In a major development, Japan has agreed to cooperate with Uttarakhand in improving the health of forests in the Himalayan state. As per the loan agreement, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an agency of the Japan Government, will invest Rs 807 crore to fund a project titled Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project (UFRMP) to address the problem of forest degradation in 750 van panchayats across the state. Under this project, the forest conservation works would be completed in eight years.
Notably, van panchayats play a significant role in Uttarakhand. As they not just add to the flora and fauna of the state but also come as a livelihood option for the rural people living along these van panchayat forests. There are about 13,000 van panchayats in Uttarakhand which share over 10 percent of the state's total geographical area connecting socially and economically with the people in the hill state. But for want of requisite funds, much has not been done in these van panchayats over the years.
Keeping in view the dependence of the villagers on van panchayats for their daily needs like fuel wood, fodder and timber wood, to name a few, the state government created a separate department after creation of Uttarakhand for scientific management of these forests and to utilise the full potential of the natural resources,fulfilling expectations of the local villagers.
But the department concerned could not do much due to the same fund constraint over the years. Among other factors, natural disasters like landslides worsen the health of forests in these van panchayats.The fact remains that due to the persistent fund crunch in most of the van panchayats much has not been towards afforestation and demarcation of boundaries of these forests, resulting in encroachment in government land, as the officials concerned of the state forest department informed.
Apart from carrying out certain aforesaid activities, creating awareness among the masses of the people about the importance of van panchayats is vital, given its participatory approach, maintain the experts.The role of the foresters is now-a-days not merely that of a regulator but its job extends to community participation in forest conservation, besides training and capacity- building of staff and rural folk at the ground level.
However, speaking on the aforesaid project, Anup Malik, Director, UFRMP, while talking to The Pioneer said that the work has been started on this project with the help of JICA indifferent van panchayats of Uttarakhand. This is an eight-year-long project and its main objective is to address forest degradation, he added.