It is a moment of rare honour for indigenous conservationists Sukhram Baiga, Ujiyaro Bai and Gopal Mandal, who have been invited to address the 5-day XIV World Forestry Congress in Durban beginning on September 7.
Invited by Timber Watch, a South African NGO working on forest conservation with the help of local communities, these conservationists are expected to share their traditional ways for forest and ecosystem conservation with the world.
The efforts of Ujiyaro Bai and her fellow villagers from Pondi have successfully saved forests in Dindori from forest fires and illegal wood contractors.
“Some contractors had started felling the trees around our forest village. One day, I went to collect leaves and found some markings on the trees. I waited and saw them logging and that is when we began protesting and saved our forest,” recalls Ujiyaro. Dindori forest is a potential forest cover near Kanha.
Sukhram Baiga and Ujiyaro are from Dindori district on the border of Madhya Pradesh (located between the tiger reserves of Achanakmar in Chhattisgarh and Kanha in Madhya Pradesh), while Mandal hails from Gosaba island in Sunderbans.
Incidentally, Mandal was also invited to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in October 2013 in Montreal but was denied visa by the Canadian Government due to insufficient funds in his account.
Gopal is actively involved with his community members in restoration of mangrove ecology and developing community-owned patches of mangrove forests in the villages surrounding Sunderbans.
“We have been losing our family members in tiger attacks. Yet we are compelled to enter the tiger den for our livelihood”, he said. Gopal’s own sister is a widow whose husband was killed by a tiger.
“So, why not grow our own mangrove forests,” asks Gopal, adding that even the Forest Department restricts the entry of villagers in the tiger habitat under the policies of tiger conservation.
The community organisation-Rural Development Society-has developed about 15 hectares of community mangrove forests in about seven villages, This has generated various options of traditional livelihoods like fishing and honey collection. According to Gopal, nearly 350 persons have been diverted from the tiger habitat to these community mangrove forests.
This has not only reduced incidents of man-tiger conflicts but also controlled human pressures in tiger habitat, thereby helping in big cat conservation. “But unfortunately, we are considered hurdles in modern day tiger conservation”, said Ujiyaro.
“ Baiga tribe has been co-existing with tigers for generations. Today, both Baigas and tigers are endangered. Both need the jungles to survive. Yet in this battle for survival why are only tigers allowed to flourish and Baigas left to perish as victims of displacement from their native jungles,” she asks. Ujiyaro is ready to raise such questions on behalf of her community at the World Forestry Congress.
“Our age old co-existence with big cats has been endangered,” said Sukhram, adding, “Our lives, livelihood, culture and ethos are all rooted in the jungles.”
Accompanying the two is Indu Netam, tribal activist from Adiwasi Samta Manch from Chhattisgarh.