These women are guarding this Sambalpur forest reserve against timber mafia, poachers
Members of the Vana Surakhya Samiti (VSS) patrol Sambalpur’s Landakote forest reserve to prevent its resources from being depleted by timber mafias and poachers.
Natural forests — rich in its resources — has been home to tribal communities across the world. Be it the Chipko or Appiko movements, we’ve heard of the numerous tales where people stood up for their forest-covered homes.
Recently, a similar situation is slowly taking shape in the Gariakhaman village in Sambalpur district, Odisha, where a women group has been standing guard against timber mafia, as well as poachers, at the outskirts of the Landakote forest reserve.
Under the Ama Jungle Yojana, the state government picked 15 women of Gariakhaman village to form the Vana Surakhya Samiti (VSS), whose core purpose is to protect and restore an area of over 50 hectares of the forest land. The forest department pays these women about Rs 298 a day for their patrolling services.
“Gariakhaman is home to 32 families, and men of the village either migrate outside the district to work or are into agriculture. Since the village is located on hilly terrain, patrolling was not regular. These factors made things easier for the poachers and timber mafia. Protecting the forest that provides us minor produce became paramount, and it prompted us to come forward to work with the government,” Sarojini Samartha, Vice-President of Gariakhaman VSS told The New Indian Express.
These women launched the patrolling tradition called Thengapalli, where two-three of them patrol the forest from 7 am to 5 pm with lathis in their hand. There has been no hindrance in this tradition for the last 23 months, the members claimed.
No outsiders are allowed to enter the forest area unless the protectors of Landakote allow them. In effect, forest fires and felling of trees have become a thing of the past in these reserves. Moreover, the degraded areas of the forest, too, have also been regaining its greenery.
Girishchandrapur Range Officer Susanta Bandha said the women also regularly clean dry leaves from the entire forest stretch, which prevents forest fire. “Since last year, there has been no fire mishap in the jungle,” he said, according to India Times.
The arrangement is a win-win for these women, as well as for the forest department.
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Edited by Suman Singh