Guardians of the Forest

0915-A2

Kusum Karnik^[1]

Abstract

Bhimashankar forest is situated in the remote, hilly, steeply sloping, high rainfall Western Ghat area of Ambegaon block of Pune district, Maharashtra, India. It is a small but good patch of virgin, evergreen, four-tiered, cloud forest. Mahadeo Koli tribals have been living in this area for many centuries and are well adapted to this ecosystem.

They have developed appropriate and peculiar lifestyle, attitudes and philosophy. And because of these, their ecosystem has so far survived for centuries. They practise Low Expenditure Life Style, and thus can subsist on this forest without harming it. The well-knit community life based on the principle of cooperation is their strength. They consider common property resources as a sacred heritage and do not like private property as an institution.

The way people protect their forest:

In Bhimashankar area, there are sacred groves in each village which are well protected and their laws are seriously observed. Each year the villages on the ridge make fire lines to prevent fire from crossing over in their forest. The people love their forest and say that the forest is their mother and they subsist on the milk of this mother and not on her blood.

Govt. made many plans for this area, like tourism project, a hill station, a wildlife sanctuary, but did not take people into confidence. The govt. plan consisted of evicting the 8 villages that come in the sanctuary.

The forest dwelling people subsist on these forest areas and so they have keen interest in the sustainability of this forest. They have refused to accept the eviction and handing over the management of the forest to the Govt. 'Shashwat', a voluntary group, has organized them and together we have started the People's Forest Research Institute.

We are studying our forest: the plants, animals-big and small. We will also study the inter-relationship of the different species with each other. We are trying to understand the people-forest relationship, which is basic to our study.

The Govt., our politicians, our bureaucrats, wildlife lovers, scientists, and the city- public must understand and respect the relation between the forest and the forest dwellers.

We, the tribals, are the guardians of this forest and we shall protect and conserve this area and motivate the people to protect their ecosystems in the world.

For centuries tribals or indigenous people have regarded the forest as their mother. This mother-child relationship is uncommon in the world. They subsist on the forest around them, their ecosystem. They collect food, fodder, fuel and fiber from the surrounding forest. For food they collect flowers, buds, leaves, fruits, tubers/roots, honey, mushrooms etc. They practice hunting to get nutrition and also to keep control on the wildlife population. The hunting is done with traditional weapons, which keeps the hunter and the hunted on the same level of vulnerability. They catch fish and crabs to supplement their diet. Since the beginnings of time, forests have been one of the building blocks of life on earth and even today we all living beings depend on forest, land and water for our subsistence.

But the things are changing, and changing very fast. Forests are fast dwindling, wildlife population is diminishing, and some species are vanishing. Today most of us are aware of the environmental problems like shrinking forests, global warming, ozone depletion, climate change, pollution of water/air, depleting water sources, food insecurity etc. The future of human kind and also of all living beings seems to be in danger. The cities are expanding; their demands of infrastructure are increasing. The rural areas are getting deserted and the infrastructural facilities are getting unreliable. The arms race is putting the world in difficult situation. The tensions between the north and south are increasing. The world peace is shattered by wars, by attack on places like the World Trade Center. The rich and poor both are in vulnerable position. The life of the tribal communities and the wildlife is threatened because of this situation. This is the situation all over the world.

In 1981 we started working in the area known as Bhimashankar in Pune district of Maharashtra in India. We are a voluntary group started by Ms Kusum Karnik and Mr. Anand Kapoor and later on, the tribal people from the Bhimashankar area joined the group. We are working for social transformation and social justice since 1975. Initially we started to study the area and get to know the people. Bhimashankar area is a part of the Western Ghats, a large range of hills running along the west coast of India The area is covered with patches of good forest, which is an evergreen, virgin, four-tiered, cloud forest. in spite of the shallow soil depth and hard rock beneath. There is no water table, which makes it very difficult for the regeneration of forest, as also for the local people to survive. Once this forest is cut down, it hardly regenerates. This forest takes care of the heavy precipitation as well as gusty winds, which are prevalent here. The tall trees, the medium size trees, bushes, and grasses/leaf-litter, together with the climbers take good care of the soil by absorbing the rain velocity. It is a sad thing that now the forest cover is left only at the top of the ghats (hills) and the eastern area of the hills is mostly denuded and barren, with some patches of forest. This area was well wooded up to some 4 decades back.

Who is responsible?

Deforestation is a worldwide phenomenon. It took place and is taking place for different reasons in different areas. We learnt that in 14^th century itself England was importing wood from the Baltic countries because their own forest was used for smelting of metals and such other industrial needs.^[2] Then onwards the industrial development that took place used a lot of wood. The dust bowls in USA is the curse of the agricultural greed and so are the encroaching deserts everywhere.

Before the British regime, in India the forests belonged to the local communities who were generally tribals. These tribal communities looked after their forests and used them for their sustenance and helped it sustain. They regarded the forest as their mother. But during the colonial regime of the British, the forests became the state property and were treated as timber depots by the state. The good timber trees were chopped off to make ships, railways etc. The two World Wars used wood in big quantities. Other development activities like dams, mines, factories, cities, highways, and such other projects took a heavy toll of the forest. A lot of big and non-timber trees were cut down to make charcoal, plywood and so on and this was sent to big and expanding cities. Another very important and striking thing that took place was the plantation on large scale. The Indian Govt. still continues with similar plans. The natural forests were felled and commercial species were planted. This changed the composition of the forests and affected the lives of the local communities as well as the wildlife. It also made the forests unstable and vulnerable. It is true that the forests have been shrinking since the beginning of the agricultural era. But during the last two centuries, the forest clearing all over the world has accelerated to an unprecedented degree. The consumeristic lifestyle is eating away the natural resources at a very fast speed. And the effects that we are facing are devastating. The soil erosion has increased; many rivers are becoming shallow and wide due to silt deposition, especially at the foothills of Himalayas. The forest is suffering due to lack of moisture during summer. The policies of governments all over the world are responsible for this devastation.

The forest dwellers:

The forest is shrinking all over the world, yet there are areas where there are beautiful and pristine forests. Usually these are the areas where the tribals reside. Bhimashankar is one such area. The Mahadeo Koli tribe has been residing in this forest area over many centuries. They are forest dwellers and as such they have developed a life style, which is suitable to the ecosystem here. They depend on the forest for most of their needs. While using forest they are very particular that they do not exploit it in an unsustainable manner. The delicate and vulnerable trees are treated as sacred trees. These people practice ‘jhum’ (shifting) cultivation. The increased jhum cultivation is also the result of the deforestation that took place at the time of charcoal making. These people are often blamed for the destruction of the forest, as the outsiders see them cutting and carrying fuel wood as head load.

Tribal life is based on the concept of Common Property Resources (CPR) - the land, the forest and the water. But the concept of CPRs is not recognized by the non-tribal society, neither the nation-states of today, nor the world. The common caring and sharing that is done by today's tribal community is not only for them but it is done for the future generations, for rich and poor, men and women, humans and all the living beings alike. The tribals have a deep faith in "Together we survive" and so taking care of the whole ecosystem is important to them. And for this, they believe in co-operation and not in competition. Working with the tribal community you realize that there is a thing called "the community wisdom" in the tribal society.

The tribal people in Bhimashankar follow Low Expenditure Life Style (LELS). They use everything frugally. Their houses are made of stone and mud-mortar and they possess few things that are essential for their life. They have well-knit communities and cooperation is a way of their life. They plan and work together in many of the activities such as selecting the site for jhum cultivation, sowing & transplanting of paddy and other hill-millets, guarding the crops against wild animals, or the harvesting of crops as well as hunting and fishing. The whole community takes most of the decisions collectively and they share the responsibility. Without such practices, it would not have been possible for them to live in the forest. In a forest you can not be careless, fend alone or take undue risks.

The Mahadeo Koli tribals here have a very striking institution of ‘deorai’ (temple/sacred grove). In the area around Bhimashankar, every village has one or more such deorais. These are forests set aside on the name of God. Each deorai has peculiar species composition and so has different sets of rules. We had to save a deorai at Ahupe village from the clutches of a contractor in 1984. After saving it, we invited a renowned research institution from Pune city to survey and evaluate the deorai. They reported that the climber Kombhal (a netum) in this deorai could be 800 to 1000 years old, and which means that this sacred grove must be that old and so also the tribal villages. These deorais are the ‘gene pools’ of this area from where the seeds can always be dispersed by animals and birds. Similar institutions are found in other tribal areas also. Another very striking feature of this forest dwelling community is the way they use fire, viz. to keep the house warm and moisture-free during rains, to make the nursery for the crops of paddy and hill-millets, and such other work. They are very careful while using fire. Some six years ago, one young woman died while putting off the fire which had escaped from her paddy nursery and left her 4 small children motherless. Another important practice is that they make 'fire lines' on the ridges on the western slope. These fire lines save the forest on the hilltop from fire, which comes from the area down below on the western side, where people are careless about fire.

They regard tiger (panther) as a God. They may not use words like the ‘apex species’ but they understand the importance of the species like tiger in keeping the whole ecosystem in order. There is a temple of tiger-god in this area. These people have respect, affection, love and emotional dependence on their forest, on their ecosystem. They are unhappy staying outside.

When we observed these practices, precautions, and the philosophy of ‘live and let live’, we started thinking seriously about the forest and people relationship in this area. While extracting things from the forest their ‘knowledge system’ is very important.

The world of today does not recognize this. The concept of private property, personal well being as against community well being has now gained acceptance. The dominant society, the powerful nations are trying to make all the natural resources as global resources, which then can be exploited by anybody who is capable of doing so. It is not exploitation that makes natural resources sustainable but taking care of them and then using them for sustenance makes them long lasting. Globalization will lead to destruction of the natural resources and the tribal communities who depend on them.

With the colonial attitude of the third world countries, the arrogance of the rich and developed countries and the consummeristic lifestyle of the whole world of today, it is not surprising that our Govt. has never thought it necessary to involve the local tribal people in any plans they made for the Bhimashankar area. It is a very disturbing matter for these people that in their own territory they are taken for granted, as if they do not exist. To make matters worse, the govt. declared a wildlife sanctuary in this area in 1985. This time also Govt. did not ask the people; neither did they tell the people. Through rumors, people learnt that 8 villages, which were said to be situated inside the sanctuary area, would be evicted. It was at this time that people started raising questions about the validity of this law, which does not take people into confidence, does not have respect for the local people’s rights. This is especially true about the tribal areas. Our Govt., our politicians, bureaucrats, wildlife lovers, scientists, and everybody who are the planners, all must understand and respect the relationship between the forest and the forest-dwellers and that they have their own rights. It seems that our laws regarding forests are based on the wrong assumption that the forest-dwellers are the enemies of the forest. The laws have not taken into consideration that the areas where there is still good forest also many times happen to be tribal areas. And as the tribals have always been left out side the main stream, care must be taken that they are not taken for granted. Our legal system has a colonial legacy, which must be changed.

The Thar Desert, in India is a homeland of the Bisnoi people. These people follow 29 rules given to them by their leader some 500 years ago, Now using the fragile and scanty resources of fodder, food, and water judiciously, the Bisnoi has emerged as a distinct character in the desert.^[3] There are many such examples where local people have taken initiative and conserved their ecosystems. There are also examples in the world where people have destroyed their ecosystems because of their consumeristic urges, e.g. the man-made islands near St. Petersburg, Florida^[4], and the aquaculture farms on many coasts in India

However, there are people who are not mere consumers. but they are the guardians of the world, mostly the tribals who think for 7 generation ahead, before making any important change. The declaration made in 1978 by Sioux, Navajo, and Iroquois speaks volumes for the philosophy of these tribals:

“Our roots are deep in the lands where we live. We have a great love for our country, for our birthplace is here. The soil is rich from the bones of thousands of our generations. Each of us was created in these lands and it is our duty to take great care of them, because from these lands will spring the future generations of our peoples. We walk about with great respect, for the Earth is a very Sacred Place”.^[5]

It is not an accident that tribals or indigenous people reside and survive in forests. They have a special life style, which makes themselves and the forest sustainable. They have a deep knowledge of their area. They have passed through difficult times like drought, famine or floods with the help of their forest and have survived. They know how to live there and how to protect it. They are the guardians of the forest, their ecosystem.

In 1985, the Govt. of Maharashtra declared a sanctuary in Bhimashankar without taking people into confidence. The people got organized and began to think about the whole problem. They started negotiating with the government and told them that they have been looking after the forest for centuries and are the guardians of the forest and the government can not evict them nor can the govt. take care of the forest. Since then the negotiations are going on. Then the people thought that they must establish their ownership and so they started studying their forest with the help of the voluntary organization 'Shashwat' Trust, which has been working there since long. Since the year 2000, the tribal people and the 'Shashwat' Trust have started documenting the knowledge about flora, fauna and the interdependence of forest with them. They are studying about the forest produce, which they use, how and when and why they collect them. They are studying their agricultural practices, which are based on the rain constellations. They are also studying their socio-cultural practices, which are the backbone of their economic and cultural existence. They now have formed a group called the " People's Forest Research Institute' (PFRI).

Now we, i.e. PFRI, have organized a group of resource persons from the city of Pune, in which we have included scientists, forest officials etc In PFRI the local tribal people are the leaders. We have started organizing groups in each village called ‘study groups’. We are planning to have a nursery of indigenous plants so as to know how forests can be re-established and regenerated in similar areas that have gone barren especially on the Western Ghats. We are organizing advocacy programs for PFRI in other tribal areas as well as in cities. Ms. Kusum Karnik and Mr. Anand Kapoor both are working as advisors to this group. They are also working in Madhya Pradesh, at two places in the tribal area.

We feel that for every ecosystem there should be such a group and they should make a study of their ecosystem and suggest ways to improve it. Almost all places, we feel, need such groups. Most of our ecosystems are in precarious and vulnerable conditions. All the people have to be very cautious about their future planning that they do not take a wrong turn, which might lead, to destruction of the life on this planet. People’s Forest Research Institute is one such effort.

We, the guardians of the forest, are going to look after the Bhimashankar forest - our habitat. Also, we now understand that this small patch is not going to make a difference to the whole planet - the earth. We shall endeavor to motivate the people everywhere to guard and conserve their forest, land and water - their ecosystem.

By: Ms. Kusum Karnik, Shashwat Trust, Near Tel. Exchange, P.O. Manchar, Dist. Pune 410503, India. Tel: 0091-2133-24107/23608; Fax: 0091-2133-23690 req.;
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Dated: 21^st Feb. 2003