Editorial
Novel way to save forests
This is what social forestry is all about
Authorities have taken the right course of action to save the Madhupur forest. The indigenous people who survive on the forest are now being trained to protect it. They are also receiving orientation and fund to switch to alternative ways of livelihood like agricultural farming, apiculture, fishery, poultry and livestock raising, afforestation, vegetable gardening and so on.
The government deserves commendation for hitting upon this ingenious strategy to rehabilitate the 5,500 families living inside the forest.
Ironically, the indigenous people of the Madhupur forest, mainly members of the hunter-gatherer Garo community, were so far looked upon as looters of forest resources. But it was never thought that the forest people had no other means to survive than on the forest. Even the local poor non-indigenous settlers were not so much to blame for living off the Madhupur forest. Now the approach is changing. The indigenous Garos and the poor non-ethnic settlers have so far been pursued by the law-enforces in court cases as forest thieves.
The authorities have finally come to realise, though at a huge cost, the futility of the earlier approach to protect the forest, which is now facing virtual extinction with the decimation of around 83 per cent of the original forestland.
We hope that with apt use of the new approach of rehabilitating the Garos and other poor locals in the forest as its protectors, the remaining part of the traditional sal forest could be saved. And with the learning of the alternative means to survive, the local communities, too, would be able to reduce their dependence on the forest.
But while implementing the new strategy, the authorities must not lose sight of the fact that the real enemies of the forest are the outside loggers, who have money and influence. The forest department and the law-enforcers should have to be incorruptible and merciless in dealing with the forest robbers in order to save the forest.
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