An exposure visit was organized for the community leaders & opinion makers to show them the Practices followed by the community people in Aarakot village & on individual capacity (Mr. B.D.Saklani) who is independently saving the forests. The objective behind this visit was to expose the opinion makers and so called influential community people, to the practices of self-imposed rules devised by the communities in order to manage their Natural Resources.
Pujal goan is a small village located at a distance of about 100 kms from Dehra Dun in District of Tehri Garhwal. This area earlier had a very good forest of Banj (Oak) chir, and pine trees. This community was very dependent upon this patch of forest for fulfilling the requirements of fuel wood, fodder and timber. In the absence of any rules/regulations this forest had free access to all members of the community and the resultant pressures of grazing, loping, and cutting of trees thus resulted in degradation of the forests. According to the villagers by the year 1950, the forest degraded and the area became barren with only a limited number of trees.
Mr. Sakalni started by planting trees near his fields in the mid 1950s. He collected the seeds of banj from under the trees and planted them. Banj is a species, which occurs naturally in the areas and is highly beneficial for the local economy as well as for the environment. Its leaves provide excellent fodder to the livestock and its wood has a high calorific value. Moreover, its roots also retain soil and moisture particles thus not only preventing soil erosion but also leading to the recharge of the underground aquifers.
At this point of time, there was a pressure on the area for grazing of livestock, collection of grasses etc. Saklani had to literally drive away the villagers and livestock from near his plantations. Gradually he started plantation on a wider areas and as his plantation spread, he came into more and more conflicts with the villagers, who were not willing to curtail their rights over the areas. Villagers uprooted the saplings; undeterred Saklani kept on planting more, in their place. Although, the survival rate was very low, the seeds sown grown by saklani showed definite result. During this struggle the forest conservation Saklani came into intense conflicts with the villagers and at a point of time, some miscreants also beat him.
An important breakthrough came with the setting up of a school in the adjoining village. Through education, the children were able to realize the importance of the protection of forests. In fact, Mr. Saklani himself went to the schools, gave talks to the students about the importance of protection of forests, and was able to inculcate amongst them the importance of protecting the environment & forests.
Mr. Saklani had planted 50 kgs of seeds and in each kg there are about 400 seeds. The Survival rate now according to him is 80-90%.
On March 5,2001 a group of community leaders from Tehri & Uttarkashi visited Satengal Village(Thatagur), District Tehri to see the Rain Water Harvesting Scheme implemented under the World bank sponsored SWAJAL program with 90% of costs coming from external sources and 10% from community contribution. As the Pumping schemes are not economically viable due to high maintenance cost and lack of electricity, thus rainwater schemes have been chosen as a viable alternative. The group visited the various operational rainwater harvesting systems and later met the pradhan who briefly explained the roles and responsibilities of the Swajal samities who were also entrusted with the responsibility of the operation and maintenance of the systems. As a result of this exchange visit the visiting group tried to find workable solutions to water problems faced in their respective villages. Through sharing ideas and suggestions they were motivated to select and reject schemes to be implemented in their village. The frustration expressed with the panchayat system and the pradhan reveals the desire to bring about positive change for making the Swajal scheme viable in their homes/villages. It has been suggested that a proposal to be submitted to their regional DPMU of SWAJAL and also to contact the local NGO working for SWAJAL project.
PRADAN (NGO) project areas at Hoshangabad (Madhya Pradesh) and Dousa (Rajasthan) to see the SHG groups and inter-loaning process.