:: Wildlife Trust Of India :: Of Canopies, Corridors and Catchments

There is something quite amazing happening in the district council areas that come under the sixth schedule. They are coming up with innovative home-grown mechanisms to save the forests and wildlife under their jurisdiction. There are two examples that come to mind immediately that we have been involved in.

In the Garo Hills the Green Spine project of the District Council, the State Forest Department and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has spearheaded the formation of several small Village Reserve Forests. It started out in Selbalgre in 2008 but the green infection is spreading from the National Highway near Tura towards Nokrek National Park and further south. From the southern side Balphakram National Park is being connected to Siju Wildlife Sanctuary and through Rewak and Emangre the green dots are connecting up towards Nokrek. Once joined, once wildlife fallow jhum lands will form important ecological buffers to the Nokrek and Balphakram protected areas. Most importantly the demarcations of this buffer will be done not by wire or posts but by a social fencing that derives its strength from traditional forest conservation practices. Already over 1246 hectares of land has been set aside and notified under the District Council Act as Village RFs, while an additional 2000 hectares area is to be demarcated soon. The Hoolock gibbon and the elephant have been adopted by the villagers as flagships for conserving the canopy and forest connectivity. Now, an interesting third symbol is joining them. The golden mahseer, the tiger of the waterways serve as a flagship for the rivers and streams that flow through the area.

When I first visited the Garos 20 years ago I was struck by the large tracts of forest but also partially blinded by the fumes of coal-laden trucks chugging out of the hills and disturbed by the spectacle of an arm of a Hoolock gibbon casually slung across a clothesline. All that was left, apparently, of the last meal had by the family. When I last visited Selbalgre, the hoot of the Hoolock and the chant of the village priest as he measured the intestine of a hapless chicken to foretell the success of the project seemed to augur well for a new beginning. Since then, several villages have come forward to join this community conservation initiative.

The Bodos, a not too faraway cousin of the Garos are not doing badly either. In fact their political leadership has gone one step further in declaring 900 sq km of area as protected area in one decisive political measure, tripling the area of Manas National Park. This area if you remember Minister is a National Park, a Tiger Reserve and a World Heritage Site. Since 1989 officially “in danger”. The World Heritage Convention had accorded it this dubious distinction after the upheavals of the Bodo civil agitation of the late 80s and early 90s had devastated forest and wildlife in the area. But that was the past. The rhino, an emblem of the park, once poached out, has now been returned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) with the Forest Department. Many other animals have been rehabilitated back to the wild. Following this, the Bodo Territorial Council declared Greater Manas in 2008. The paperwork needed to convert this historic political intent into bureaucratic reality has been going on for the past two years and it may take a central initiative to take it the next step.

This conservation step by the Bodos is different from the Garos in that it does not involve community land but reserve forest land. However, it is just as critical as the Green Spine initiative as the pace of encroachment into these buffer areas of Manas National Park had touched byzantine limits. By one account of a serving forester, one hectare was being cleared every day. If ground protection follows the declaration of Greater Manas 90,000 hectares would have been spared the axe.

What have the Garo and Bodo people got in return. At the moment, small but critical interventions by the said NGO and support by the District Councils. Nothing more. There is a great need to focus the various schemes of the government, both from the forestry and the non-forestry sectors to these communities who have come forward and helped set aside land for conservation. One idea is to give them a Green Card. Something that entitles them to be fast tracked for government schemes such as NREGA, National Mission on medicinal plants, National Bamboo mission, MNREDA, etc. Most of these are ongoing in these states. Like all other schemes the delivery takes time and sometimes never reaches. If the Green Card can fast track green livelihoods and eco-friendly schemes for the pioneers in conservation it will be a fitting reward to communities who are taking the lead in conservation.

On one hand we have the large welfare schemes of the government and on the other you have focused initiatives of the community and civil society. It is when the focused projects can act as channels to governmental largesse that we can increase penetration, transparency and speed of delivery of the projects. If I can hazard a guess this might even increase the percentage of resources that actually reach ground zero.