Narigaon, a remote village is located at a distance of 66 km from Koraput district headquarters and 20 km from Boriguma block headquarters. It has more than 500 households with a sizable tribal concentration. The villagers are critically dependent upon forest and non timber forest products (NTFP) for their subsistence and as a source of cash income.
Kendu leaf is paramount to the livelihoods of the poor and marginalised forest dependent communities, including tribals of the village. The villagers used to collect Kendu leaf during the agriculture lean period of summer, when there is hardly any agricultural operation and the opportunity for wage earning is scant. They usually cover a distance of 5 km to sell their leaves at the Charamula phadi centre as there is no phadi in their village. The area is falling under the Nabarangpur Kendu leaf division.
On April 15 last, the State Government deregulated the Kendu leaf trade in Nabarangpur district. Nabrangpur has become the first district and Odisha the first State in the country where Kendu leaf trade has been de-regulated after the enactment of historical Forest Right Act (FRA), 2006.
Inspired by the deregulation of the Kendu leaf, the villagers of Narigain decided to collect the Kendu leaf expecting a better income for livelihood. Narigaon Gram Sabha convened a meeting in the last week of April last under the chairmanship of Sarapanch and other village leaders and Kendu leaves pluckers to explore the possibilities of community based enterprises, in order to significantly enhance economic returns to the local tribal communities. The Gram Sabha decided to carry out the trade and procurement of Kendu leaves at village level. They constituted an executive committee of 10 members to look after the Kendu leaves operations.
Narigaon Gram Sabha intimated the decision taken by village council regarding trade and procurement of Kendu leaves to district administration including the Kendu leaf department, Nabarangpur through resolution duly signed by Sarapanch and other members. Gram Panchayat issued a registration certificate to the committee to purchase Kendu leaves. Working capital arrangement was done in a collective way to purchase leaves from pluckers.
During the collection time, they opened up two collection centers in Narigaon and Champapadar to purchase leaves from pluckers. Four local youths were employed to look after the purchasing of leaves. They purchased kendu leaves at the same rate, i.e Rs 1.20 per 1 kerry (40 Kendu leaves) as the Kendu leaf department purchases from the area. Collection of Kendu leaves continued for 9 days and they purchased 3,70,000 kerries from the pluckers. The total procurement price of was Rs 4, 44,000. All operations like drying, shading, storage and bagging was managed by employing local community having this acumen. It was estimated that apart from procurement cost, other processing costs including transportation would be around Rs 1,20,000. All the procured dried leaves were kept in a rented go-down at Narigaon village and ready for selling. The selling value of the collected Phal Kendu leaves would be around more than Rs 12 lakh.
However, all said and done, Narigaon Gram Sabha is now facing difficulties in selling of procured phal Kendu leaves under the existing regime of Kendu leaf policy where the system of selling of phal Kendu leaf in Nabarangpur is advance sale and parties are called for auction/tender to purchase phal leaves. Gram Sabha is struggling to get party/traders to sell the leaves. Some vested interest parties are bargaining with the Gram Sabha and offering very low prices. The Kendu leaf committee has also not paid the total price to the pluckers and other labour cost involved in shedding, drying and storage activities. The Gram Sabha has approached many times to the district administration and Kendu leaf department to market their collected Kendu leaves but all their efforts have gone vain.
Another problem is transit permit. Several barriers in inter-State and also intra-State movement of minor forest produces have prevailed and caused harassment of gatherers. The Forest Department no longer gives certificates for such movement and the certificates given by the Panchayats/Gram Sabha are not recognized in other States. Now Narigain Gram Sabha is running from pillar to post to sell the Kendu leaf, but there are no buyers to take.
There was demand from people, pluckers and civil society to deregulate the Kendu leaf after the enactment of FRA, 2006. But it was deregulated only in Nabarangpur division just before the plucking season. It is reported that there was no trader to come forward for the auction as the quality of leaves is not that good. So the Government decided to deregulate just to take credit.
It is also alleged many civil society members that there is a game plan of Forest department to make it a deliberate failure so that people will not demand deregulation of the kendu leaf. It is important to know that at present the Kendu leaf division gives very low price to the pluckers, not even the daily wage. At the same time, there are many irregularities specially some vested interest groups within the division are making huge black money with connivance of some traders.
There was opportunity for the Narigan villagers to earn a good income for livelihood but the half-hearted effort of the State Government and hypocrisy of some vested interest groups from the Kendu leaf division have driven the villagers to nowhere.
(The report is based on field visit of one of the researcher Chitaranjan Pani)