Country | India |
Area (ha) | 695 |
Ecosystem Type | Forest, Others → Mountain Ecosystem |
Category of CCA | Defined |
Number of households | - |
Number of people | - |
“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.
Origin | Based on traditional practice, Revived by community initiative, New initiative by community, New initiative by external non-government agency |
Year of Formation | 1969 |
Motivations | Ecological functions, Self empowerment, Natural habitat and species conservation, Response to external threat |
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.
Collective of CCAs | Yes |
Decision Making Body | Women’s committee , Youth committee , 9f. The College teacher and conservationist Sachidanand Bharti and the Dudhatoli Lok Vikas Sansthan (DLVS), Mahila mangal dal (MMD) along with the state forest department |
Rules and Regulations | Informal |
Community activities through the year | Fire Management, Patrolling, watch and ward, Plantations and restoration activities, Soil and water conservation, Fencing |
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.
Within a decade, the people of Dudhatoli regained a large part of their lost forest cover.
Legal Status | Forest Area under IFA → Village forest |
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 | Government owned → Forest Department |
Other Recognised Status | - |
Sacred Landscape | - |
NA
Impact on Livelihoods and Subsistence | Cut fodder, Grazing, Firewood, Non-timber forest produce |
Social Impacts | Community empowerment, Empowerment of women/youth/disadvantaged sections, Assured land ownership or access, Revival or continuation of cultural/religious associations, Mitigation of external threat, Prevention of distress outmigration |
Ecological Impact | Natural habitat preservation, Good diversity and population of wildlife, Improved/sustained ecological services |
Internal Threats and Challenges | Outmigration |
External Threats and Challenges | Restrictive laws and policies , Negative impacts of tourism, Climate change impacts |
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.
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
Data Source | From publicly available sources |
Year of Study | 1984 |
License | - |
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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