knew how to tackle this and I started a campaign and mobilised the villagers,’ says Bharti. Thanks to his efforts, hundreds of firs were saved from the official axe—a small success which laid the foundation for big changes and, most importantly, helped give the people of the area a sense of their rights and the importance of unity. They created nurseries of walnut trees to begin with. With sale of these plants to villagers, they generated funds to grow more plants and soon had six lakh saplings of broad leaf plants in the nursery. Students came forward to plant them and women took over the responsibility to protect them.

In March 1982, Bharati founded the Dudhatoli Lok Vikas Sansthan (DVLS) to replant forests. They encouraged womens participation and mahila mangal dals (MMD) were formed in every village they worked in. After the first plantation drive, the villagers who took part made a collective decision to enforce a 10-year ban on forest activity. Through the MMDs, it was the women who took on the task of posting a lookout for trespassers, with patrols working in shifts to keep the vigil.

Within a decade, the people of Dudhatoli regained a large part of their lost forest cover.

In 1987, the entire range went through a severe drought. Worried, the DLVS decided to dig a small pit near every tree, so water could collect and allow them to survive a few months longer. At this time, Bharti came into contact with Anupam Mishra of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, who provided him with know-how on the making and maintenance of small-scale water bodies. Bharti turned the principles to meet local requirements and, with the DLVS, began to resuscitate old, dried-up water bodies and create several new ones. Twelve thousand such ponds, big and small, now bring water to about 40 villages. Satish Chandra Nautiyal of Simkoli village points to a small well by his house that Bharti helped build in 2005; this well, he says, is now the basis of the entire village’s existence.

From 1993 to 1998, Bharati and his group began digging chaals along hill slopes. Just a year later after the rains water began flowing in a rivulet called Sukharaula, which had been dry for decades. It stayed for a few months. The next year, water stayed for a longer duration. By 2001 the Sukharaula became a full-fledged river. 

1.      To prevent their trees from being cut by a contractors as fresh logging leases were being given by the government.

2.      They knew that the pine trees being planted by the government in empty patches of reserved forests was disastrous. Pine forests reduce moisture levels, cause forest fires due to their high resinous content. They don’t grip the soil well and are poor protection against landslides.

3.      The villagers knew the value of the ancient trees standing in their forests and the value of indigenous mountain species. With the help of the forest department, they established a nursery of indigenous mountain species: oak, fir, cedar and alder.

4.      A good forest within their own boundary is a very important criterion for a village to be called self-sufficient.

Thousands of women took up the responsibility of their forest. Destruction of their forest meant shame, insult and penalties besides the extra effort to get fuel wood and fodder from neighboring villages. 

There are three institutions and a few remarkable individuals in the village collectively taking care of the forest revival and protection activities.

A college group called Daliyon Ka Dagda (Friends of the Trees) to spread the word on conservation.

Dudhatoli Lok Vikas Sansthan (DLVS), which undertakes indigenous tree plantation across the range and holds annual environmental awareness camps in the 150 villages that are part of it.

Mahila mangal dal (MMD) in every village. After the first plantation drive, the villagers who took part made a collective decision to enforce a 10-year ban on forest activity. Through the MMDs, it was the women who took on the task of posting a lookout for trespassers, with patrols working in shifts to keep the vigil.

A community movement of 136 villages has generated a forest on 700 hectares of mountain land and 20,000 ponds over the last 30 years.

In 1982 Sachidanand Bharti returned to Ufrainkhal from Chamoli district after taking part in the Chipko (hug the trees) movement.

The forest department had just granted fresh logging leases in the forests around Ufrainkhal.

Determined to stop this mindless destruction Bharati and his friends went from village to village telling people to resist. The people listened. They knew that the ancient trees standing in their forests were invaluable. 

Backed by them, Bharati reasoned with forest department officials. He persuaded them to come and see the value of old forests.

When the officials saw the forests, they had to agree with Bharati. The logging leases were scrapped and the trees survived. 

The villagers had won a quiet victory. It struck them if they spoke in one voice, they could persuade the government to rescind ecologically disastrous orders. They could work as one to restore the pristine environment they once had, they thought.

So in July 1980 Bharati held a two-day environment camp in the Dudhatoli mountains and invited all the surrounding villages to Ufrainkhal. In those years, the focus was on planting seedlings and saplings and putting back the trees that had been lost.

It was in March 1982 that Bharati founded the Dudhatoli Lok Vikas Sansthan (DVLS) to replant forests. His small people’s organisation had no money, no employees not even a signboard. Devi Dayal the village postman, Dinesh the ayurvedic doctor and Vikram Singh a Kirana store owner were its first three members.

Students planted the trees and women took turns to guard the forest and became the force behind its sustenance via the mahila mangal dals.

Anupam Mishra of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, provided him with know-how on the making and maintenance of small-scale water bodies.

DECISION MAKING

Women from 150 villages are involved in forest conservation and protection. The Dudhatoli group maintains regular communication with about two dozen volunteers, mostly women, in each village for the men migrate to the plains for work. The thousands of chaals built here and the hundreds of hectares of regenerated forests are their only hope. The women number in hundreds and are a silent green brigade. They have devised an ingenious system for handing over forest protection duties to the next volunteer— typical of how the women here combine music and rhythm in daily chores.

Devi Dayal the postman treks from village to village and door to door delivering letters and money orders. He is the organisation’s eyes and ears for he observes the forests on his rounds and delivers messages of forest and water conservation along with the mail.  

Dinesh, the Ayurveda medical practitioner, listens to a range of people who approach him for medical advice. Dinesh examines them, prescribes medicine and dispenses ecological and social messages together with his medicines.

Vikram Singh runs a small kirana store in a neighbouring village. It is here that people congregate to gossip and exchange notes. Vikram veers the conversation to ecology.

They use culture as a powerful means of communication. Local hill culture is steeped in ballads and stories about jungles, animals and water. 

Besides leading the Bharati the Dudhatoli Lok Vikas Sansthan (DVLS) initiatives, Bharati  has a small troupe that winds its way from village to village, from Daund, to Dulmot to Jandriya — singing songs with local musical instruments that tell people to slow down water gushing down the hills, hold the soil together with trees, restore the forests and revive their small terrace farms.

The woman in charge of patrolling the forest carries a baton with a string of bells tied on top. The sound of the bells reverberates across the silence of the hills.

 When a woman is done with her shift, she returns to the village and leaves the baton at the doorstep of a neighbour. Whoever finds the baton in front of her house takes up guard duties the following day. This pattern has gone on for 30 years without fail and without any expectation of money.

Forest guards are not needed. The women play that role, through the Mahila Mangal Dals across villages. The villagers have not spent more than Rs 6-7 lakh on planting entire forests over 27 years. After initial help with the first nursery, the DLVS has never asked for any assistance from the government. Instead, it funds itself through a corpus created from the sale of saplings grown in its nurseries. 

MANAGEMENT AND RESOURCE USE

Mobilized  by  the  local  NGO  Doodhatoli  Lok  Vikas  Sansthan,  women  began  working  to  ameliorate their  situation  in  the  immediate  post-Chipko  period.  Indeed within twenty years of taking over management of the village forests from elected van panchayats that remained in the hands of the local patriarchy, women’s groups were able to accomplish what the official institutions could not (Kapoor, 2000).  The MMD leaders credited their success to the flexibility and autonomy afforded by their unofficial status and  the  group’s  local  accountability  to  the  main  users  of  the  forest,  village women.  Due  to  this,  they  were  able  to  accord  a  higher  priority  to  creating  a  sustainable  source  of fuel  and  fodder,  as  opposed  to  the  more  market-oriented  aims  of  both  the  forest  department  and  van panchayats.  Moreover,  by  operating  independently  of  any  fiscal  constraints  and  thus  administrative control  of  the  government,  they  were  able  to  evolve  a  truly  people-first  reforestation  policy.  In addition,  rather  than  relying  on  hired  enforcement,  they  were  able  to  rotate  the  watch  over  the  forest among the members of the group. Unfortunately,  resource  management  and  conservation  work  occupied  so  much  of  the  MMD’s  time, that  they  were  unable  to  tackle  other  vital  women’s  issues  such  has  ill  health  and  harmful  social practices.  The  success  of  the  reforestation  also  led  to  an  increase  in  household  fortunes  that ironically  led  to  a  commensurate  increase  in  time  spent  feeding  and  caring  for  additional  animals (Kapoor,  2000).  As  such,  the  women  of  the  Doodhatoli  range  became  victims  of  their  own  success, and  thus  in  need  of  further  cooperation  from  both  their  menfolk  and  the  government.  While  the women  have  succeeded  on  their  own,  the  active  participation  of  the  men  would  go  a  long  way  to alleviating  some  of  their  drudgery.  Likewise,  recognition  by  the  government  would  confer  a  level  of legitimacy that would shield their work from undue interference.

The forest was kept totally shut for ten years to allow natural regeneration and protect new saplings in its revival period in the 1980’s till 1990. 

Within a decade, the people of Dudhatoli regained a large part of their lost forest cover. 

NA

A community movement of 136 villages has generated a forest on 700 hectares of mountain land and 20,000 ponds over the last 30 years.

Bharati realized that culture was a powerful means of communicating. Local hill culture is steeped in ballads and stories about jungles, animals and water. Bharati has a small troupe that winds its way from village to village, from Daund, to Dulmot to Jandriya — singing songs with local musical instruments that tell people to slow down water gushing down the hills, hold the soil together with trees, restore the forests and revive their small terrace farms.     

In a region where men migrate en masse for employment a group of 15 girls sing this lyric:  ‘The water in the springs of my hills is cool. Do not migrate from this land, O my beloved.’

At Daund, despite the rain, villagers, mostly women young and old, sit around and listen. The village is small and perched 6,000 feet above sea level. The villagers know the rain will collect in a stream and tumble down the hill. It will join the Ramganga river and the silted water will make its way to the Corbett National Park.

This symbiosis of culture and ecology helps people to rediscover their roots, their traditional respect for nature. It brings the village together and creates an ambience that encourages them to restore the environment that sustains them.

Mobilization, unity and wisdom of the community for their forest. The support of the forest department to allow broad leaf plantation while protecting the ancient trees of the forest. Not allowing logging and plantation of commercial tree/timber plantation.

Empowerment of the village communities, youth, women and constant vigil of the ecosystem.

While  the women  have  succeeded  on  their  own,  the  active  participation  of  the  men  would  go  a  long  way  to alleviating  some  of  their  drudgery.  Likewise,  recognition  by  the  government  would  confer  a  level  of legitimacy that would shield their work from undue interference.

Unfortunately,  resource  management  and  conservation  work  occupied  so  much  of  the  MMD’s  time, that  they  were  unable  to  tackle  other  vital  women’s  issues  such  has  ill  health  and  harmful  social practices.  The  success  of  the  reforestation  also  led  to  an  increase  in  household  fortunes  that ironically  led  to  a  commensurate  increase  in  time  spent  feeding  and  caring  for  additional  animals (Kapoor,  2000).  As  such,  the  women  of  the  Doodhatoli  range  became  victims  of  their  own  success, and  thus  in  need  of  further  cooperation  from  both  their  menfolk  and  the  government.

Continued Community participation to protect and regenerate the forest as per the practices followed in the last 30 years.  Because 30-40 years ago, environment issues used to be limited to experts. Now, it is the   issue of commoners because it impacts the lives and livelihoods of all people.

The people have successfully organized themselves and  by applying  their traditional knowledge  they have  recharged  the mountain ponds, streams and springs by bunding and reforesting the water catchment areas. They need to sustain the practice while taking up new IMI goals like Zero waste, No plastic etc.

One  of  the important steps taken by the IMI (Integrated Mountain Initiative) was in its interactions with the Planning Commission and  its  members  at  that  time,  particularly  Shri  B.K.  Chaturvedi  who  had  advised  the delegation then ‘that instead of a government forum it would be better to have an NGO  forum  to bring  up  mountain  issues in  a united way,  instead  of approaching the Government of India  or  any  other  authority  state-wise.’  This  is  how  the  IMI  came  about  to bring  a  collective  force  to  their  demands  for  attention.

Take  up  the  Zero  Waste  path

https://www.civilsocietyonline.com/mega-hall-of-fame/sachidanand-bharti/

https://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/a-peoples-forest/article2562120.ece

https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/village-creates-magicand-river

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