Our planet’s essential goods and services depend on the variety and variability of genes, species, populations, and ecosystems. Biological resources feed as well as clothe us; provide housing, medicines, and spiritual nourishment. The natural ecosystems of forests, pastures and rangelands, deserts, rivers, lakes, and seas contain most of the Earth’s biodiversity. Farmers’ fields and gardens are also of great importance as repositories, while gene banks, botanical gardens, zoos, and other germplasm repositories make a small but significant contribution.
A social perspective on the environment, as opposed to one based purely on ecology or technology, shows that the issues of resource degradation and regeneration are intimately linked to questions of power, institutions, livelihood, and culture. The social and ecological consequences of dominant patterns of global and national development raise fundamental questions about the meaning and content of development. They reinforce and add new dimensions to the critiques of processes and patterns of growth, driven by profit oriented markets with a disregard for their impact on livelihood security, social relations and local institutions.
The current decline in biodiversity is largely the result of human activity and represents a serious threat to human development. The support of local communities is essential to the success of an integrated approach to conserve and promote biodiversity. Recent advances in biotechnology are people – friendly, and have the potential to solve problems related to agriculture, health, and forests in an acentralized manner. This is the most peaceful and participatory way to harness Mother Nature’s blessings.
A rich legacy, motherland bestowed on us
India is one of the 12 countries in the world with rich biodiversity covering 8% of the world’s biodiversity on the 2% of the Earth’s surface. This diversity can be attributed to the vast variety of landforms and climates resulting in habitats ranging from tropical to temperate and from alpine to desert. Adding to this is a very high diversity of human-influenced ecosystems, including agricultural and pasturelands, and an impressive range of domesticated plants and animals.
Being a predominantly agriculture-based country, India also has a mixture of wild and cultivated habitats giving rise to very specialized biodiversity which is specific to the confluence of two or more habitats. The thickly populated middle India is rich in biodiversity. Out of six broad types of biomes distinguished in Country, this area covers tropical dry forests/woodlands over most of the Gangetic Plains and the peninsula category. Evolution has produced an amazing variety of plants; animals; micro-organisms and ecosystems. The survival of human societies and cultures is dependent on biological diversity. It provides essential ecosystem services including hydrological and geochemical cycles, and climatic regulation that has blessed human survival.
Biodiversity is the very basis for the continuous evolution of species and ecosystems. Two critically dependent aspects are ecological safety and livelihood security, which need to be addressed for the conservation and sustenance of biodiversity. Ecological safety refers to the maintenance of the diversity of ecosystems and habitats, populations and communities, and biological productivity. The livelihood security refers to the security of human communities and individuals critically dependent on biological resources.
We are not the master of Nature
Nature is rarely visualized as the foundation of human civilization, and natural resources as the unending treasure of wealth for the sustenance of livelihood. In 1955, Tom Dale and Vernon Gill Carter, both highly experienced ecologists, published a book called ‘Topsoil and Civilization’. They wrote, “Civilized man was nearly always able to become master of his environment temporarily. His chief troubles came from his delusions that his temporary ownership was permanent. He thought of himself as ‘master of the world’, while failing to fully understand the laws of nature”.
Man, whether civilized or savage, is a child of Nature – he is definitely not the master of nature. His actions must conform to certain natural laws if he is to maintain his dominance over his environment. When he tries to circumvent the laws of nature, he usually destroys the natural environment that sustains him, and when his environment deteriorates rapidly, his civilization declines.
E.F. Schumacher wrote, “Civilized man has marched across the face of the Earth and left a desert in his footprints”. This statement demands introspection from us. We, the civilized people, have despoiled most of the lands on which we have lived for long.
This is the main reason why our successive civilizations have moved from place to place. It has been the chief cause of the decline of his civilizations in the older settled regions. It has been the dominant factor in determining all trends of history.
How did civilized man despoil this favourable environment? He did it mainly by depleting or destroying natural resources. He cut down or burned most of the usable timber from forested hillsides and valleys. He let the grasslands overgrazed and denuded for his livestock. He killed most of the wildlife and much of the fish and other water life. He permitted erosion to rob his farmland of its productive topsoil. He allowed eroded soil to clog the streams and fill his reservoirs, irrigation canals, and harbours with silt. In many cases, he used and wasted most of the easily mined metals or other needed minerals.
His civilization declined amidst the despoliation of his creation or he moved to a new land. There have been from ten to thirty different civilizations that have followed this road to ruin.
Mother Nature is groaning
Listening to the rhythm of nature, its whisperings and moods have been the way of wholesome human life. Environmental mishappenings have forced us to listen to Mother Nature. This time it is more her groaning than her whisperings.
The experience of the past few decades had led us to take up the question of Nature as a planetary ethos. This new ethos, however, needs to be developed from the perspective of the weak and the marginalized who have been most affected by the afflictions of Mother Earth. Now, the groaning of nature and the cries of the marginalized are fused into one. Any serious-minded ecological approach today must reckon with the question of the survival of the weakest in the human family.
The ecological crisis, in a way, is the mirror of our world. In it are reflected the bewildering complexity of problems afflicting our world from one end to the other as well as the hopes for a new and different world. In the ecological question emerge, with a sharper focus, the imbalances of our world. The ecological problem is the symbol of the struggles of the marginalized for regaining – their lost lands, resources along with dignity, and food along with freedom.
The eruption of ecological concerns into the consciousness of humanity at the beginning of the twenty-first century represents a powerful source of regeneration both of Nature and the human community. However, it is not devoid of ambiguities. Very much like human rights, the environmental issue is today being subordinated for political purposes, to force people and nations to toe a certain line. Besides, while the marginalized of our Earth pinned their hope on this issue to challenge the dominant paradigm of development, ironically, the language of ecology was snatched away from these victims and turned into a powerful instrument by their oppressors (both at the macro and micro levels), who suddenly turned into Green Messiahs, only to forge ahead with the old paradigm of development with some cosmetic changes.
It is essential now that we count the indigenous community as part of the biodiversity like flora and fauna and not alien to it. This will abruptly stop the unnecessary mock fight going on between the so-called advocates of environment and self – styled champions of the indigenous community. It is only benefiting them, and both the community and the environment are losers. A change in the policy framing will make both the parasites redundant and jobless.
The National Forest Policy 1988 speaks of involving people through massive people’s movement but nowhere has it acknowledged community ownership or stakeholdership. The statement “Secure participation of all stakeholders including local people, NGOs, industry, and others in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity” (National Policy and Macro-level Strategy and Action Plan on Biodiversity, 2000) does not address the basic problem of deforestation i.e. mistrust and huge gap increasing between the community and the Government. The latter draws on the British colonial attitude of looking down upon the community as a labourer and does not recognize the self – esteem, the dignity of a community. Once that is recognized and appreciated, the community can take better responsibility for conservation than the paid employees who have hardly any commitment to Mother Nature.
Development is a wound
Throughout history, the competition for natural resources has provided a fertile ground for violent conflicts. Groups, classes, and nations have fought one another for the possession of forests, agricultural, and mineral land; access to water, river, and marine resources. Nature-based conflicts have increased in frequency and intensity in India. They revolve around competing claims over forests, land, water & fisheries and have generated a new movement to ensure legitimate rights of the victims of ecological degradation. The environmental movement added a new dimension to Indian Democracy and civil society. It also posed an ideological challenge to the dominant notions of prosperity.
Development has often been perceived as a benign process contributing to distributive justice, better education, and nutrition. Facts however indicate increasing inequalities and even the absolute impoverishment of some sections of the population. These contradictory effects are often attributed to growing landlessness brought about by population expansion and to rising unemployment. From an environmental and social perspective, ‘development’ is resulting not only in ecological devastation but also in violation of property rights, displacement of people and loss of means of livelihood.
Forests: a saga of tribals’ valour
The tribal people never acknowledged the authority of exotic centers of power including the authority which the British established, notwithstanding the records which the latter had created, as per their perception and practice in the form of promulgations, regulations, etc. The Paharias of Rajmahal put up the toughest fight followed by Kollhas, Santals, Mundas in the eastern sector; Kolam, Kandha, Koyas, Irravalam, Irrular in the South; and Koli, Rabari, Vil, Villala in West to protect valiantly their respective territories that were lost due to the promulgations and regulations. The British Raj, unprepared to face confrontations, took recourse to other devious ways and made its presence felt like a center of power that could not be ignored. In this process, a policy of gradual exclusion, in place of absolute exclusion, was implemented.
The first regulation was promulgated in the wake of the revolt of Paharias of Rajmahal Hills in 1796. The suppression of Koiyas insurrection in 1831-32 was followed by the declaration of Chotanagpur as a non-regulated area in 1833 (Regulation XIII of 1833). The resistance of Koyas in the South took the form of guerrilla warfare, uprisings (1803 onwards) and armed insurrection (1862). These revolts were mercilessly crushed, and ‘suitable’ changes in the administrative system followed. A separate act was passed next for the districts of Ganjam and Vishakapatnam in 1839. Later, a general Scheduled Districts Act was passed in 1874 declaring the two districts as Scheduled Districts. A new nomenclature was adopted for these areas, namely, ‘Wholly Excluded Areas’ and ‘Area of Modified Exclusion’ under the Government of India Act, 1919.
The anti-imperialist struggle of Adivasis forms a glorious chapter in the history of Odisha. In the year 1805 the tribals of Nayagarh, Daspala, Boudh, Banapur and Ghumusar struggled against the British to establish their own right on the forest. Then in the year 1817 tribals of Khurda under the leadership of Buxi Jagabandhu and in Ghumsar belt under the leadership of Chakara Bisoi fought valiantly to protect their territories. Under unprecedented repression the movement sporadically continued from 1837 to 1875. The western Odisha movement continued from 1827 to 1884 under the Sambalpur regime led by Vir Surendra Sai. Under the leadership of Birsa Munda, the Resistance Movement spread along the Odisha – Jharkhand border areas in later part of 19th century. In the year 1891 Dharanidhar Bhuyan led the ‘Juango’ Adivasis in Keonjhar district belt. The Parajas, Sabars and Kondhas were organized in Koraput district by the legendary leader Laxman Nayak against British domination. The movement continued even after Laxman Nayak was hanged to death by the British in 1942. At the Andhra Pradesh – Odisha border, under the leadership of Aluri Sitarama Raju, the Adivasis continued their struggle in the same period and created history.
Various aspects of administering the forests were examined in detail for the first time by the Indian Statutory Commission (Simon Commission). On its suggestion, a new scheme was adopted for the administration of ‘excluded’ and ‘partially excluded’ areas in the Government of India Act 1935 assigning extensive power to the Governor, for making regulations for ‘peace and good governance’ in the said areas. However, this Act did not become fully operational at any time after its enactment because of the advent of the National movement led by Mahatma Gandhi & the Indian National Congress. Unfortunately, the fate of toiling people and their natural sources of livelihood remained unchanged even after Independence. Their sacrifices had gone in vain. The Forest Acts formulated in British India were maintained as they were and all the power was vested with the Government with no recognition of community contribution in environment management.
Tribals were living examples of democracy
The Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes during 1986-91 in his report (28th) to the President of India wrote, “The quintessence of the Pre-independence tribal scene can be said to comprise three basic elements:
· A system of self-governance guided by the traditions and customs of the people with almost no exotic intervention
· Considered intervention at the highest level in matters concerning the System and the legal frame
· Realization of the need for protection against the articulate neighbours and even the functionaries of the State exemplified the ‘excluded area’ approach, and even total ban on entry into the same through stringent inner line regulations.”
After a decade of independence, the Dhebar Commission for scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes stated in its report, “The decision of their (people’s) councils is the law to the tribals. The sanction behind it is both necessity and faith; necessity because in far-flung areas social equilibrium and stability have to be maintained by some responsible agency, and the council is that agency, where they have faith because with the tribals their social customs and religious rites are the essences of their existence.”
In the first Constituent Assembly in 1949, Jaipal Singh declared, “You cannot teach democracy to the tribal people, you have to learn democratic ways from them. They are the most democratic people on Earth.” The same sentiment was echoed by another great leader, Syed Mohammad Sadaula who said that their native chiefs are elected by all people in their territory by the adult franchise and could be removed as well by the people.
One’s relationship with one’s land is Economics and Law
मनुष्यवती भूमिरर्थः अर्थस्य भूम्याः
लाभ पालनोपायः शास्त्रम अर्थशास्त्रं
Kautilya in his treatise ‘Arthshastra’ defines Economics in a holistic and profound way …. The land, where human beings lead their lives, is called ‘Arth’. The study of all the actions / solutions that are beneficial to this land is called Arthshastra.
Interestingly the English term ‘Economics’ is derived from the Greek word ‘Oikonomia’. Its meaning is ‘household management’. If we take a collective space as Kutumb, then the people, biodiversity, land and water resources, all form a Kutumb (family), whose management is Economics. All the deeds that are beneficial to this space is Arthshastra.
The relationship between the government and the people acquires a refreshing dimension with this understanding. The Constitution too comes to rescue whenever a conflict arises.
The Indian Constitution has comprehensive provisions for the protection of the forest, land, water and, the people living in it under 5th, 6th and the 11th schedules. To quote the Supreme Court in Samatha versus the State of Andhra Pradesh, and Others, (1997-98 cases No. 191) – “The Fifth Schedule constitutes an integral scheme of the Constitution with direction, philosophy, and anxiety to protect the tribes from expropriation. Its objective is to preserve tribal autonomy, their culture, and economic empowerment to ensure social, economic and political justice for the preservation of peace and good governance in the Scheduled Areas.”
Besides the constitutional commitment, the Government of India is also a signatory to the International Labour Conference Convention No. 107, 40th session on 5th June 1957 concerning the protection and integration of indigenous tribal and semi tribal population in the Independent countries and Convention no 169, 76th session on 7th June 1989.
The former recognizes the right of ownership, collective or individual of the members of the populations concerned over the lands which these populations traditionally occupy (article 11) and the later convention declares (article 7): “The people concerned shall have the right to decide their priorities for the process of development as it affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual well being, and lands they occupy and otherwise use, and to exercise control, to the extent possible, over their own economic, social and cultural development. Besides, they shall participate in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of plans and programmes for national and regional development, which may affect them directly. Again, in part II (article 13) it clarifies:
1. In applying the provisions of this part of the Convention, governments shall respect the special importance for the cultures and spiritual values of the people concerned, of their relationship with the lands or territories, or both as applicable, which they occupy or otherwise use, and in particular the collective aspects of this relationship.
2. The use of the term “Lands” in Article 15 and 16 shall include the concept of territories, which covers the total environments of the areas which the people concerned occupy or otherwise use. Article 15 says “The right of the peoples concerned to the natural resources pertaining to their lands shall be specially safeguarded. These rights include the right of these peoples to participate in the use, management and conservation of these resources.”
It is worth noting here about the UN Declaration on Right to Development adopted by the General Assembly resolution 41/128 of 4th Dec 1986. Interestingly the Supreme Court takes note of it in Civil Appeal No. 4601-02 of 1997 case No. 191 and taking cognizance of the violation of this declaration by the Government of Andhra Pradesh warns not to disturb the traditional relationship between forest and the indigenous people living in it. Article 2 (1) provides that “the human person is the central subject of development and should be the active participant and beneficiary of the right to development.” The same year Andhra Pradesh High Court giving Judgment on contempt case No. 1381 makes an eye-opening statement on the functioning process of the Government officials “the experience of this court is that as and when there is some trouble in the agency area, the officials concerned will pass some orders without looking into the record and without giving any opportunity to the non-tribals to put forth their cases.”
These orders naturally resulted in a plethora of appeals. With the outcome, the symbolic acts done by the officials implementing the regulations did not yield results and in fact, these regulations in the statute book are staring in the face of civilized society. The court have noticed time and again that these Special Duty Collectors (Tribal Welfare) who are entrusted with the duty to enquire into the claims of the tribals, were passing orders which have naturally resulted in appeals to the Agent, who normally sits over the appeals till another unrest arises in the area. When the situation is again goes out of control, the agent without bothering whether notices are served or not, whether advocates are present or not, passes some order and washes off his hands. The matter, thereafter, comes to the Secretariat by way of a Revision and again the concerned Secretary having entertained the revision thinks that his duty is over by staying the operation of the orders of the Agent till the next unrest takes place.”
The honourable High Court made serious remarks on members of the Legislative Assembly, “If the Tribals Advisory Council is really functioning, it is not known how such pathetic conditions in the tribal area are continuing even after 50 years of Independence. Perhaps, this question can be answered by the so-called representatives of tribals themselves than any others. Time has come to question their inner hearts what they are doing for the people, who sent them to the Legislative Assembly.”
History took a turn when the Government of India first recognized the Autonomy of Village Republics through the 74th the constitutional Amendment on 24.12.96 in which the power of Gram Sabhas for self-Governance was recognized.
The provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA) is noteworthy in this context. The Act applies to the areas covered under the fifth schedule of the Constitution of India. The Act prohibits the state to make any law which would not be in consonance “with the customary law, social and religious practices and traditional management practices of community resources”. But to an unsympathetic administration, it leaves scope for manipulation. In the first-place customary laws, social and religious practices and traditional management practices of community resources are not codified. Except for the occasional judicial pronouncement, there is hardly anything authentic in writing to go by regarding the customary and traditional practices and laws of different groups of tribals.
Now that a central piece of legislation has given legal recognition to such customary laws and traditional practices, it is time to have authoritative writings on such issues. This is a difficult task, since customs and traditional practices vary from tribe to tribe, from place to place. Nevertheless, these must be captured, documented and disseminated through community-based processes to ensure that tribals can seize the rights that have been provided to them by the law.
Tribal Movement for land rights and minor forest produce
From the British time gradually tribals were alienated from their land rights in forest villages, resulting in torture and exploitation by lower forest officials all over the region. The author was a catalyst to collectively raise the voice for the tribals of Indore division in 1986. The Forest Department of Madhya Pradesh accepted the demand and gave 30 years lease to the residents. This victory was the first of its kind in the country. But later the department stopped tribals to collect cow dung claiming it to be the property of the forest department. A PIL (public interest litigation) was filed against it in 1987 in the High court of Indore. In between mounting resistance by the tribals, High court gave a historical judgment “Minor Forest Produce (cow dung) henceforth will be counted as properties of the forest dwellers and Forest department can purchase it from them at reasonable market price.” The success of both the movements held the morale of tribals high. In 2006 Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India included land and Minor Forest Produce (MFP) as rights of the tribals.
Relationship with land is one’s identity
Just as trees get nourishment from their roots, gain strength to withstand floods and storms, communities too get stability, tenacity and shock absorption capacity from deep belongingness. Their relationship with land and Mother Nature gets reflected in laws, and policy documents.
Constitutional directions, UN resolutions, ILO declaration, verdicts of Supreme Court and High Courts and above all rules and regulations of Government, become essential to bridge the gap between the community and the government. The linkages and relationship among various departments of the Government and various institutions to ensure community-based land, water, forest management for poverty alleviation can address the realities listed below:
1. What happened in the last two hundred years ever more aggressively is the divesting of people of their modes of production. This has been forcibly supplanted by other ways and means of production, which neither benefited the local communities nor protected their environment. Therefore, the ecological community found themselves bereft of the economic system corresponding to their environmental midline and nurturing their culture and its various manifestations.
2. If there is no serious will to halt the globally escalating consumerism, all talk about environmental ethics will become ineffective. Transformation of consciousness can be realized if idolaters of planetary consumerism across national borders listen attentively to the sane local voices of the victims who pay for this way of life and suffer the burden and consequences of it. It is they who can testify what vairagya or alpacheta means: It is freedom from enslavement, from greed, from getting addicted to and enslaved by the consumerist idols.
3. Today any serious ecological ethic should address the central issue of justice and equity. It definitely goes beyond an ethic oriented conservation and drives home the reality that future survival is bound up with the present question of access and equitable sharing of the natural resources.
4. Income inequality in India has increased at an alarming rate in the last three decades. A January 2020 study suggests that India’s richest 1 per cent held more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70 per cent of the country’s population. The top 10% of the Indian population held 77% of the total national wealth. The saga has now acquired frightening dimensions. Indian billionaires increased their wealth by 35% during the lock down to 3 trillion. A survey across five States said that close to 40 % of teachers in government schools feared that the prolonged school closure might lead to a third of the students not returning once schools reopened. It was estimated that out of school rates would double in a year. (Source: Oxfam India and its ‘Inequality Virus Report’ released on 25 January 2021)
5. The land is the principal source of livelihood for millions of people. Its development is linked with the development of indigenous communities. Many resourceful immigrants have fraudulently alienated large areas of locals, who are ignorant and helpless. Persons belonging to the affluent and powerful sections, to obtain sales or mortgages either for nominal consideration or for no consideration at all, have exploited scheduled tribes grantees and the latter have become the victims of circumstances.
6. There is serious negligence in technology transfer to tribal communities through appropriate extension education and developing market linkages to protect and promote growers’ and gatherers’ interest.
Ecological self-governance
To speak meaningfully of a planetary and ecological ethos, we need to put the victims, the poor and the marginalized at the heart of the planetary discourse. Hence, to ensure ecological self- governance through communities of people situated in the particular environmental context, to stop violent disruption of the community and people from their most immediate habitat and their environment with all its diversity and richness, the indigenous communities should be facilitated to rediscover their lost identity and self-image in the context of their natural milieu which is the chief source for the formation of their culture. Because, once the culture of the local communities with its economic basis has been destabilized, people are rendered rootless and could be tossed around in a global economic game in which they have no part. They must face the challenge from the imperialistic vision, the present model of development, and incongruent science and technology. Communities must now make a paradigm shift to an appropriate, genuinely humanizing vision. To develop ecological ethos through the promotion of justice and equity by deeply entering the human experience untrammeled by parochialism should be the mission. To fulfill this mission, we should have the following objectives:
· To highlight the indigenous wisdom about Nature – it’s working, its rhythm, modes, ecological and environmental management; ingenious ways and means to benefit from natural resources, and to renew and regenerate them
· To empower local communities, particularly weaker sections, SC & ST women for assuming leadership in ecological conservation measures, participation in government programmes aimed at enhancing livelihood security for self-determination & self-employment so that vested interests from wanton destabilization can be prevented from disturbing the harmonious relationship between Nature and community in the resource-rich ecological niches
· To spearhead a movement of students and youth for tending their local environment through participatory community action research and study about the adverse effects of development ventures like open cast mines- particularly bauxites and graphite, industrial pollution, intensive prawn cultivation, application of pesticides and insecticides, etc. on the fragile ecosystem
· Integration of and synergy between regulatory, promotional, academic and research institutions and enterprises to ensure poverty alleviation through the involvement of the community
· Capacity building of the rural workers, artisans, and fishermen for value-added products and to create better infrastructure and human resources for conservation and sustainable utilization of Jal, Jangal, Jamin, Jan, Jantu i.e., water, forest, land, human and animals by the community. Application of scientific knowledge, appropriate technology for harvesting, value addition, marketing and involvement of co-operatives in creation, innovation, production and marketing of agricultural, horticultural, agro forestry and medicinal plant products.
· Completing the disjointed ‘field to laboratories’ and ‘laboratories to field’ loops of interaction into an effective circle of collaboration for the mutual benefit of the user and researchers.
Assessing the official approach
The social equilibrium is preserved through flexible and equitable access to resources brought about by rules on inheritance and on an exchange of rights to use resources. This mechanism is buckling under pressure from commercialized resource exploitation at a massive scale. The concern with environmental deterioration has stimulated widespread efforts at conservation and enhancement of natural resources. Official programmes have been driven to attract foreign funds or to preserve scenic beauty along with flora and fauna. Although it is not always possible to demarcate them neatly, it is useful to distinguish between three categories of conservation initiatives.
The first category comprises official programmes: first, those which seek to preserve forests, parks, and animal and plant species for the benefit of present and future generation. The second category comprises of efforts to rehabilitate and improve degraded resources to meet the subsistence needs of farmers, herders, and foragers. The third category consists of resource improvement efforts undertaken at the initiative of local communities and grass-roots organizations, with varying degrees of support from activists and voluntary development bodies, state agencies, and foreign donors.
The three categories of conservation programmes and the policies that underline them are to be analysed from a socio-political-economic perspective. The record of official conservation programmes is somewhat dismal. The first category has suffered because they have largely ignored the needs of the inhabitants, and the communities in the neighbourhood of parks and protected areas. In many cases latter were deprived of means of subsistence through explosion or restriction on their access to land, forests, fisheries, and grazing. It is so foolishly ironical that the conservation of Nature should destroy means of subsistence of the people.
The second category of conservation efforts has the explicit purpose of improving degraded resources to enhance the living standards of the improvised peasants, herders and the landless. Although there have been some notable successes, the great majority of these conservation programmes have failed to achieve their objectives. The most important reason for this is that such activities have not been embedded in the socio-economic and political context of the region. They have been devised and implemented as top down technical and administrative exercises.
The third category of conservation initiatives has perhaps a better record of success because participation by local communities ensures that the programmes and projects address the real needs and priority concerns of the local people. However, in most cases, their success depends critically on material and political support from empathetic individuals and organizations.
It is note worthy what the then Prime Minister Pundit Nehru expressed in his famous Panchsheel Policy:
· People should develop along the lines of their genius and we should avoid imposing anything on them. We should try to encourage in every way their traditional arts and culture.
· Tribal rights in land and forests should be respected.
· We should try to train and build up a team of their people to do the work of administration and development. Some technical personnel from outside are needed, especially in the beginning. But we should avoid introducing too many outsiders into tribal territory.
· We should not over-administer these areas or overwhelm them with a multiplicity of schemes. We should rather work through and not in rivalry to, their own social and cultural institutions
· We should judge results, not by statistics or the amount of money spent, but by the quality of human character that is evolved.
Taking the dire ecological and human reality in the proposed intervention areas, we need to take conservation efforts to redress the desperate reality. The optimistic people-oriented dynamic processes crystallized in the Panchsheel policy can pave way to strengthen Community Mass Mobilization Perspective in the following ways:
· Socio-political-economic empowerment
· Weaving indigenous wisdom and technical capacity building
· Evolving a culture of conservation and fostering a grass-roots environmental movement
What is required is the sublimation of consciousness, which goes far beyond the precincts of ethics. Seen in this perspective, the ecological question to be addressed is not just a transition from an Anthropocentric to Cosmo centric, but from anti human to authentic human which includes in its purview nurturing and fostering nature and its immense biodiversity. The evolution of a planetary ecological ethos must be synergistic with the socio-cultural-religious possibilities. We can collectively harness them to sustain the indigenous people’s approach to Nature.
A socio-political-economic analysis of the environment points to the need for major reforms in development; conservation programmes and policies. Programmes for environmental protection must become integral parts of overall development strategies. Thus, conservation schemes should enhance the livelihood security of local communities, inter alia, through recognition of their customary rights over natural resources.
The success of such efforts is critically dependent upon their ability to strengthen the technical, organizational and managerial capabilities of rural communities and organizations. The importance of drawing upon and reinforcing local knowledge and innovative capacity must be highlighted.
Such reforms in development and conservation policies cannot appear without concomitant changes in the constellation of social and political forces. This is a long, slow and cumulative process. The mobilization of local communities and other groups to resolve conflicts over the environment, and the growth of organizations from the local level to state levels committed to conservation programmes linked to poverty eradication and community empowerment, have an important role to play in this process.
Forests: The bedrock of livelihoods
There are different dimensions of rural livelihood conditions relating to the forest. Forest promotes rural livelihood conditions in several ways such as: (i) increased income, (ii) increased wellbeing, (iii) reduced vulnerability and, (iv) more sustainable use of the natural resource base. However, the extent to which these livelihood conditions materialize in practice varies from situation to situation, among households in a situation and across a time span. The above said contributions of forests, again, depend on several factors such as (i) availability of alternative sources of income, (ii) access to forests, (iii) marketing facility of the available forest products and, (iv) the institutions involved in the management of forests.
The forest-related rural livelihood scenario has been divided into five categories such as: (i) forests continue to be central to livelihood systems, (ii) products from forests play an import and supplementary and/or safety net role, (iii) forest product activity opportunities are increasingly based on agro-forest sources, (iv) opportunities exist to expand artisan and small enterprise forest product activities, and (v) people need to move out of declining forest product activities. All the above scenarios need careful intervention at both the policy level and implementation level. Particularly in the emerging market economy, the right to own the forest resources is not yet ensured. In India, forest dwellers depend on forest for their livelihood for (i) NTFP (non-timber forest produce), (ii) hunting wild animals, (iii) cultivation of forest land, settled cultivation at some places and shifting cultivation at other, (iv) food items, (v) medicinal and herbal plants, and (vi) wage labour in logging or other, forest activities, legally or illegally. But gradually their dependence on the forest is declining due to deforestation.
The livelihood of forest dwellers including both tribals and non-tribals living close to the forest has been severely affected due to massive deforestation. Relentless efforts made by the Government, non-government organizations and other functionaries could not better the situation. Forest management policies of the Government must be so guided that conservation of forest and livelihood of the forest dwellers should go together, one should not be at the cost of the other.
Many forest dwellers particularly, tribals and other marginalized sections, depend on forest particularly on NTFP for their survival. But the policies regarding the collection, sale, and processing of NTFP are going against the livelihood of forest dwellers. Thus, deforestation coupled with myopic Government policies in the past has gone against the interest of the livelihood of the forest dwellers. With the Present Tribal Policy in effect there is growing fear of Mafia Raj in Forest due to innocence & Ignorance of the Forest dwellers.
Matters of immediate concern
· Ineffective Management of Natural and Human Resources
· The laws of Nature and the symbiotic relationship between indigenous communities, plants, and animals while designing forest development plan is not properly taken note of by Development planners
· Community is taken as beneficiaries and not as Stakeholders in the whole development paradigm
· Cultural values and traditions of the Community inadequately addressed in development initiatives
· The resultant increasing gap between the community and Government in the development process
· Inadequate infrastructure, organizational interaction and institutional access at the grass-root level
· Lack of convergence of various development programs for holistic development
· Lack of monitoring during the execution of development programs resulting in poor implementation
· Lack of inter-sectoral coordination among various stakeholders like Government Departments, Academic and Research Institutions, Social and Business Organizations
· Sustainability and replicability within the implementation mechanism are poor resulting in erosion of community ownership and non-institutionalization of resource management
· The community has hence developed an antagonistic or at the minimum an apathetic attitude towards Governmental/Corporate/ NGO initiatives for development leading to serious law and order problems
· Several-fold increase in market demand of forest products leading to its exploitation from their wild habitats
· Unhealthy competition for forest products due to entry of non-traditional new players, with a limited idea for conservation and knowledge of sustainable utilization, has led to livelihood insecurity of the traditional dwellers of these niches.
It has forced them to abandon their age-old traditional conservation practices for immediate survival needs, and migrate in painful circumstances. These pressures result in their numbers to dwindle rapidly.
· The human community is the ultimate loser in this struggle due to the degradation in the rich genetic diversity of the human population
· Irrespective of a rise in productivity and growth in the Economy, the Human Development Index shows a definite decline in tribal belts raising fundamental questions to policy planning
The Government of India, Ministry of Tribal Affairs Taskforce for empowering the tribal (ST) population has attributed this failure to ‘straight-jacketed schemes’, ‘lack of perception of local needs’ and ‘top-down approach’. Distribution of funds has been wrongly emphasized instead of focusing on community empowerment and infrastructure development.
Making development sustainable
Experience with Watershed Development and Environmental and Social Assessment Studies indicate the following constraints to the sustainable development of Integrated Watershed and Natural Resource Management Sector:
· Poverty amidst plenty aggravating due to lack of courage, inadequate information, weak network among the community; dearth of vision and faith among the leadership
· Insufficient capacity building of the participating stakeholders (Panchayati Raj Institutions/ NGOs and village communities) in both technical and non-technical areas; Participatory Rural Appraisal methods; community organization, and accounting procedures
· Inadequate beneficiary and stakeholder involvement in planning and implementation of programs with a tendency towards a top – down approach resulting in unsustainable project outcomes
· Even after 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments, there is a weak linkage with the Panchayati Raj Institutions and no recognition of the authority of the Gram Sabha in practice by the authorities
· Poor cost recovery in many cases and inadequately defined benefit/cost-sharing arrangements
· Lack of appropriate technical recommendations and norms for rain-fed agriculture in different agro-climatic zones and plantation of medicinal plant species
· Inadequate emphasis on equity aspects of watershed development with little focus on income generation activities for the vulnerable, marginalized or disadvantaged groups
· The narrow focus in the design of the Government project components; need to include crop demonstrations, horticulture, and livestock improvement; water management
· Limited focus on Integrated Pest Management, soil nutrient management aspects resulting from the intensification of agriculture and horticulture. No official effort yet to promote organic production, certification, and marketing
· No environmental or social aspects management related to watershed, soil & forest conservation
· Inadequate monitoring and evaluation of physical and financial performance indicators
The situation demands consolidation, modification & focus of endeavours to arrive at a logical solution.
A – J Efforts required
Advocacy for a shared vision for a complete change in attitudes of community and Government
Building Partnerships and Stakeholderships among various providers and beneficiaries
Comprehensive Capacity Development of selected members of SHGs, youths, peasants & others
Decentralized Planning, Execution, and Management through committees at three levels
Effective Communication for Behaviour Change among various players
Fostering an Enabling Environment for Progress of the locality and equitable sharing of earnings
Growth in livelihood, life expectancy, Quality of Life through modification in the operation mechanism
Habitations promoted as centres of learning & practice and reflection & actions
Integration of and synergy between regulatory, promotional, academic and research institutions
Joint effort to be done by multi-stakeholders with a convergence of various development initiatives
Action Plan: Integrated Bottom-Up Approach
Village resource mapping and preparation of micro-plan for integrated development
It should be designed with a clear mention of the contribution of village communities. It should be consolidated to form a local sub-plan incorporating:
· Infrastructural development like water conservation, land reclamation, afforestation, storage and access to market
· Human Resource Development through training on technical skill, entrepreneurship, and social empowerment
· Cooperative initiative for Natural Resource Management (NRM), and marketing
Community needs sustainable education process on:
· Enhancement of technical skills with appropriate modernization
· Promotion of managerial skills to undertake sustainable management and harvesting of natural and human resources so that they are no more victims of the situation but emerge as masters
· Develop the entrepreneurial skills to market the products and self – sustain themselves
Technological intervention for the conservation of soil, water, vegetation
· Integrated Soil fertility management (SOM= N, S, Z, C2)
· Integrated Nutrient Management (FYM, compost, bio fertilizer)
· Monitor water, soil & plants quality, sustain the source of streams
· Permanent vegetative cover through alternate land use
· Environmental modification of habitations and behaviour with a focus on community sanitation
Improvement in Human Development Index among Tribal Peasants & Labourers
· Promotion of sustainable cultivation and entrepreneurship in an organized way
· Enhanced knowledge on Government programmes and market dynamics will reduce vulnerability
· Involvement of the tribal community in development programs, keeping intact the good in them, will increase the quality of life
Marketing linkages
Measures to ensure quality will ensure the marketability of the products, as there is a serious dearth of good quality material in Non-Wood Forest Produce (NWFP). Routine buyer-seller meetings should be held for market linkage. Mass cultivation can be done after ensuring the demand for the product. An Internet kiosk can be established to provide updated market information and linkage on different products, so that fair price can be ensured to collectors/cultivators.
Infrastructure development
The community should be mobilized to take responsibility for the creation of check-dams, cross bond, water harvesting structures, water-shed management to conserve and proper use of surface water for irrigation and drinking water purposes. Models can be created for recycling and roof-top water harvesting. Minimum dependence on underground water needs to be ensured. Land reclamation and afforestation will also constitute a part of the infrastructural development that will be necessary to enhance the productivity and employment possibility in the NRM sector.
The action plan
The action plan can be designed in a way that a willing organization shall act as a catalyst in the community. The limited resource invested in the area can thus be multiplied through community mobilization. Participation in the physical and financial responsibilities to the best of their capacity would be a proof of their stakeholdership. Community Convergent Action (CCA) and Complete Change in Attitude is the way forward for identifying and eliminating the pressure on Mother Nature. This only can ensure harmonious cohabitation of plants, animals and the community. Tools for Micro Plan would be Productive Learning and Action (PLA), and Indigenous Resource Mapping (IRM).
Advocacy for micro-planning
For the development of shared vision and rapid capacity building, advocacy would consist of:
· Assessment of strength and weakness of the village
· Mapping and quantification of resource needs
· Analysis of gaps in physical and resource needs
· Prioritization of interventions incorporating development support from Government and NGO sources
· Skill building and resource mobilization strategies including community contribution
· Integration with the NRM; livelihood promotion; disaster mitigation, and sustainable development plans
· A mechanism for community budgeting of land, water & forest
· Rainwater harvesting, wastewater recycling, waste processing, and utilization
· Clear monitoring and evaluation linkages between inputs, throughputs, outputs, and outcomes
· High school activities – plants, soil and water quality monitoring, sentinel children surveillance and community response system linked to the local committees and concerned departments
· Linkages with high – level quality monitoring, and disease control mechanisms through traditional health practitioners and public system accountable committees
· Strengthening the Community Based Organizations like Van Suraksha Samiti (VSS), Village Forest Committee (VFC), Self-Help Groups (SHG), Youth Clubs etc.
· Training, research, technology development and demonstration to sow the seed of ‘village as collage’
· Development of model cottage industries and distribution systems
· Availing subsidy, micro-credit, and entrepreneurial opportunities
Resolutions of Gram Sabhas and regulations/ recommendations of the Government should be taken into consideration to cater to the specific needs through focused initiatives like water conservation for agricultural/ horticultural cultivation, collection, and marketing of NWFP and others.
Watershed Development Plan
The key objective is to improve the productive potential of selected landmass through watersheds and their associated natural resource base, and to strengthen community and institutional arrangements for natural resource management. The poverty focus is also to be ensured by selecting blocks with a relatively high poverty incidence, fertile land, degraded forest, low water availability, and a preponderance of small and marginal farmers. The selection of villages/land is to be done using a set of robust poverty and watershed/natural resource base degradation indicators.
An associated objective is to strengthen the capacity of communities for participatory involvement in planning, implementation, social and environmental management, maintenance of assets emanating from local level development programs, and to have the implementing agency operate in a more socially inclusive manner, within the framework of a convergent watershed development plan. This will be achieved through having the community groups implement with collaborative approach, capacity building initiatives and policy agreements with the Government. The performance indicators would be as follows:
· Household income increased:
– The overall income of various stakeholder groups at the village level increased
– The agricultural income per hectare increased
· Crop yields increased
· Groundwater recharged- Cropping intensity on rain fed areas improved
– % of the irrigated area increased
– Drinking water availability improved with many wells recharged
· Soil erosion reduced
· Cropping pattern diversified to high-value crops like medicinal plants and horticulture
· Milk, fish, meat, fuelwood, fodder production increased
· The productivity of non-arable lands improved with increased outputs, forest cover, forest produce increased
Conclusion
A systems approach is badly needed to cover the entire value chain associated with management and marketing. It’ll start from a survey of the land, water, forest and end up with local value addition to make products for the end-use. The holistic development of Nature and Community must precede market dynamics.