The Odisha Forestry Development Project that first started in Odisha between 2006 and 2015 was sponsored by Japan. The objective of the project is restoration of degraded forests and thereby livelihood improvement of forest dwellers.
Unless any project takes the responsibility of management of livelihood of the downtrodden people of the society, it cannot survive. Specially, the people residing within the forest or within the vicinity of forests usually depend for their livelihood on forest. Japan eagerly is providing financial assistance to run the project further after completion of Phase-I from 2006 to 2015. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reviewed the project tasks of Phase-I and being satisfied has agreed to extend financial loans to carry on the Phase-II operations for enhancement of forest cover and the economic standard of forest dwellers. An agreement has been signed between the JICA and the Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi in this regard.
The Odisha Forestry Sector Development Project Phase-II is a ten- year programme and this will commence from 2017-18 with assistance of the Japan Government. This Phase-II programme of JICA will work over 14 Forest Divisions of the State where most of the forest dwellers are economically very poor and completely depend on forest resources to survive. Such Forest Divisions are Athamalik, Baripada, Boudh, Dhenkanal, Ghumsar North, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Subarnapur, Bamara and Rajnagar. These Forest Divisions are popularly known as rich in forest dwellers and biological diversities.
The entire hill region of the State is opened up and rendered bald owing to no-holds-barred mining. This has pushed up pollution level to an alarming level and changed ecological value of a given zone. So revival and enhancement of forest ecosystem is a crying need now.
The present Project Director AK Pattnaik called for a meeting of retired forest officers on March 29 on this context and the writer got the opportunity to attend the meeting. A whole 10 years of physical and physiological activities will be undertaken from the loan funds received from Japan. The estimated amount is Rs 848.6 crore for the present purpose. The sustainable forest management includes sustainable biodiversity management and livelihood improvement of forest dwellers. Similarly, livelihood improvement also rests on capacity building. If the ecological improvement and livelihood development are to be ensured through the indigenous process, there is no doubt that capacity building of the forest dwellers can be ensured. The most neglected people of the present day culture are dwelling within the forest. They can be benefited through JICA sponsored scheme.
The project is also supported by the State share; which amounts to Rs 151.7 crore and the total cash of the project is of Rs 1,000.3 crore. The State’s share includes administration cost, VAT, Service Tax, constructional charges and front end fee etc. This is an excellent project for development of ecological systems and boosting economy of the forest dwellers. Unless the ecological, economical and cultural values of a project are given prime importance, it cannot be sustainable.
The whole motto of the present project is involvement of local people, especially the forest dwellers for scientific sustainable management of ecological systems of the State. The mode is called “Joint Forest Management of JFM”. Total 1,200 Vana Surakhya Samitis in 50 Forest Rangers, within 12 Forest Divisions and two Wild life Divisions are formed for active participation of local people for management of forests. Every Division is taken as a Divisional Management Unit for the purpose. There is a provision of strengthening of institutions like Van Surakhya Samiti (VSS) and Eco-Development Clubs (EDC) of each Forest Division for mobilization of village communities and strengthening them from all practical points of view. There is also provision for associating Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) as partners for proper and active implementation of actions. There is also provision for engagement of two animators at the each level of VSS for proper animation programmes on scientific management of ecological systems.
The whole project is divided into four components, such as (a) sustainable forest management through JFM participation (b) sustainable forest management without JFM participation (c) sustainable bio-diversity management (d) and livelihood improvement. There are huge plantation programmes of 5,100 hectares of forest lands within entire Divisional Management units of the State. Similarly, there will be block plantations of 6,000 hectares of areas. Besides general forest plantations and forest block plantations, there is provision of drainage line treatment, which is aimed at training and taming of the rivers and rivulets including water channels to save the lands from erosion and for proper soil conservation measures. The denudation of the lands can be saved particularly in catchment areas and other vulnerable areas through such types of field operations. Besides above operations, through the participation of JFM bodies, the most important tasks like fire protection operations will be carried out over 1,710 km areas for the safety of biodiversities. The drainage line treatment will be undertaken over 1,500 hectares.
The non- JFM mode of operations like farm forestry, drainage line treatment and permanent nursery will be carried out in the said project area. The general farm owners should be motivated to carry out tree plantations within their farm lands along with their agricultural crops. The middle sized light crowned trees can profitably be grown in their farm bonds to reduce loads on forest resources and to promote carbon sinks, apart from fulfilling the Paris concept of climate change. Similarly, the drainage control treatment of rivers and rivulets, besides the forest lands, can be done profitably as efficient water conservation measures. This can be done through vegetative propagations along the stream banks. This is a very good scheme of soil and water conservation measure. So far this has been neglected.
To supplement seedlings and saplings of plantable sizes for above operations, six members of central nurseries will be created under the project. It is aimed to raise farm forestry over 1,000 hectares and for drainage control measure over 750 hectares. Again two sanctuaries like Bhitarkanika and Debaigarh will be worked out for biodiversity conservation measure under the JICA project. In the livelihood improvement measures under the Indira Gandhi Assistance Programme it is aimed to generate 3,600 Women Self Help Groups to create sustainable living of forest dwellers. This is an excellent concept to extend economic support to the downtrodden people, especifically to assist the rural poor women mass.
Income generation activities should be given prime importance through VSSs as part of Odisha livelihood mission. The dedicated units for cluster level business activities and establishment of livelihood resources centers are prime factors to make the project a success.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)