Study on Change in Role and Status of Van Panchayat after JFM, Nainital District, Uttarakhand

CHANGE IN ROLE AND STATUS OF VAN PANCHAYAT IN CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF FOREST AFTER THE INTRODUCTION OF JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT

DECLARATION The dissertation entitled “Change in Role and Status of Van Panchayat in Conservation and Management of Forest after the Introduction of Joint Forest Management” is a presentation of my original research work. Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due references to literature and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussion.

The work has been done under the guidance of Dr. Pijush Kumar Dutta at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati.

(Amit Kumar) G2013EESD022 Ecology, Environment and Sustainable Development

In my capacity as a supervisor of the candidate’s dissertation, I certify that the above statements are true to the best of my knowledge.

Date: 20th April 2015

(Dr. Pijush Kumar Dutta) Assistant Professor Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati

CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the dissertation entitled “Change in Role and Status of Van Panchayat in Conservation and Management of Forest after the Introduction of Joint Forest Management� is the record of the original work done by Amit Kumar under my guidance and supervision. The results of the research presented in the dissertation have not previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, or certificate of this institute or any other institute or university.

Date: 20th April 2015

(Dr. Pijush Kumar Dutta) Assistant Professor Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati

Table of Contents List of Abbreviations............................................................................. i List of Figures........................................................................................ii List of Tables.........................................................................................iii List of Plates..........................................................................................iv Acknowledgement .................................................................................. v Abstract ................................................................................................vi 1.

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 12 1.1.

Rationale .................................................................................................................................... 14

1.2.

Objectives .................................................................................................................................. 14

2.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE....................................................................................................... 15

3.

FIELD SITE .................................................................................................................................... 19 3.1.

Demographic details (Census, 2011): .................................................................................... 19

3.1.1.

Census 2011 and 2001 comparison of Nainital District: ........................................... 19

3.1.2.

Rural and Urban Demographic Comparison: .............................................................. 20

3.2.

Nainital Forest Cover: Comparison of Last Six FSI reports (FSI, 2001; FSI, 2003; FSI,

2005; FSI, 2009; FSI, 2011; FSI, 2013).............................................................................................. 20 4.

METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................ 22 4.1.

Operational Definition ............................................................................................................ 22

4.2.

The Sample: Size and Area ..................................................................................................... 22

4.3.

Area of Enquiry ........................................................................................................................ 23

4.4.

Selection of Tools..................................................................................................................... 23

4.5.

Brief Description of Tools ...................................................................................................... 24

4.6.

The Process ............................................................................................................................... 24

4.6.1.

Pilot Study ......................................................................................................................... 24

4.7.

Ethics of the Research ............................................................................................................. 25

4.8.

Scope and Limitations of the Research ................................................................................. 25

5.

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS..................................................................................................... 26 5.1.

Van Panchayats: Community Perspective ............................................................................ 27

5.1.1.

Sample of the study – Basic Details .............................................................................. 27

5.1.2.

JFM Implementation and Preparation of Micro Plan: A History ............................. 29

5.1.3.

Issues prevailing in Van Panchayats .............................................................................. 31

5.1.4.

Activities carried out by Van Panchayats ..................................................................... 35

5.1.5.

Economic activities .......................................................................................................... 37

5.1.6.

Occupational status of villagers: Agriculture and Livestock...................................... 38

5.1.7.

Fodder from different sources ....................................................................................... 40

5.1.8.

Firewood from different sources ................................................................................... 42

5.1.9.

Presence of different types of trees and water scarcity: A Comparative study ....... 44

5.2.

Van Panchayats: Role and Perspectives of Forest Department and Officials ................ 45

5.2.1.

Positives of JFM ............................................................................................................... 46

5.2.2.

Negatives of JFM ............................................................................................................. 47

5.3.

Van Panchayats: Role and Perspectives of NGOs .............................................................. 47

5.3.1.

Role of NGOs .................................................................................................................. 47

5.3.2.

Perspective towards JFM ................................................................................................ 47

6.

DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................. 48

7.

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 52 7.1.

Contributions of the Research ............................................................................................... 53

7.2.

Recommendations.................................................................................................................... 53

PHOTO GALLERY................................................................................................................................ 54 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... 56

i

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Standard Abbreviations ‘e.g.’

– for example

‘et al.’

– and others

‘etc.’

– and other similar things

‘ha.’

– hectare

‘i.e.’

– that is to say

‘nd’

– no date

‘vol.’

– volume

Non-standard Abbreviations CPR

– Common Pool Resources

FSI

– Forest Survey of India

JFM

– Joint Forest Management

JFMC

– Joint Forest Management Committee

LPG

– Liquefied Petroleum Gas

MoEFCC

– Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

NGO

– Non Governmental Organisation

PDS

– Public Distribution System

VFJM

– Village Forest Joint Management

VP

– Van Panchayat

ii

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Change in Nainital Forest Cover in Square Kms. .............................................................. 21 Figure 2: Change in Nainital Forest Cover - Percentage of its Geographical Area ........................ 21 Figure 3: Sources of fodder in different VPs ........................................................................................ 40 Figure 4: Sources of firewood in different VPs. ................................................................................... 42

iii

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Historical Timeline of Development of Forest Acts and Policies related to VPs (Bhatia, 2000). .......................................................................................................................................................... 15 Table 2: Demographic details of Nainital District population ........................................................... 19 Table 3: Rural and Urban demographic comparison of Nainital District ........................................ 20 Table 4: Description of methodological process and tools carried out for the study. ................... 24 Table 5: Basic details about the VPs selected for the study ................................................................ 27 Table 6: Details about JFM implementation and preparation of Micro Plan in the process ......... 29 Table 7: Problems specific to the VPs and their collective analysis .................................................. 31 Table 8: Activities and their collective analysis in all the VPs ............................................................ 35 Table 9: Economic activities in different VPs ...................................................................................... 37 Table 10: Occupational status of VPs, mainly agriculture and livestock .......................................... 38 Table 11: The composition of forest and water scarcity in the area.................................................. 44

iv

LIST OF PLATES Plate 1: Field site (

) Nainital District, Uttarakhand, India.............................................................. 19

Plate 2: Invasive Species – Kaala Baasan (Common name). .............................................................. 54 Plate 3: Kaala Baasan ................................................................................................................................ 54 Plate 4: Water being collected from natural spring. ............................................................................. 54 Plate 5: Water Storage Tank .................................................................................................................... 54 Plate 6: Naldamyanti Tal (Bhaktiuara VP)............................................................................................. 54 Plate 7: Landscape near Kaalgarhi and Pokhari VP............................................................................. 54 Plate 8: Villager going to home ............................................................................................................... 55 Plate 9: Example of a traditional belief .................................................................................................. 55 Plate 10: Fodder stored for later use ...................................................................................................... 55 Plate 11: Story of Scientist 'Takuli' in growing medicinal plants ........................................................ 55

v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my heartiest gratitude to my dissertation supervisor Dr. Pijush Kumar Dutta, who has been a tremendous mentor for me. I would like to thank him for guiding me in the process of research and engaging me with new ideas as well as demanding a high quality of work in all endeavours. Your immense patience towards me and the faith in my research kept me motivated to work and allowed me to grow as a researcher during the process.

I extend my sincere thanks to all the respondents came across throughout the process of field research for their time, knowledge and belief in me, the other community member, who helped and supported me in the field in different ways. Without them, it was going to be very difficult for me to carry out the study.

I would like to thank my friends, Mr. Gautam Prakash, Mr. Mukesh Pandey, Ms. Nisha Poojari, Mr. Siddhant Sawhney, and Mr. Vinay Kumar Sah for their continuous motivation and assistance. Special and sincere thanks to Ms. Jasmeet Kaur for her continuous encouragement and larger emotional support. It was very helpful while going through different phases during the process of my research.

Finally, I extend my gratefulness to my parents and siblings who were always supportive. Their patience, love, and faith in me helped to stay focused and dedicated towards my research and future endeavours.

vi

ABSTRACT Joint Forest Management (JFM) is directed towards facilitating the increase in productivity of hitherto degraded forests through active involvement of local communities in project formulation, harvesting, benefit sharing, marketing and monitoring (Pathan, 1994). Uttarakhand state adopted the JFM policy passed by U.P. Government in 1997 to manage and utilize the forest resources keeping the active participation of local communities and other forest user groups.

The present study has described the changes in role and status of Van Panchayats in conservation and management of forest after the introduction of JFM. The findings indicate that JFM programme has further weakened the strength of village institutions and centralized the ownership on forest resources. The participation has declined and ultimately the VPs are now facing the organizational challenges along with degraded forest resources. The problems have diversified into water resources, access to natural resources, change in attitude towards social sharing and forest protection. JFM programme failed in its objectives of increasing forest cover, active participation, and benefit sharing mechanisms, later resulted in inactivity of programme due to lack of funding by World Bank after 2002. The reasons of failures is hidden in the rational of JFM programme itself as the programme was meant to revive the degraded forest and strengthen the community participation whereas the forest of Uttarakhand state was efficiently being managed by community and the intervention was much needed in strengthening of the village institutions like, VPs, so as to enable them more profoundly to conserve and manage their resources for larger benefits of the society with promotion for community rights and local decentralized governance.

Key words: Joint Forest Management; JFM policy; Van Panchayat; State of Forest Report; Local Decentralized Governance; Active participation.

1. INTRODUCTION “Historically, substantial parts of the forest resources in many regions of the world have been managed as common property; In a wide range of situations, people have depended on the outputs of forest resources that were best controlled and managed collectively” (Arnold, J. E. M. 1998).

In India, Van Panchayats have been considered as one of the examples of common property resource management, which are also considered as unique examples of the decentralised governance of natural resources in Uttarakhand. They are an outcome of conflicts and compromises that followed the settlements and reservations of forests in the hills in the first part of the last century (Ballabh and Singh 1988; Agarwal 1999). In order to resolve the conflicts, British Government setup a Kumaon Grievances Committee in the year 1922 to understand the causes of widespread anger and rebellion against forest reservation among the hill peasantry, this had led to issue of the first “Kumaon Panchayat Forest Rules” in the year 1931 enabling hill communities to own and manage their own forests. However, the rules were gone through periodic changes in 1971, 1976, 2001 and latest in 2005. The Van Panchayat rules were included in section 28 (2) of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 as “Village Forests”.

The changes in the natural resources, the legislation for managing and utilizing the resources and the status of village institutions in the last century was significant. The changes in Van Panchayat Niyamavali has curtailed many decision making rights, aimed at centralisation of forest resources rather than promoting the decentralized governance of community forests. JFM (Joint Forest Management) has also been perceived as weakening the community rights and a step further in centralisation of power to the forest department and govt. employed individuals. However, JFM is still perceived by forest officers as a strategy to regenerate the degraded forest land.

Conservation and forest management is largely the concerns of forest officers.

“As per the provisions of National Forest Policy 1988, the Government of India, vide letter No. 6.21/89-PP dated 01st June, 1990, outlined and conveyed to State Governments a framework for creating massive people’s movement through involvement of village committees for the protection, regeneration and development of degraded forest land.”

-

JFM Policy is largely based on the National Forest Policy 1988 and its objectives.

(MoEFCC, nd)

13 “To provide a visible role to the local communities in planning, management and protection of forests and to give them a share in the benefits from these forests” -

The Primary objective of JFM programme (MoEFCC, nda)

“JFM is a concept of developing partnership between forest department and fringe forest user groups on the basis of jointly defined roles and responsibilities”.

-

Operational Parameters of JFM Programme (MoEFCC, nda)

“Empowering local people for their active participation as partner in the management of forest resources and sharing the benefits derived from its protection and management".

-

Aims of the JFM programme (MoEFCC, nda)

There are two diagonally opposite views about the role of people and their institutions in the management of forests prevail. One view holds that people have been provided unduly large concessions and rights in the forests which have led to depletion of the forests (Government of India, 1976). This was the one of the basic thoughts for curtailing the community rights in decision making processes through Van Panchayat Niyamavali, 1976 and made the decision making processes more centralized into the hands of forest officials. The other view holds that India’s forest policy has alienated people from forests with which they have lived symbiotically through the ages and this has caused deterioration of the forest resources (Guha, 1983). The main theoretical framework for explaining whether or when individuals in a community might collaborate with each other in resource management is a CPR theory (Ostrom, 1990). In further simplified terms, it says that the reason for forest degradation is located in the de facto open access nature of the property rights regime, and therefore, a clear demarcation of resource use areas and clear, substantial and secure assignment of rights to small, homogenous group of resource users who interact on a daily face to face basis will address the problem. An examination of the JFM orders and programmes shows that even these basic tenets of CPR theory are violated (Lele, 2014). The JFM initiative in Uttarakhand was also interpreted as an initiative which tends to create artificial boundaries by “Crafting administrative communities for better governance, self sufficiency and cost management” (Agrawal, 2001).

A sudden increase in the creation of Van Panchayats between 1997-2002 periods was coinciding with the inflow of vast funds in the state for JFM activity has created new sets of complexity for these self governing institutions. There has been increase in the demarcation of remaining

14 revenue lands as village forests. The formation of these institutions, which was need based and demand driven, has been converted into a supply driven one (Mukherjee, 2004). For example, in Nainital district there were only 61 Van Panchayats at the time of independence, but this number has increased to 495 by 1999 (Sarin, 2001).

1.1. Rationale The study was aimed to understand the change in the role and status of Van Panchayats in conservation and management of forest resources after the implementation of JFM. VPs under gone various legislative changes historically, although performed well to keep the dense forest cover all over the hill areas of Uttarakhand. Approximately, 65% of the geographical area comes under the recorded forest area and 45.6% under the total forest and tree cover (FSI, 2001). The forest has a long history of being managed by VPs. It became interesting to understand the changes occurred in role and status of VPs due to induction of JFM programme. As the JFM was focussed for protection, regeneration and development of degraded forest land. The CPR theory (Ostrom, 1990) suggests for collaboration with each other whether an individual or community for resource management with the help of decentralized local governance. After examination of the theoretical framework of CPR theory in JFM programme implementation, violations of principles of local decentralized governance in planning process were observed. The programme has many success stories from India. Various community based conservation and management initiatives were studied all across the globe and found very similar to JFM framework.

These contrast findings motivated to study the influence of JFM implementation on VPs in Uttarakhand in larger themes like, social sharing, institutional change, participation in planning and implementation, attitudinal change towards forest and change in forest based livelihood dependency.

1.2. Objectives 1) To know about the role and status of Van Panchayats in context with JFM. 2) To understand challenges and opportunities to Van Panchayats in conservation and management of forest resources after introduction of JFM. 3) To examine change in the concept of forest based livelihoods after introduction of JFM.

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE The various Acts and Policies suggest remarkable changes in the role and status of Van Panchayats in conservation and management of forest. Following is the review done to provide a chronological history of the evolution of forest acts and policies: Table 1: Historical Timeline of Development of Forest Acts and Policies related to VPs (Bhatia, 2000).

Historical Timeline of Development of Forest Acts and Forest Policies in the Uttarakhand Area Year

Name of the Act or Policy The Indian Forest Act of 1865. The Act emphasized protection of forest and judicious use

1865

of timber. However, prevalent usages were conceded as rights, justifying the creation of government reserves. The act indicated the start of objective oriented forestry, with greater control by the state over forest resources that had earlier been open for public use.

The Indian Forest Act of 1878 replaced the 1865 Act. Under the Act, forests were categorized into Reserve, Protected, and Village Forests. The

1878

basic aim of the Act was to remove local rights in the Reserve Forests and keep them exclusively as government reserves. Protected Forests were those forest areas where it was not possible to reduce local use, while Village Forests were to be assigned to villagers to fulfil subsistence needs.

The Forest policy of 1894.

1. Management of forests was promoted for the general well being of the country.

2. The need for maintenance of adequate forest cover was recognised for the preservation of the climatic and physical conditions of the country and for the fulfilment of people’s needs subject to the following conditions: Permanent cultivation should come before forestry; The fulfilment of the needs of the local population at non competitive

1894

rates, if not free, should override all considerations of revenue; After the fulfilment of the above conditions, the realisation of maximum revenue should be the guiding factor.

Although the 1894 policy advocated the need to meet the needs of local communities, it emphasized maximising revenue generation, and in practice forest management became more and more revenue oriented. The policy also classified forests according to their primary function, which is protection, commercial production, minor forests and pasture lands.

1927

The Indian Forest Act 1878 was re-enacted.

The Act contained all the major provisions of the earlier Act, the amendments made

16 included those relating to the duty on timber. The Act is still in force, together with several amendments made by the state governments from time to time. Under section 28 of the Act, provisions were made to create village forests within Reserve Forests or on any government owned land.

1931

Kumaon Panchayat Forest Rules, 1931 was issued.

UP Panchayat Forest Act 1972.

This used the provisions of section 28 of the Indian Forest Act of 1927. “Formation of village forest.� 1. The state government may assign to any village community the rights of government to or over any land that has been constituted a Reserve Forest and may cancel such assignments. All forests so assigned shall be called Village Forests. 2. The state

1972

government may make rules for the regulation and management of Village Forests; prescribing the conditions under which the community to which any assignment is made may be provided with timber or other forest produce or pasture, and their duties for the protection and improvement of such forests. 3. All provisions of the act relating to Reserve Forest shall (as far as they are not inconsistent with the rules so made) apply to Village Forests.� This law was applicable to Nainital, Almora, Pithoragarh, Garhwal, and Chamoli Districts.

UP Resin and Other Forest Produce Act of 1976 (UP Act No. 13 of 1976) was

1976

promulgated. Under the provisions of the act, the tapping, sale, and purchase of resin were brought under total state control. State permission before transport, manufacture, or sale of resin products was also made mandatory.

1976

The Van Panchayat Rule of 1972 was amended The Forest Policy of 1988 was introduced. The policy gives a higher priority to the environmental concerns than to earning revenue. It discourages monocultures and

1988

promotes mixed forests. Emphasis is also placed on satisfying the minimum needs of the people, especially tribal people, by providing fuelwood and fodder. This policy gives a clear indication of the need to involve people in the conservation of forests and forest resources.

The Government of India issued a resolution on 01st June 1990 making it possible for the

1990

forest department to involve people in the management of forests and to share economic benefits with the communities.

The Uttar Pradesh Village Forest Joint Forest Management Rules of 1997 were promulgated under section 28 of the Indian Forest Act of 1927. This Act allows direct

1997

economic benefits to the beneficiaries form forest management, in contrast to the Van Panchayat Rules in which any benefit is given to the Van Panchayat body which can use the fund for the growth and upkeep of the jointly managed forests.

2002

The Van Panchayat Rules 1972 was amended.

2005

Uttarakhand Panchayati Van Niyamavali 2005 was issued.

17 Uttarakhand covers 51,125 square kilometres (92.57% hills and 7.43% plains) and comprises of two divisions, Kumaon and Garhwal. Around 12.6% of the hilly region is cultivated and 64% is forested (Saxena, 1995), which signifies the importance of natural resources and forests to the people’s livelihood. These forests were conserved and managed for last seven decades by Van Panchayat at the local level as a village institution. There are various authors who suggests the uniqueness of the VPs as an example of participatory management of natural forest resources (Tewari and Phartiyal, nd; Mukherjee, 2003; Agrawal, 2001). The sustainability of these local institutions rests on variables like socio-economic, physical, institutional, population and market pressures affecting the resource use (Ostrom, 1994; Agarwal and Yadama, 1997).

Author Madhu Sarin has done similar work assessing the joint forest management with the help of Pakhi Van Panchayat case study in 2001. Disempowerment has been the main findings in her studies and it was argued that JFM was failed in the name of participatory governance. The decision making powers were largely with the forest officials and others. The community people were given very less chance in planning and decision making processes. Ostrom (1990) supported the decentralised local governance with greater community participation for forest conservation and management. Whereas the acts and policies are indicating the Hardin (1968), theory of “Tragedy of Commons” prominent as the forests were being privatized keeping forest department as a private body working for community participation and welfare along with forest conservation ideally keeping the authorities and access rights, largely with the government departments.

In multi-scalar environmental and political projects which promote community-based natural resource management, it was observed by Tshing (2005): “I’m not sure these initiatives will work, and I’m sure they won’t bring justice to everyone. They embroil participants in debates about authenticity and consensus. They mess with—or displace— earlier categories and cosmologies; they realign local priorities. They require what Levi and Dean (2003) call the ‘risk’ of indigeneity, that is, the strategic transformation of local identity to enter a wider conversation. To be taken seriously by national and imperial interlocutors requires some such risk.”

However, due to lack of financial resources, policy support and weakening management practices, VPs in recent years are observed as less effective institution especially in comparison to its glorious past. Thus, there is a need for extending support to VPs by the state government, in form of technical and financial assistance, to strengthen the management of natural resources

18 and rural livelihoods (Tewari and Phartiyal, nd). There is a dependency of people on forest resources to draw livestock fodder, fuel wood and leaf litter for manuring crops. Due to close interrelation with forest, people have developed indigenous way of managing forest resources, especially Oak forest management (Rawat, 2012).

As per Hardin (1968) theory of “Tragedy of Commons�, the regularisation of open access resources through privatisation can bring solution for excessive resource extraction. This gave the imperatives to nationalisation of forests, which followed strict laws and regulation guidelines to monitor and control the access and utilization of forest resources through forest departments.

This theory was further argued through theories on management of common pool resources and this provided the scope for theoretical examination about the approach adopted by the forest departments at various stages of development. The author Ostrom (1990) has pointed out the importance and examples of many management initiatives of common pool resources done by communities worldwide. The alternative of regulation of common pool resources has various dimensions and can be done mainly in two ways, regulation of access rights through privatisation of open resources, community led management initiatives. Ostrom was emphasizing on the community led management initiatives and bring out many examples of community led regularisation of common pool resources.

3. FIELD SITE Nainital is one of the 13 districts of Uttarakhand state of India. Uttarakhand is divided into two divisions namely, Kumaon and Garhwal division. Nainital lies under the Kumaon division.

Plate 1: Field site (

) Nainital District, Uttarakhand, India

3.1. Demographic details (Census, 2011): It has grown at a rate of 25.13% in terms of population, which is the 04th highest growth rate among the districts of Uttarakhand state as per the 2011 census of India. The literacy rate is as high as 83.88%.

3.1.1. Census 2011 and 2001 comparison of Nainital District: Table 2: Demographic details of Nainital District population Description

2011

2001

Actual population

954,605

762,909

Population growth

25.13%

32.72%

Area (Sq. Km)

4,251

4,251

Population Density/km2

225

179

9.46%

8.99%

Sex ratio (per 1000)

934

906

Child sex ratio (0-6 age)

902

910

Proportion to Uttarakhand population

20 Average literacy

83.88%

78.36%

Male literacy

90.07%

86.32%

Female literacy

77.29%

69.55%

Total Child population

124,272

113,645

Child proportion (0-6 age)

13.02%

14.90%

Boys proportion (0-6 age)

13.24%

14.86%

Girls proportion (0-6 age)

12.79%

14.93%

3.1.2. Rural and Urban Demographic Comparison: Table 3: Rural and Urban demographic comparison of Nainital District Description

Rural

Urban

Population

61.06%

38.94%

Total population

582,871

371,734

Sex ratio

948

912

Child sex ratio (0-6 age)

908

892

Child population

79,212

45,060

Child proportion (0-6 age)

13.59%

12.12%

Boys proportion (0-6 age)

13.88%

12.25%

Girls proportion (0-6 age)

13.29%

11.98%

Literates

417,970

278,530

Average Literacy

82.99%

85.26%

Male Literacy

90.89%

88.82%

Female Literacy

74.70%

81.37%

3.2. Nainital Forest Cover: Comparison of Last Six FSI reports (FSI, 2001; FSI, 2003; FSI, 2005; FSI, 2009; FSI, 2011; FSI, 2013) It is the only district which has almost 3/4th of its area under forest cover. Also, it has witnessed high growth rate continuously above 25% for last two censuses. The rapidly changing dynamics has brought political and developmental changes in the area. Recent developments attracted many real estate investments in hotels, restaurants, schools, colleges which are creating space for alternative livelihood for villagers due to increase in migration from other places to the area and flourishing tourism. Developments are always creating opportunities for the host packed with hidden externalities. Decreasing forest cover, changing priorities and aspirations can mislead the society, which can be detrimental for the ecology of the area in the long run. The area has

21 witnessed continuous decline in forest cover. Last year Haldwani area of the district has witnessed record breaking temperature rise in summers while at the same time, a village situated 20kms away, was enjoying the maximum temperature of 20oC. It has become a matter of research after the observation and according to villagers it was due to natural forest cover, the village has kept intact. The village is having large area under Oak forest while the Haldwani area is having very less forest cover due to rapid infrastructural developments in last two decades.

Nainital Forest Cover Change 3120

Nainital Forest Cover

3110

3108

Area in Square Kms

3100 3094

3093

3090

3090

3088

3080 3074 3070

3060

3050 2001

2003

2005

2009

2011

2013

Year

Figure 1: Change in Nainital Forest Cover in Square Kms. Nainital Forest Cover change (Percentage of Geographical Area) 73.20%

Percentage of Geographical area of Nainital

73.11%

Percent of G.A.

73.00%

72.80%

72.78%

72.76% 72.69%

72.64%

72.60%

72.40% 72.31% 72.20%

72.00%

71.80% 2001

2003

2005

2009

2011

Year

Figure 2: Change in Nainital Forest Cover - Percentage of its Geographical Area

2013

4. METHODOLOGY 4.1. Operational Definition Van Panchayat: The village level institution constituted for conservation and management of forests. It is utilize in a sustainable manner based on needs and demands of the society. It is also considered to be one of the unique participatory community forest management in Uttarakhand.

JFM: Joint Forest Management is a participatory community forest management programme, that seeks to develop partnership between local community institutions (as managers) and state forest departments (as owners) for sustainable management and joint benefit sharing of usually degraded public forest lands (Sarin, nd).

4.2. The Sample: Size and Area The villages in hill areas are situated at distant location, which makes it difficult to do collect data, as the research is largely based on primary data. Thus, Van Panchayats of Nainital District were selected after considering the time constraints. 14 Van Panchayats from Nainital District were reached out for collection of data, out of which only 10 VPs responded for focused interview as per the availability and accessibility to Sarpanch. In four of the Van Panchayats, Sarpanch used to stay out of the village and they used to visit village once or twice in a year.

Forest officials were interviewed to know the perspective of Govt. departments, as they are accountable to work for protection of natural resources in the state. The role of the departments for strengthening Van Panchayats with suitable intervention was examined. It also includes the perspectives of a formal organization towards community led initiatives. Forest departments played a crucial role in implementation of JFM with the help of Van Panchayats in the state unlikely in other states. The role of NGOs were not known much before pilot study but was included as they have major role in leading spearhead team for resource planning in a village under the JFM programme. Three forest official of Nainital Forest Division was interviewed to collect information about JFM programme within the purview of natural resource management.

The process of making micro plan for implementing the programme has been done majorly by NGOs. Thus, two NGOs were consulted to know the process of making micro plan. It also includes more involvement of NGOs towards community empowerment in JFM programme.

The difference or similarity in VPs was also taken into consideration, to make it more significant to know the challenges and opportunities in different condition.

23

4.3. Area of Enquiry a) VPs – Sarpanch of the Van Panchayats b) NGOs – Team leader, who have direct communication with villagers professionally and have experience in making micro plan during JFM programme induction through VPs in Uttarakhand. c) Forest department officials – Nainital forest division officials and Soil conservation department, as both of them regularly associates with VPs for programme implementation of any kind. d) Villagers – to collect data regarding change in forest based livelihoods.

4.4. Selection of Tools Mixed method of collecting data was chosen to collect information according to the objective.

For objective one and two, Qualitative method of data collection was used whereas; Quantitative method was used to get the information regarding forest based livelihood dependency. In depth interviews were done with semi structured questionnaire to examine the perception towards JFM. The questions were framed keeping in mind the different activities to manage the natural resource system, to organize the community to draw maximum benefit from forests without disturbing the ecological balance. Opportunities and challenges were witnessed through observation along with information shared by respondents.

Household survey was carried out to find out the approximate change in forest based livelihoods of the native villagers. Like earlier when there was no availability of LPG cylinders as a cooking fuel, they were highly dependent on firewood. This has been changing with time; many people have access to these facilities, which has caused alienation of communities from forests. This can be beneficial or harmful depending on interaction level of communities with forests.

Important information was also collected from Secondary resources and studied to understand the policies, legislations, and beneficiaries, through which the linkages of present study were examined. The historical practices of conservation and management, the social linkages in natural resource management were studied through research articles, books, and journals.

24

4.5. Brief Description of Tools Table 4: Description of methodological process and tools carried out for the study.

Methodology Qualitative Research Methodology (Objective 1)

Data Collection Secondary Source Primary source Van Panchayat Institution, Semi Structured interviews of Sarpanch of NGOs, State Forest Van Panchayats, Divisional forest officer or Department Forest range officer with the help of open Policies: JFM, Acts: Van ended questionnaire.

Panchayat Act, Panchayati Raj Act, Programmes: VFJM Qualitative Primary Source Research Semi Structured interviews of Sarpanch and other officials of Van Panchayat, Methodology NGOs, forest range officer or Divisional forest officer, elders of the village with (Objective 2) the help of open ended questionnaire.

Mixed Primary Source Methodology Household Survey for forest based livelihood dependency, Semi Structured (Objective 3) interviews of villagers with the help open ended questionnaire

4.6. The Process The Primary data collection was done in two parts, within the time period of two months of field study. The first field study included the pilot study which resumed after improvisation of questionnaire. The Van Panchayats were explored through the official documents of forest departments about the total number of Van Panchayats in Nainital district, the coverage of JFM implementation among them and other relevant data. It has setup the ground for next level of interaction with respondents. The second field work was more productive. Majority of data collection was done during that time.

The secondary data were also studied which results into more comprehensive understanding of the issue. Different policies were examined to find out the correlation between the activities and objectives of Van Panchayats.

4.6.1. Pilot Study It was started in October month of year 2014. The forest officials were interviewed to collect data about JFM implementation (1998-2002) through Van Panchayats. Data were reviewed to improvise the questionnaire so that it helps to make interview or survey more interactive and efficient. Some questions were repetitive. Hence, were compiled well for further data collection.

The VPs were situated at distant place so it’s difficult to reach out; thus the field study was intentionally made constricted to one particular district i.e. Nainital District, instead of covering

25 three districts as per the initial proposal of the study. The interaction with NGOs was included after getting to know about their role in making micro plan for VPs under JFM programme.

After 5-6 days of pilot study, the data collection were started again in the month of October and continued again in the month of December and January.

4.7. Ethics of the Research The respondents were made aware of the scholarly purpose of the research. It was kept in mind that there will not be any pressure on individual to participate. It made the interviews, more voluntary and expression of their knowledge and experience. The verbal assurance was also taken for disclosure of the name of Van Panchayats and their name from Sarpanchs. At the same time, villagers and other sources of sensitive information were also assured to maintain their confidentialities. As the study is largely based on qualitative methodology, the ample time was given to collect the data with the use of open ended semi structured questionnaire. The culture, values, and the norms of societies were also taken into consideration while interacting with respondents.

4.8. Scope and Limitations of the Research 1) The open ended semi structured questionnaire had given the scope to the researcher and respondents as well to carry out in depth interviews. On an average, two to three hours were spent for each interview, which made them comfortable in sharing their knowledge and experience about Van panchayat and the role of forest departments, including various programmes active in their VPs. 2) The field site was known to the researcher because of the stay in Bhimtal for graduation degree. It enhanced the knowledge regarding the place, community and their culture.

3) The villagers were very much interactive and there were no such language constraints as Hindi was commonly spoken language in the area.

4) Many Van Panchayats were difficult to access on account of poor transportation and basic infrastructures. The hill terrains and distant location of respondents were made difficult to increase the sample size of the research within limited period of time.

5) The researcher was finding it difficult to communicate with Sarpanch in the village as people were confused about the residence or the identity of Sarpanch.

5. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS Nainital has total of 495 Van Panchayats, divided in six developmental blocks, namely Okhalkanda, Bhimtal, Dhaari, Ramgarh, Kotabagh, and Betalghaat. Out of the 495 Van Panchayats, 296 VPs were established after 1996, while the rest of them are having a long history of existence in the society. The newly made VPs are either chalked out of existing VPs or parted from Civil Soyam land (Revenue land) or reserve forests. The study was conducted in fourteen VPs, out of which ten were selected as in rest of four VPs; Sarpanch don’t live in the village itself. They are migrated to other village and come back to their ancestral home once or twice in the year for celebrating festivals or other necessary work.

27

5.1. Van Panchayats: Community Perspective 5.1.1. Sample of the study – Basic Details Table 5: Basic details about the VPs selected for the study Van Panchayat (Nainital District) S. No.

District

Development Block

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital Nainital

Okhalkanda Okhalkanda Okhalkanda Okhalkanda Okhalkanda Bhimtal Bhimtal Bhimtal Bhimtal Bhimtal Bhimtal Bhimtal Bhimtal Bhimtal

Range

Name

South Gaula Dalkanya South Gaula Chuarigaarh South Gaula Pokhari South Gaula Putgaon Badhaun Kaalgarhi Badhaun Babiyaarh Bhawali Bhaktiuara Bhawali June Estate Bhawali Jangalia Gaon Bhawali Soangaon Bhawali Pandey Gaon Bhawali Harinagar (Jangalia Gaon) Manora Jantwaal Gaon Manora Thapalia Mahragaon

JFM Scheme

Area (ha.)

Account Balance (As per 2006 data)

Establishment

582.000 290.000 193.080 172.080 1.368 382.000 23.123 164.951 162.000 53.000 60.000 17.500 246.000 380.000

₹ 12,026.00 ₹ 1,15,197.00 ₹ 67,811.00 ₹ 86,081.00 ₹ 0.00 ₹ 0.00 ₹ 0.00 ₹ 0.00 ₹ 4,452.00 ₹ 58,955.00 ₹ 0.00 ₹ 0.00 ₹ 0.00 ₹ 11,553.00

22 August 1947 05 September 1947 05 September 1947 05 September 1947 11 March 1999 25 November 1947 18 January 1999 11 November 1947 31 March 1957 27 December 1936 04 May 1950 12 December 1999 09 December 1959 17 January 1956

28 The above table states the basic details about the selected VPs. Yellow marked VPs were excluded as Sarpanch of those villages are now living in another village for connectivity with urban or semi urban areas to avail better infrastructure and services for their family and used to come back to their ancestral home or VP, once or twice in the year on festivals or for other necessary works.

29

5.1.2. JFM Implementation and Preparation of Micro Plan: A History Table 6: Details about JFM implementation and preparation of Micro Plan in the process S. No.

Name

Area (ha.)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Dalkanya Pokhari Putgaon Kaalgarhi Bhaktiuara June Estate Jangalia Gaon Soangaon Pandey Gaon Harinagar (Jangalia Gaon)

582.000 193.080 172.080 1.368 23.123 164.951 162.000 53.000 60.000 17.500

JFM Implementation

Micro Plan Earlier Now

30 The VPs were selected by forest department to implement JFM Programme in the period of 1998-2002. World Bank had given $65 million loan to Uttar Pradesh Forestry Project for implementing the JFM Programme emphasizing participatory governance as an outcome (Sarin 2001). The table states that JFM was not implemented in Dalkanya and June Estate VP among the selected sample of the study. The programme has various processes and stages of implementation. Micro Plan is one of the important parts of that. It was important to address the participatory governance along with monitoring of effective implementation. Even after exclusion from JFM programme, two VPs namely, Dalkanya and June Estate prepared micro plan following suggestions from forest department and support from NGOs. There are three VPs namely, Kaalgarhi, Soangaon and Pandey Gaon which went without preparing micro plan or unaware of that even after being selected under JFM Programme. After the year 2002, the World Bank funding got stopped and JFM Programme went unattended due to lack of funding from forest department or other implementing agency. Thus, the relevance of micro plan without proper funding got lessened. Now, only four out of ten VPs are having micro plan for their village. These are Dalkanya, Bhaktiuara, June Estate, and Jangalia Gaon.

31

5.1.3. Issues prevailing in Van Panchayats Table 7: Problems specific to the VPs and their collective analysis S. No. Problems

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Area (ha.)

Encroachment Fodder availability Forest degradation Forest Fire Grazing Low agricultural yield Monkey in agricultural fields Participation Roads connectivity Soil erosion

Dalkanya

Pokhari

582.000

193.080

Harinagar Percentage Putgaon Kaalgarhi Bhaktiuara June Estate Jangalia Gaon Soangaon Pandey Gaon (Jangalia of VPs Gaon) 172.080 1.368 23.123 164.951 162.000 53.000 60.000 17.500 50% 40% 50% 70% 10% 100% 20% 30% 30% 30%

11

Structural delays and limitations in decision making process

60%

12 13

Water scarcity Weed growth/Invasive species

30% 50%

32 The table shows various problems faced by the villagers following their needs and necessities.

Encroachment means that some of the families have gone into the forest for their survival as they are unable to cater to their needs and sustaining on their livelihood away from the forest. It has occurred in 50% of the Sample VPs. The people and Sarpanch were not much concerned about the specific problem whereas some of them are supporting it as they think that it works for the protection of forest when some illegal activities is happening, they are the first to inform us and make us aware of such activities.

Fodder availability means the availability of fodder from forest to meet the demands of villagers depending on that for their livelihood activities. 40% of Sample VPs are affected by less sources of fodder. It depends on the structure of the forest in the VPs, like if there is a pine forest, then the fodder will be very less as pine forest does not support grass to grow except during rainy season whereas Oak forest supports largely the fodder requirements along with some other grass and tree species.

Forest degradation is the depletion or degradation of forest over the long period. Pandey Gaon has suffered the maximum and Bhaktiuara, minimum. Overall 50% of sample VPs are affected by the problem with becoming worse when asked to villagers.

Forest Fire mainly occurs in the pine forest and it can accelerate, if the intervention does not happen at the right time with proper planning and support. June Estate and Dalkanya face the maximum among the all. It is evident in 70% of sample VPs as everywhere used to be pine forest whether more or less in area. It becomes dangerous with support of winds and can rise up to 2-3 meters from the ground. It occurs only in pine forest and can affect other forests linked with them.

Grazing occurs due to uncontrolled or unplanned open grazing in forest or can also occur due to over reaching the sustainable limit of cattle and livestock. Harinagar (Jangalia Gaon) is only affected from the problem.

Low agricultural yield is the most prominent problem occurring in 100% of sample VPs, for the community solely dependent on agricultural activities. In all the VPs, it has been evident for last decade that agricultural yield is declining and became subsistence activity. In many villages,

33 they moved on to vegetable cultivation, which proved to be of commercial benefits to sustain the economy of their family.

Monkey in agricultural field should not be treated as a direct problem as they were not affecting earlier because of enough resources available for survival in the forest for them. Now, due to scarce resources and specifically changing structure of forest, decline in fruiting or flowering trees have posed the situation of conflict for resources. It is mainly evident in Soangaon and Kaalgarhi, also affecting other villages but not much significantly. This problem is contributing factor in low agricultural yield.

Participation has not been a problem in past but in last two to three decades; the decline in interest of people towards forest has become a concern. It was conceived as the main component of JFM Programme to achieve as an output but increase in administrative control and lesser autonomous participation in planning and decision making had become cause of decline in interest as per the villagers and Sarpanch. It has also of concern for other authors and suggested the similar findings through their research based extensively in the Nainital district.

Author Pampa Mukherjee also mentioned that for both national governments and international donor agencies, democratic decentralization has become a major concern, in implementing their programmes at the field level; they tend to treat communities as mere beneficiaries rather than as active partners. It also highlights the fact that the introduction of JFM in 1998 has overridden the customary claims of communities on forests practiced over decades. Further, it shows how boundaries and fences have become sites of anxiety, creating enclaves and plots, and in the process excluding communities from their rightful access to resources (Mukherjee, 2004). Only 30% of Sample VPs showed satisfactory level of participation by villagers in activities and objectives of VPs. Road connectivity conceived as a limitation for creating new livelihood opportunities. Link to market and other villages are necessary for better exchange of resources. It is also of concern as it will provide a base for efficient monitoring of illegal activities. In some villages, it is in process but 30% of sample VPs are still having them in a very poor condition besides many infrastructure developmental programmes running in and around the state.

34 Soil erosion is mainly accelerating in those VPs where forest degradation and unregulated infrastructural development programme are at pace as the hill terrains are much vulnerable to natural phenomenon like landslides, heavy rain etc. 30% of the sample is facing this problem.

Structural delays and limitations in decision making process have been crucial in less effectiveness of the programme. The administrative reform made the administrative decision making process dependent on the higher authority which cause a lot of delay and postponement of the activities and plans at local level. Due to repetitive journey for taking approval from the authority, Sarpanch used to become uninterested later on which ultimately affected the VPs control on forest resources and degradation. Many have also accused the Govt. departments of taking interest only in economic activities and afforestation programmes besides looking on the overall problem of the village and cause of depleting resources as a whole. Structural limitations continuously coming up through amendments in Van Panchayat Niyamavali has also been one of the reason of decline in interest and motivation for participatory governance for conservation and management of resources. As high as 60% of the sample VPs had expressed this problem as a limitation in their progress and activities.

Water scarcity has been a problem in those villages where either forest has degraded to minimum or having pine forest at large. It has been also observed that Oak forest have been very effective in holding the water and can solve the problem at large as said by Sarpanch of Bhaktiuara and other Oak forested village. Bhaktiuara is supplying water to four and more villages and been an important perennial source for Bhimtal lake for decades. And as per the villagers, it is only due to a large Oak forest which holds the water from running off the terrains during rainy season. In 30% of the sample studies stated that it has been of serious concern as it is affecting their day to day life as well as restricting the livelihood opportunities due to low agricultural yield.

Weed growth or Invasive species, it is rapidly invading the shrubs diversity in the forest causing lesser fodder availability, deteriorating soil fertility and composition of forest. Most prominent invasive species are Lantana camara and Kaala Baasan (common name). The problem has been increasing with time with 60% of the villages are affected as of now.

35

5.1.4. Activities carried out by Van Panchayats Table 8: Activities and their collective analysis in all the VPs S. No. Activities

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Dalkanya Pokhari Putgaon Kaalgarhi Bhaktiuara June Estate Jangalia Gaon Soangaon Pandey Gaon

Area (ha.)

582.000 193.080 Afforestation Awarenes (Forest Fire) Boundaries Check Dams Dry and fallen tree distribution Fodder collection and distribution Irrigation Channels Nursery Revival of Natural Springs Water storage Weed clearing

172.080

1.368

23.123

164.951

162.000

53.000

60.000

Harinagar Percentage (Jangalia Gaon) of VPs 17.500 100% 20% 70% 80% 10% 30% 10% 30% 30% 50% 10%

36 The table shows the major activities under VPs working plan for each VP and collectively activity specific information analysed for all the VPs. Afforestation has been significant and was promoted in all the VPs as it is widely supported by forest department and in other programmes.

Under the JFM programme it was also mandatory to work out on the demarcation of area under the programme hence, boundaries and pillars were necessary besides the fact that it was creating a divide in communities dependent on common forest resources and also put the limitation to share the resources as per the occupational and other need of villagers. It may be said that it was an initiative to privatize the forest in the name of smaller community size and creating artificial boundaries in the social sharing system of unique common property resource management between the villages. Check dams, Irrigation Channels, Water storage, Revival of natural springs or perennial source of water were given priority as per the need of the villages, which were also relevant to maximize the efforts to increase the resource utilization and availability in the areas.

Although, except some of the villages, it failed because of lack in inclusive with other activities and inefficient implementation. Fodder collection and distribution, and dry and fallen tree distributions were came became difficult due to change in structure of management as per the programme details. It was advised to divide the forest utilized for fodder into at least 20 plots and distribute the dry and fallen tree with taking permissions form the forest department. It seemed to be lot complex than earlier and made the process difficult for many as the directions don’t fits in all VPs within the purview of their village topography and forest structure. Nursery was included as a livelihood opportunity for the villagers. Later on, the villages were fulfilling the need of saplings from their own nursery for afforestation programme and also they began selling flowers and other plants to nearby area. Many villages are facing the problem of forest fire, that can be easily controlled if there is a mechanism to aware and train people for reacting in emergency situation. Like how to make fire line? How to spread the information rapidly for Govt. support? How to use local resources to control the fire from spreading? Many such activities mentioned in the above figure were missing or active in parts and pieces. The holistic approach were missing which made the activities lesser effective in the area. In most of the VPs, the activities were planned through supply based approach which should be largely based on the need profile of the village. The spearhead teams were examining the problems into different preset heads and were just asking the socio economic details for doing the paperwork at large.

Villagers were asked to provide information straight forward. No proper tools were used to assess the socio economic status and need assessment of the village as said by the community.

37

5.1.5. Economic activities Table 9: Economic activities in different VPs S. No. Economic Activities

1 2 3

Area (ha.)

Resin Extraction Selling dry and fallen trees Royalty for special trees

Dalkanya Pokhari Putgaon Kaalgarhi Bhaktiuara June Estate Jangalia Gaon Soangaon Pandey Gaon 582.000

193.080

172.080

1.368

23.123

164.951

162.000

53.000

60.000

Harinagar Percentage (Jangalia Gaon) of VPs 17.500 60% 20% 10%

38 The table explains about the different economic activities happening in VPs. It has been evident by the results that resin extraction has become the main economic activities for VPs, which is correlated on the fact of availability of pine forest in the specific area. 60% of Sample VPs are doing resin extraction as their main economic activities. Apart from this, there were very less economic opportunities were created for villagers through JFM programme. The resin extraction were also happening much before the JFM implementation, thus it can be said that the JFM programme has failed to create the opportunities to make the villagers economically stable although nursery were promoted in some of the VPs. The income from resin extraction is also distributed for different objectives and diverted to mainly three departments, Revenue department, forest department and VP in a ratio of 30:30:40 for developing the infrastructure, forest cover, and maintaining the forest resources respectively.

5.1.6. Occupational status of villagers: Agriculture and Livestock Table 10: Occupational status of VPs, mainly agriculture and livestock S. No.

Name

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Dalkanya Pokhari Putgaon Kaalgarhi Bhaktiuara June Estate Jangalia Gaon Soangaon Pandey Gaon Harinagar (Jangalia Gaon)

Agriculture Crops

Vegetables

Livestock

Very less or negligible Sustenance Commercial

Agricultural crop yield has been continuously declining resulting in sustenance farming. This makes them to move towards vegetable cultivation and livestock for their commercial well being.

Out of ten villages, four villages are cultivating vegetable at commercial scale; whereas six villages are commercially involved in livestock based occupation, like dairy and other milk products.

Some of the villages are facing large scale migration of youth for employment to nearby urban areas in the absence of livelihood opportunities. Dalkanya, Bhaktiuara, June Estate, Pandey

39 Gaon are among those villages. There are various reasons behind low agricultural yield and they are associated with forest degradation as well. Like, it has been said that a good forest area reduces the runoff rate and thus helps soil to retain the water for long. This keeps the natural springs alive, which further helps in irrigation and reducing the dependency of agriculture on rainfall. Although this also depends on structure and composition of forest as pine forests are less capable of holding water and also not good for maintaining the soil fertility. The people were also sharing that earlier they used to have good agricultural yield, monkey were not encroaching on their fields as there was enough resources for them in the wild. Now, it has reversed and the major change is in the structure of village is forest degradation or encroachment by pine forest over oak forest and others. Livestock population is decreasing due to less availability of fodder in the nearby forest and also they cannot go to other forest as they are under other VPs besides they utilize or not throughout the year. Many have started keeping livestock at commercial scale but only with support of either Dairy cooperative or depending on market for fodder. Earlier there were no such problem; even they used to take the cattle into forest earlier when there was no boundaries and restriction on grazing. Now, after the JFM implementation, open grazing has stopped, also the fodder is being regularized.

40

5.1.7. Fodder from different sources

Fodder: Source and Supply Analysis of Van Panchayats 100% 90% 80%

70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Dalkanya

Pokhari

Putgaon

Kaalgarhi

Bhaktiuar a

June Estate

Jangalia Gaon

Soangaon

Agriculture

40%

20%

20%

30%

40%

30%

15%

40%

0%

Market

0%

30%

30%

20%

20%

50%

5%

30%

100%

Dairy Cooperative

0%

30%

30%

40%

0%

0%

30%

0%

0%

Forest

60%

20%

20%

10%

40%

20%

50%

30%

0%

Figure 3: Sources of fodder in different VPs

Pandey Gaon

Harinagar (Jangalia Gaon) 25% 0% 20% 55%

Average 26% 29% 15%

31%

41 The data shows that the people dependent upon or needed the fodder in any kind to feed their livestock are having these trends. There are four main sources of fodder, Agriculture, Market, Dairy cooperative, and Forest. Based on varied capacity of village forest to meet the need of the people, they have to look for other sources. People doing crop cultivation, are getting the fodder from their fields, and then they look for the forest to meet the demands, and if fallen short, look for other sources. The above figure shows the approximate share of requirements fulfilled by different sources as per the information from the villagers. The less dependency on forest can be due to presence of pine forest largely in the area, or degraded forest or, large demands from the village itself. In Pandey Gaon, the forest cover has degraded to large extent thus they are heavily dependent on market as the agricultural yield is also low thus very few people doing cultivation.

For other villages, the forest cover is bit average to good but the dependency is varied because of composition of forest, less availability of fodder supporting trees.

42

5.1.8. Firewood from different sources

Firewood: Source and Supply Analysis of Van Panchayats 100% 90%

80% 70% 60%

50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Firewood Only LPG and Firewood

LPG Only

Dalkanya

Pokhari

Putgaon

Kaalgarhi

Bhaktiuar a

June Estate

Jangalia Gaon

Soangaon

Pandey Gaon

60% 40% 0%

10% 60% 30%

25% 50% 25%

80% 20% 0%

20% 40% 40%

30% 30% 40%

50% 40% 10%

40% 30% 30%

30% 50% 20%

Figure 4: Sources of firewood in different VPs.

Harinagar (Jangalia Gaon) 40% 50% 10%

Average 39% 41% 21%

43 The figure states about the utilization of different sources for fulfilling the need of fuel source.

In some of the villages, situated far from the nearest urban or semi urban setting, the LPG facilities availability is limited. Even if people have the service, they can use them minimum, in urgent situations or for lesser time. Traditionally, they are still using firewood as the main source of fuel. This shows their dependency on forest to some extent still linked otherwise the dependency has gone down to a large extent with changing occupations and life style. People living very near to forest are much more linked and still using firewood as the main source of fuel. The present forest cover should also be considered while looking at the above figure. The composition and structure of forest may be affecting the firewood availability in the forest.

44

5.1.9. Presence of different types of trees and water scarcity: A Comparative study Table 11: The composition of forest and water scarcity in the area S. No.

Name

1 Dalkanya 2 Pokhari 3 Putgaon 4 Kaalgarhi 5 Bhaktiuara 6 June Estate 7 Jangalia Gaon 8 Soangaon 9 Pandey Gaon 10 Harinagar (Jangalia Gaon)

Water Scarcity (High/Medium/Low)

Forest (Scoring on 10 Point Scale) Pine

Oak 6 3 4 4 2 7 3 3 3 1

Others 3 3 2 4 7 2 4 5 1 5

1 4 4 2 1 1 3 2 1 3

High Medium Low Forest - If score addition is less than 10 altogether then it indicates the presence of Barren Land

Note: The scoring only indicates ratio of the kind of tree available into the forest in specific VPs.

45 The table shows the approximate data about the structure of forest and major tree in the forest according to different VPs. According to the villagers, water scarcity is much linked with the different forest structure or forest degradation. Either forest degradation is the main reason behind the decline in availability of water in the area or increase in less water retaining tree species in the forest led to the change. Majorly pine forest is considered as having very less water holding capacity and also not effective in maintaining the low runoff rates as efficiently done in other forests. Oak forests are considered to be good as an agent for water conservation. It has a good water holding capacity and also the forest keeps low runoff rates during rainy season.

Bhaktiuara VP has large oak forest which helps them to fulfill their need as well as providing water to other villages for irrigation and also act as an important tributary to Bhimtal Lake.

While, Dalkanya and June Estate have large pine forests, thus are facing acute shortage of water during summer season for different purposes. Apart from them, only Pandey Gaon is facing water scarcity and the reason behind that is degraded forest cover.

5.2. Van Panchayats: Role and Perspectives of Forest Department and Officials There were different perspectives on which the forest officials were asked their opinion and relevant knowledge along with institutional perception and facts. The findings suggested that the information and awareness are much about the Van Panchayats and less towards the JFM Programme. Some of them are totally unaware about the event happened in the past related to JFM implementation with the help of selected VPs whereas; some of them are having detailed knowledge about the programme due to their experience in the implementation process.

Van Panchayats are understood as a village institution for conservation and management of forests for the community under 28(2) of the Indian Forest Act 1927. The uniqueness of the institution can help in maintaining the forest cover as well as to meet the community needs for the minor forest produce. Uttarakhand is the fourth most forested state of the India, thus a large population depends directly or indirectly on the forest resources for their livelihood activities.

Thus, VPs has played an important role in managing natural resources and fulfill the needs of community. They are also termed as ‘self sustained village institutions’.

Joint forest management committees (JFMC) were formed and Sarpanch were made chief of these committees. JFMCs were working in tandem with the forest department as the decision making authority were largely with the department and the main focus for VPs were effective

46 implementation through the existing structure. The rules and guidelines were separately made to meet the objectives of JFM Programme. The objectives were to create massive people’s movement through involvement of village committees for the protection, regeneration and development of degraded forest land. The other aims of the programme were to empower people for their rights and increase in participation. VPs were doing that part for decades so it was easy for forest department to use the existing structure to strengthen them. One of the officers was expressing the support for helping the village institution with his thought, “The forest is yours, you can save them more efficiently, and we are always here to help you in doing that�.

5.2.1. Positives of JFM Following are the positives of JFM as conceived by the forest officials: Micro Plan: it was conceived as an efficient tool for planning and implementation keeping the present need in focus within the purview of larger objectives. It was made with the help of NGO. The micro plan was made for five years in which there have to be annual implementation plan for each year. The funding and accounting estimates were also done accordingly.

Bridging the gap between forest departments and VPs: it was not directly inherited in the programme while forest officials thinks that the programme helped them to come closer for working towards the similar vision of protecting the forests of the state. Due to rise of VPs through conflicts and compromises, it was always difficult for forest department to be conceived positively.

Shared funding mechanism: 80% of the funds were used to allocated form the allocated funds for JFM Programme whereas the rest 20% was to be borne by the VPs either doing activity together for the implementation without getting paid (Shramdaan) or contributing through their own VP funds. Mostly it was shared by doing shramdaan by villagers. It gave the feeling of ownership towards the activities and thought to be more beneficial.

Participation: it was conceived as three tier participation, keeping forest department at top, then NGO and at VPs at implementation stage. The objectives of the programme were to empower the community and involve them with other stakeholders to work together for conservation and management of resources. The community participation was very much enthusiastic and NGOs were also involved directly to support the institutions in preparation of micro plan in an unbiased manner.

47 5.2.2. Negatives of JFM Following are the negatives or fallout of the JFM as conceived by forest officials.

Low awareness level: there was a low awareness level about the role of VPs in conservation and management of resources with the help of JFM. Unskilled leaders: Sarpanch of many VPs were not much skilled to manage the documentation of their work and keep an account of funds. Some of them were trained at training institute in Haldwani and Dehradun. They were called in different groups but till the time they went back to deliver their learning in their village, the funds were over.

Less involvement of women in decision making process at implementation level: it was mandatory to keep 50% of seats in JFMC for women. But in many villages, it was observed that women have very limited voice in decision making process and only filling seats because of the reservations.

5.3. Van Panchayats: Role and Perspectives of NGOs 5.3.1. Role of NGOs NGOs had very limited role in JFM implementation. They were supporting the VPs in the process of making micro plan. They used to stay for a week in the village ideally to make the micro plan with the help of PRA tools and resource mapping. The role of NGOs was limited to micro plan only. Later on, they cannot do anything whatever the results will be.

5.3.2. Perspective towards JFM Earlier, there used to be strong social bonding and sharing among them for forest conservation and management. They used to do work in a collective way to share the benefits within the community. There was no documented planning but then also managing the forest well keeping the interest of people high. After JFM implementation with the help of VPs, a large influx of funds and strict administrative processes fractured the essence of management done by the same VPs earlier. The decision making process converted into hierarchal system of governance. The social system of sharing and caring for each other were started vanishing. The cracks were seen wide open with the lack of collective efforts for ground level implementation due to different governance system and lack of community participation in planning and decision making process.

6. DISCUSSION There are three different sections of findings, stating about VPs or community, forest departments and NGOs perspectives towards JFM in the state. JFM has been successful in many regions of India in improving the wasteland or degraded land through people’s participation. But in relevance to Uttarakhand state, it became a matter of examination since it was being implemented through an established village institution, namely Van Panchayat, which were also working for conservation and management of the forest resources for last several decades. VPs are renowned for their uniqueness in community based participatory governance for conservation and management. The introduction of JFM were having the chances of disturbing the setup and functionalities of VPs at that time as there were very less opportunity for community to participate in decision making processes and became the mere implementers and beneficiaries.

The role of Van Panchayats was widely conceived through the study as to protect the rights of community to utilize the forest resources to meet the larger goals of conservation and protection of the forest. After the independence, nationalization of forests through forest department has been the cause of its deterioration. According to CPR theory given by Ostrom has also witnessed numerous examples of community based conservation, where they are managing the forest resources through community participation and rules for utilization of its produce and the community ownership and decision making powers were vital component of those initiatives.

Whereas in Uttarakhand, the larger initiatives to control the forest use by imposing strict or loose administrative laws has been observed as the cause for shift or change in the accountability of the community to protect the forest for their benefits in the purview of sustainable development.

The rapid change in attitude towards the value and benefits of natural resources has become a matter of concern for forest departments also. But the shift is actually an outcome of amendments in Acts to provide more control and rights in planning to the forest departments.

The community has become the mere beneficiaries and agents to implement the different programmes and schemes run by governments which are also meant for benefits of community and forests ironically.

Historically, Indian forest management is full of rebellions and uprising by forest dependent communities against state’s attempt to deprive them of their access to and control over local forest resources (Gadgil and Guha, 1992; Guha, 1989). Van Panchayats were formed after a

49 strong fight against British colonizers for the right to access the forest and save them from exploitation from timber extraction. The British government had attempted to regulate the forests and restricted villagers from accessing whether individually or as a community along with giving permissions on contract basis to others for timber extraction for economic benefit. Van Panchayat had fought back and got the access along with manages and control rights. The reserve forests are allowed to be recognized as “Village forests” and gave the rights to Van Panchayats to manage the resources and utilize them in equitable manner autonomously within the community excluding commercial interests. This implies that Van Panchayats can be stated as one of examples discussed by Ostrom (1990), as a community initiatives who are protecting the forests sustainably for long time as a common pool resources. Whereas at later stage, the nationalization of forests and the forest policy of 1952 continued the process of expanding custodial control over forests the forest department curtailed many rights of VPs to have more control over the forest along with further curtailing community rights and authority. The socially unrelated villages were brought under village institutions like Gram Panchayat for administrative convenience, on existing community as the new structure of local governance (Sarin, 1993).

Further the introduction of JFM through VPs was in command of forest department only. The programme was conceived to promote people’s mass movements for development of degraded forests and also the good forests. The participation and women empowerment was one of the main components of the programme. But the limitation posed by forest department to community in decision making processes and planning had showed that the regulation and control was largely with forest departments, not in the hands of community. Community became the mere implementers and beneficiaries of the programme. It allows the researcher to believe that the government has actually considered Ostrom (1990) theory to implement the programmes but actually doing according to Hardin (1968) theory of “Tragedy of Commons”, where Hardin proposed for regularization and control of access of the resources, indirectly pointing towards privatization of rights to access the resources. The control of planning and approval for micro plan prepared by NGOs with the help of VPs and forest department officials with the help of PRA tools hints towards implementing JFM through participatory governance but actually follows the privatization of rights and here the private party is forest department itself. While doing study, it became the main finding that the interest in forest based livelihoods are decreasing at a very rapid rate due to various periodic change or amendments in Van Panchayat Act to curtail the rights to access independently and according to the need arises, also they have to share the benefits with other departments thus reducing the actual share of benefits to the community living in the forests.

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The forest degradation, water scarcity, soil erosion are overlooked in a larger view due to isolated projects run by different departments. There are three different departments working independently for checking the soil erosion, to make the village water sufficient, and to do afforestation to increase the forest cover. The independent projects were largely unsuccessful along with some successful events benefited for limited time periods. A major success in achieving all these major concerns is awaited as per the community responses. This means, a holistic view or inclusiveness in the planning to tackle all the problems together in a specific village or region is missing.

Low agriculture yield has been the serious problem for the community living there as earlier it was the only main source of income for their family but now it has gone too low as if the sustenance is becoming very difficult and many times, they have to buy from the market or depend upon PDS (Public Distribution System). It is evident in all over the study area.

The problems related to fodder availability causing decline in number of livestock, the community can keep, is also interlinked with massive encroachment into the forest by invasive species, and promotion for resin extraction widely as an economic activity for VPs. The resin extraction has ignored the importance of broadleaf tree species which has been realized by forest department only in the last decade. The invasion of pine forest is also very rapid due to catalyst effect by illegal logging in other forests. The forest fire has proved to be very detrimental for other forests while helpful for the pine forests itself promoted its dominance naturally. The invasion in shrub availability mainly by Lantana Camara and Kaala Baasan (Common name) can be observed wide evident in the forests causing less fodder availability and also the soil infertility.

Many VPs has took initiatives to clear the forest from these invasive species but failed at large but less funding and support from the forest department.

With continuous ignorance of the importance of the natural resources abundant in the state has led to rise of the different problems. The temperature invariance and water availability in Bhaktiuara VP has been a matter of research for last 4-5 years to establish the relation of oak forests in water conservation and temperature invariance locally which is already there in traditional knowledge of the villagers. Nature has its own resilience towards changes but anthropogenic disturbance can do wonders. The forest department as well as community thrive for resin extraction, ignorance of invasive species and reason behind water scarcity and planning

51 to do away those problems with short term vision has led community nowhere. The problems are still evident with much larger concerns.

The famous saying by the community “Pahaad ka Paani aur Pahaad ki Jawani, Pahaad ke kaam nahi aati”1 is very much explaining the situation of the present context and challenges to conserve water and stop migration of the youth. Government failed to provide long term solution to these problems as there is still water scarcity in many villages which was not there in the past. Youth seems to be unmotivated and unaware of the importance of forests largely as there was not such initiative taken to increase the awareness level and importance in the beginning. Although the departments are working good in providing reactive solution to the problems but there are very less initiatives except few which can be said as proactive.

There are also findings suggested positives about JFM programme in terms of systematic preparation of micro plan to streamline various activities, shared funding mechanism, making it more interactive between forest department and community, and also engaged NGOs for unbiased analysis of problems and issues prevailing in the village forests. The shared funding mechanism was also present there in the village when they used to do the activities on their own to protect the forest and getting 80% of the funds is like a boon for them. It acted as an incentive but later when the funds were dried out, the concept became curse as now they already discontinued the tradition of sharing for doing activity. So, the good and strong part of the programme turns against the main objective of participation and conservation of forests to meet the needs of community. The legal backup for reservation of women has also raised hope for greater participation and it was on the road of success but due to short duration of its activity i.e.

1998-2002, five years only has again left them in same situation as those legal reservations are not much strong in Van Panchayat Niyamavali.

The role of NGOs were very crucial in meeting the objectives but the limited role only confined to preparation of micro plan has not acknowledged the importance of unbiased monitoring and evaluation, which has been conceived as a main component of environmental auditing.

At large, the findings suggested the success of JFM in parts and pieces which is also not so efficient due to its short duration of activity. It definitely indicated that a larger area of concerns unaddressed or unattended. Many issues were focused but not in a holistic view.

“Pahaad ka Paani aur Pahaad ki Jawani, Pahaad ke kaam nahi aati” can be translated in English as “A mountain’s youth and the water that comes forth it, for the mountain both are of no use”. The translation was done by Mr. Danish Hussain.

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7. CONCLUSION The JFM has been successful in other parts of India where the need for the intervention raised due to degradation of resources and large participation was needed but the situation and need was different in the villages managed by VPs. The resources were not scarce; people were already working collectively to manage the forests. But the rights were compromised at different stages through various amendments in Kumaon Panchayat Forest Rules, 1931. The stricter control and monitoring was introduced through amendments on the working of the VPs. JFM came with objective to establish participatory governance and resource conservation but it was failed to escape the authoritarian rules and their effects already established in the system. With the limited scope of participation in planning process along with structural delays and limitations has broken the patience and motivation of the community to conserve their forests. The JFM has given the equal opportunities to women, generated hope through large sum of funding, an effort to include the NGOs actually working for betterment of the society and environment. But at last the crippled organizational structure keeping the active participation in whole process at bay has resulted in another failure.

During colonization, the same community had fought back for rights to access the natural resources, rights to conserve and protect, right to manage them for equitable distribution. And now, even after seven decades of freedom, they are still fighting for their rights against the changes to remove the legal bottlenecks for participatory governance and inclusiveness in the process of planning and decision making.

The change in role and status of Van Panchayats in the conservation and management of forest after the introduction of JFM cannot be looked in isolation. The change is a gradual process and it was happening since, Kumaon Panchayat Forest Rules, 1931 were first amended to curtail the autonomous rights of VPs to utilize the resources for fulfilling their need and conserve the forest. JFM brought the positive change in leadership through promoting gender equality, made the functioning more systematic with long term vision through micro plan, bridged the gap between government and community, and also made NGOs, an active stakeholder for unbiased participation in planning. But it failed to remove the authoritarian attempts of govt. departments.

The social sharing system was present in many VPs before JFM implementation; left fractured after 2002. The people demotivated by the failure of JFM and become uninterested in conservation and management of forest resources, largely the young generation.

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7.1. Contributions of the Research 1) The study contributes to literature on change in role and status of Van Panchayat in Uttarakhand by examining the historical and present context in effect of Joint Forest Management on Van Panchayats.

2) It helps to build the analysis of present state of Van Panchayats in conservation and management of forests, their priorities and relevance.

3) It brought the problems and activities more into light which can be affected due to induction of participatory programmes like JFM. The real participation of communities was examined throughout the study.

4) It also taken into account the perception of govt. functionaries like forest department, and NGOs about the role and status of VPs, focusing on the context of JFM. 5) It brings out more understanding towards inter-linkages of conservation and management of forest activities with the anthropogenic activities for their own survival and existence.

6) The forest based livelihoods were examined for linkages with the role of VPs.

7.2. Recommendations 1) Since Van Panchayats remained a research subjects for many authors about the changes happened and how they affected the uniqueness of this community led participatory governance. More research should be untaken to bring out the similar study in other hill districts of Uttarakhand.

2) The study can provide an extended understanding for similar initiatives under participatory governance with village level institutions involved in forest conservation and management.

3) The study has been conducted on a small scale in Nainital district only and may not have been delve on many issues which might come onto light if this study is extended and further researched upon.

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PHOTO GALLERY

Plate 2: Invasive Species - Kaala Baasan

Plate 3: Kaala Baasan

(Common name)

Plate 4: Water being collected from natural

Plate 5: Water storage tank

spring

Plate 6: Naldamyanti Tal (Bhaktiuara VP)

Plate 7: Landscape near Kaalgarhi and Pokhari VP

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Plate 8: Villager going to home

Plate 9: Example of a traditional belief

Plate 10: Fodder stored

Plate 11: Story of Scientist 'Takuli' in growing medicinal plants

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