Forest attracts rainfall but the Khaer trees in Paton block of rain-shadow Palamau district attracted smugglers, turning the costly Khaer forest that produced delicious katha for paan (beetle) lovers into a bunch of trunks. The hills which some seven years ago had only bushes to be satisfied with, have now thick forest, mostly with rare Khaer trees that will no longer be used to prepare Katha from, thanks to the villagers as well as a Germany-based organization.
“Some seven years back, we found that our vast forest of about five kms length and breadth had been reduced to nothing, because we villagers rivaled with one another in felling the Khaer trees and selling them off for money as it had a lot of demand for preparation of Katha. We woke up to the disaster that had been created by ourselves and started discussing as to how to save our rare forest,” said Vishwanath Majhi (70), a resident of Rajhara village of Paton block of Palamau district.
Recalling difficulties in their efforts, the villagers recounted that initially they had to go through lots of ups and downs as some of them secretly slipped into the forest at night and felled Katha trees to sell them off. Meanwhile, in 2011-12 they came in contact with activists belonging to Sampurn Gram Vikas Kendra, who were implementing an integrated rain water management project of the Germany-based organization Welthungerhilfe in the area.
“They helped organizing ourselves, motivating us by creating awareness about importance of forest. As time went by, those of us who continued to fell trees understood our folly and we now probably have the densest Katha forest in the region,” said Jaishankar Paswan, another villager from Rajhara. The Khaer forest begins from Rajhara village and stretches upto Sukro, passing through three other villages—Dandi, Sutha and Bilhori, all of which are in Paton block of Palamau district, some 40 kms away from district headquarters Daltonganj. The forest also has other trees particularly Shisham, yet another costly tree.
After bifurcation of Palamau, most of the dense forests had gone to the share of latehar district. Few hills in Palamau district which had trees have been now rendered bare due to heavy felling of trees by villagers themselves. Thus, at the most one can see is only some Palas trees, except in a few stretches like Rajhara-Sukro area, where villagers have understood importance of forest. “After we managed to save our forest, we have started feeling different. We not only breath clean air, but also have relatively better rainfall over the last two-three years probably due to this forest, as compared to other areas of Palamau,” observed Paswan.
The villagers however are not contended with just saving their forest. They want to legally own it. “We are studying Scheduled Tribe and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act 2006 in which there is a provision that empowers a community to own a forest. We will soon apply with the state government and make the forest legally our own community forest,” said Pradeep Singh, a volunteer of Welthungerhifle who worked with the villagers in the mission.