Panchmauja

The Dhani South Panch Mauza Jungle Surakshaya Samiti has been awarded "The BEST Van Surakshaya Samiti 09 (Forest Protection Committee)" in Orissa. The award was given by Mr. Naveen Patnaik, the honorable Chief Minister of Orissa. The committee was felicitated with a CERTIFICATE and a cash prize of Rs. ONE LAKH.

Okay here’s a story… a real story…

There was once a hill called Dhani (about an hour or one and a half hours away from bhubaneshwar) as I have mentioned before. So long back, this hill was covered densely with trees, trees and more trees. Then ofcourse, humans( homo sapiens) had to interfere and dominate over everything! So, they started cutting trees for various self interests. You know how mean and selfish we human beings are. We want all luxuries and we generally ignore the other species living and sharing the same environment. Yes, so man(or woman) just thought.. since there are so many trees, let me cut some and nothing’s going to change. A lot of people thought so. *imagine, if a more powerful species started thinking… oh, there are so many human beings, if some of them(human beings) are just cut down, it won’t matter.* The entire forest, which was once densely populated with the tree families, which was home to quite a few animals was GONE.

Once it was gone, the stupid human being was in trouble. The rainfall was low, the water levels, even lower. There was no fuel wood. People used to even make houses with them. So,man was really in trouble now. Basically, insaan ki watt lag gayi. In its greed, he forgot, that it could affect him too. The forests were gone. The hill looked ugly. The animals lost home.

So when human beings around that place realised of their stupidity of cutting down forests irrationally, people from 5 villages came together to form the Panchmauja Vana Suraksha Samiti in 1987. The five villages were Arjunpur, Balarampur, kiapalla, barapalli, and panaspur. They planted trees on a large scale in patches. They guarded the forest as their own property. They would fine anybody who would cut trees and punish him too. People from the five villages used to personally go to guard the forest turn by turn. They have been looking after their forest for 20 years now, which I feel is a very long time. The Dhani forest is rich with a large number of trees now. Bamboo forests, cashew plantations, mango trees and a lot of other stuff can be found there. Some medicinal plants are also found. The hill looks beautiful. I actually got to see various shades of green in one place.

Forests are beautiful places. We should really not tamper with it. It took 20 years to get it back. The people realised their mistake. So why don’t we learn from their mistake? Let’s please be more considerate, more caring and stop being a dominating species. If they can share their environment with other flora and fauna, why can’t we? We really need to question ourselves. Some of the things we use, some of the things which other people use comes after murdering these trees. So we should question. And even if a tree is cut, let’s learn to plant another and take care of it. And mind you, it takes a lot of time for it to grow. So please think about it!

I really admire the dhani panchmauja people. They have seen the effects, acted at the right time and now they have got their forest back. So do we wait for the entire world to be devoid of forests? I guess, not.

Dhani is 12 km away from Tangi of dist. Khurda is famous for its rich biodiversity in whole of Orissa. The community protected Dhani forest is spread over 839 hectare of land. Dhani forest is protected by the ‘Panchmauja Vana Suraksha Samiti’ which was formally constituted on 1.10.1987 by the villagers of 5 villages known as “Panchmauja”.

Evolution:

Initially the story was something else. This forest was totally controlled by the govt who gave the lease of the forest to a corporation. Then vast felling of trees led to deforestation resulting in lack of rainfall, fuel wood and wood to make the roof of house. This resulted in drought leading to suffering of the villagers. They had to go 25-30 km away to collect fuel wood. Then villagers decided to protect the forest and formed a community organization known as ‘Panchmauja Vana Surakshya Samiti’. Initially the members were the elderly persons of the villages and subsequently the membership opened for all. Initially they didn’t have any support from the government. But after 10 years in 1997, government supported 200 hectares of forest under ‘Joint Forest Management’ act.

Governance:

Core committee consists of 25 members selected by the villagers. They have tenure of 2 years. The core committee has representation from each village and from both genders too. Both Forest Ranger and DFO are notified about the newly selected committee. The committee maintains its own ‘Cashbook’ and ‘resolution book’. The committee selects its ‘President, Secretary and Cashier’ for smooth functioning of the committee. The members once selected can by reselected for next term based on their performance.

The committee members meet on monthly basis. But in case of need emergency meeting may be called. If the member is absent on that day the children of that person attend the meeting.

Modus operandi:

Ø In the beginning “THENGA PALI” was followed wherein five members from each village used to go to forest and next day morning keep the Thenga (wooden stick) in front of next persons home.

Ø Later when they got enough funds they appointed two persons as forest watchman @ INR 1500/person/month.

Ø Now after JFM forest department provided one forest guard.

Awards and recognition:

Ø ‘Prakriti Mitra’ award in 1998 (trophy and Rs. 5000/-)

Ø ‘Indira Priyadarshini’ award in 2002 from the chief minister of Orissa Mr. Naveen Pattnaik (Trophy and Rs. 1,00,000/-)

Ø Younger Mad Ostel from Sweden studied Dhani forest for two years.

Roles and responsibilities:

Ø Protection of forest.

Ø Approval of villagers request for various activities e.g. renovation of house etc.

Ø Dealing with criminals as per committee rules and regulations.

Penalty:

Accused is dealt as per the law of committee. Penalty may be reduced in case accused person surrenders and accept the guilt. In a recent case they collected penalty as high as INR 35000/-

Resources:

The fund comes from different heads

Ø Own fund (one handful rice/family/month)

Ø Government contribution

Ø Re-leasing of cashew nut orchard

Ø Reward and prize money