Ghoda Dei Jungle Surakhiya Committee

Dengajhari

The village deity, Maa Ghodadei Thakurani, resides in the forest patch that lies to the east of the village. No one dares to fell trees or ease themselves in this patch of forest. Trees of amba, limba, bela, bara, aswastha and sahada are considered holy and it is forbidden from felling these trees. The villagers believe that God dwells in these trees and they worship them. The hill stream near Dengajhari serves as a perennial source of water for both domestic and irrigation purposes.

ST (Kandha) +SC

With the increase in population, the per capita landholding decreased gradually. People encroached on grazing land and started clearing forest land for agriculture. After the large-scale destruction of forests during the 1980s, it became difficult to collect even small twigs and wood for brushing teeth and kindle fire during rituals performed at the birth of a child. Realizing the negative impact of deforestation, Dengajhari and two other villages, Lunisahi and Mardakot, collectively initiated forest conservation in the year 1980. Forest cover and wildlife in this area were depleted tremendously due to rampant tree felling and wildlife poaching that followed the nationalization of forests after India's independence. When villagers realized this, they started protecting the forest to secure their stumbling livelihood and food security.

The CCA is part of Ma Maninag Jungle Surkshya Parishad, a block-level federation of CCAs of 217 villages.

A general body and an executive committee consisting of 11 members, all women, have been constituted to oversee the issue of forest protection. All the household of the village are members of the general body and it is mandatory for all the households to participate in the general body meeting convened once every year. The general body convenes for electing a new executive committee, if needed, to address emerging issues, formulate forest protection rules, address specific needs of the marginalized sections, use of forest produce, benefit sharing, assign patroling duties, and decide punishment to the convicted.

Thengapali has been adopted to assign forest vigilance duties on a relay basis. Every day 04 women with thengas (baton) go for forest patrolling. At the end of the day, thengas are left at the door of the person expected to attend patrolling duties the next day. NTFPs and Medicinal plants can be collected freely by the villages involved in forest protection. The collection of fuelwood is restricted. Only dry leaves and twigs can be collected as fuelwood. No one is allowed to collect fuelwood beyond a certain limit. Timber for the construction of houses and agriculture implements can be collected only after the permission of the forest protection committee. People from neighboring villages are allowed to collect NTFPs with the permission of the executive committee without any charge. However, for collecting timber, a fee is charged from people from neighboring villages.

Vasundhara

Thengapalli- A traditional practice in many parts of Odisha for forest protection by local communities, where a stick (thenga) symbolically represents ones turn for forest protection.

Vasundhara (2010), The Semantic of CFM