BISWA: An Implementing Agency for ORISSA FORESTRY SECTOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

OFSDP at Reamal, Khamar and Telkoi Ranges

I. Introduction
The existing forest cover in Orissa is 48,366 km2. Out of the area having forest cover, 20,196 km2 have crown density of less than 40%, which would require treatment for regeneration and reforestation. The degradation of forest has resulted into the vicious poverty cycle wherein absence of livelihood options encouraged the local people for more and more removal of forest produce in unsustainable manner leading further degradation of forest with spread of poverty and unemployment. Thus the project is necessary for improving the living condition of the people residing in and around the forest by providing them livelihood options consistent with conservation of forest and its sustainable management.

II. BISWA as the Implementing Agency for OFSDP

(i) Reamal Range
Reamal Forest Management Unit (FMU) is operational from its office based at Reamal, near the Field Department office. Reamal Block head quarter is about 29 kms away from Deogarh District head quarter. Reamal FMU covers 20 villages spread over a radius of 45 kms. Most of these villages are inside the forest area where there is no proper communication. These villages are highly affected by Maoist activities and attacks from Elephants.

(ii) Khamar Range
Khamar Field Management Unit (FMU) is operational from its office based at Khamar Forest Range office. Khamar Block head quarter is about 70 kms away from Deogarh District head quarter. It covers 11 villages.

(iii) Telkoi Range
Telkoi Field Management Unit (FMU) is operational from its base office at Telkoi, at a distance of 70 kms from Keonjhar district headquarters and BISWA is presently given the responsibility of 13 villages.

III. Administrative structure

• Team Leader
• Development Officers

(For each Range)

IV. Co-ordination and Delegation of work

• Team Leader

The role of a Team Leader is crucial for the implementation of this project as he is responsible for the delegation of work to the subordinates, co-ordination between them to avoid duplicity of work and is entrusted to liasion with the Forest Department officials. BISWA appointed Team Leaders are qualified Masters in Social Work and Rural Management with field experience of implementing similar projects.

• Work Progress Review

The work progress is reviewed at every operational level starting from the field project office to the district head quarter and at the head office level once in every month. All the field level staff working in this project meet twice a day to discuss the relevant issues. In the evening, staff members review the target achieved and plan for the next day as well as the strategy to mitigate the problems faced by them.

• Problems in Programme deliverance

The field staff members work in adverse conditions as about all the villages are situated in the forests or adjacent to the forests. In the rainy season, it is very difficult to reach the operational villages. To reach at a village the officials have to cross the kuchha muddy roads and streams. Some times they walk for 10-12 kms to reach at the villages as there is no transportation facility. The staffs cannot stay at the villages for late evening as the area is highly elephant prone and they have to return on that road. In official purposes they just go for manual operations as there is no computer facility in the field project office.

V. Experience Stories
(i) Grameswari VSS, A community effort towards sustainability
Arakhpali, a small tribal village of 32 families located about 50 kms away from the district head quarter. After traveling 17 kms from BISWA Reamal field office towards Angul, a narrow kuchha road connects for Arakhpali. Most people depend upon agriculture and daily wage labour. But there was a time when maximum families used to collect Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) like Sal leaf, Sal seed, and Mohul flowers from the forest to support the need of their families. It is said that 20 to 30 years ago, the forests were full of timbers, but gradually there was decrease in the availability of the plant varieties – medicinal herbs and fruit bearing species. Nama Pradhan, a villager says, “There was a time when the branches of the trees were touching our roofs and wild boars were found around the houses in the early morning. But now we are unable to see even a jackal in the fields”.

They started patrolling the forests strictly but very informally. They formed an informal organization and started protecting forest underLATHI PALI. Lathipali meant that 2-3 lathis i.e. the sticks would be placed before some houses in the evening. Then the members of the houses which are coming behind Lathi will have to patrol for the forest without fail. In case of fail the member has to give a fine before the committee, in case of non serious problems. The main objective of that committee was

• To minimize the use of timbers
• To protect the timbers and the NTFP from the mafias
• To patrol in the forest regularly

Though the villagers were constantly harassed and threatened by the external people for this activity. Today, there Lathi Pali concept is well recognized programme known as the Orissa Forestry Sector Development Project (OFSDP). The Arakhpali village is covered under the Reamal Range OFSDP implemented by Bharat Integrated Social Welfare Agency (BISWA). The programme directly aims at forest conservation with economic sustainability through a formal and registered committee named Grameswari Vana Samrakshan Samiti. The programme has achieved to bring the Government Forest Department and Communities on a common platform with the help of a facilitating agency – BISWA.

Prafulla Ku Das, forest guard, Kundhaigulla section says, “Previously the villagers had no platform for the protection of the forest. Different people had different attitudes but now their common objective is to save the forest. Very strategically and methodologically they are proceeding”.
Now, the VSS puts it statutorily that

• One member from each family will patrol the forest without fail.
• A person found guilty of cutting the tree will have to pay fine even up to Rs 1000.
• No permission will be given to the out siders for NTFP collection.

(ii) Kamaleswar VSS
Kamalangi, a village of 111 households with a population of 545 situated near the river Samakoi. It is about 4 kms away from the block head quarter, Telkoi and about 60 kms away from the district head quarter, Keonjhar. Some 50 years back, the village was inside the dense forest with lots of valuable trees like Sal, Pia-sal, Teak and many more medicinal plants. As the village was inside dense forest the livelihood of many families of this village was totally dependant on NTFP collection.
Biseswar Bisoyi, one of the oldest person of this village says, “There was king’s rule during our childhood days. The forest was under the supervision of the King. The rules and regulations for the sustainability of the forest were very strict. If some one was found guilty of cutting trees, he was being punished physically and financially. If it was necessary, King’s representatives approval was needed to cut trees, only the dead trees not the live ones”.
But after independent every one did become independent to cut trees. There was no rule and no guide for the society. Every body started snatching the valuable trees and even the bushes for their self needs. Gradually the forest started to lose its identity and the existed wild life also started to be extinct. Naba Kishor Bisoyi’s father was the king’s representative of that area. The young man is the real motivator in the village to protect forest. He started ‘Jungle Bachao abhiyan’ with the formation of a youth club to:

• Create awareness for optimum utilization of NTFP for livelihood
• Plantation in the barren land
• Regular patrolling in the forest

But, this initiative faced a number of obstacles. It was then that BISWA started the implementation of OFSDP with the formation and registration of Vana Samarekshana Samiti. VSS has been instrumental in providing legal support and technical guidance for forest management. BISWA staff work tirelessly to begin with the resource and social mapping and collecting village data to prepare a micro plan for sustainable village development. The additional incentive in the programme is continued support of BISWA and Forest Department with an active people’s participation.

Water Harvesting Structure (WHS)

Construction of Water Harvesting Structures is one of the main objectives of BISWA in its operational areas. Due to improper maintenance and ignorance, traditional water harvesting structure are being silted and eutrophicated in most part of our state. Encroachment of this traditional structure is another serious problem as the population is blooming at its highest rate. BISWA is taking initiatives to encourage construction of water harvesting structure in rural pockets of Western Orissa to increase the surface storage capacity. This finally leads increase the ground water table and easy availability water during off season for human consumption.

Perspective on Water

Perspective on Water:

In the purview of Natural Resource Management (NRM)

• Public-partnership on water management
• Participatory Approach to implementation of conservation projects
• Utilization of scientific temper and active research in the field of NRM
• Combining traditional resource conservation techniques with modern technology
• Ensure water availability to the farmers for second crop in the same year
• Linking water with peoples’ livelihood options like watershed development

BISWA, a social development organization based in Western Orissa since 1994 is at present operational in 10 other states of India. The main thrust of the organization is to mobilise rural and semi urban population into Self Help Groups for dissemination of micro finance activities (integrated approach of micro-credit, micro-enterprise, micro-insurance and social development). Within micro-finance initiative, efforts are taken to credit link the farmers to meet agricultural expenses. Over the years, there has been a felt need that these farmers should be equipped with sustainable means of increasing their productivity, to achieve a wider goal of alleviating poverty.

BISWA and initiatives in water

BISWA has active involvement in mini watershed promotion to help the farmers in kharif stress irrigation and partial Rabi irrigation. It gives major emphasis on strengthening farmers organisations by empowering them and training them in conflict management, leadership development, gender mainstreaming etc. Hatibari eco-watershed development is a profound demonstration of organic farming, Biofertiliser and Pest control, low-external input agriculture and efficient water management practices.

Apart from targeted water conservation projects, BISWA views overall environmental conservation as an encompassing component. Because of the serious efforts made by BISWA to bring environmental consciousness in the People of several districts of Orissa, BISWA has been selected to work as a Functioning NGO in forest area development programmes in Deogarh and Keonjhar districts funded by JBIC. BISWA also emphasizes on promoting enterprises related to Environmental care and efficient use of Natural Resources. BISWA is conducting studies on Resource Conservation Technologies for agro farming and Garbage, Waste Management in Rural and Urban Sambalpur District.

Our Perspective

We have huge deposits of fresh water on earth’s surface as well as in its sub-surface layers. Water in these deposits is in a state of perpetual movement from one compartment to another. However, inputs in each compartment are balanced by an equal output, so that a state of dynamic equilibrium is maintained. If withdrawal from any of these exceeds the input the pool size diminishes. We perceive that the speed with which rain water disappears, has to be explored. Imagine there is a hectare of land in Barmer, one of India’s places, receiving 100-mm of water in the year, common even for this area. This means that there is as much as one million litres of water enough to meet drinking and cooking water needs of 182 people at a liberal 15 litres per day. Even in the villages suffering from drought this year, it is not as if there was no rain. Saurashtra villages, the worst affected, also has 100-300 mm rainfall but they let the water go. It does not matter how much rain is received if there is no means to capture it, either directly or indirectly after the seepage. Cherrapunji, with 11,000mm annual rainfall, also suffers from drinking water shortages. Therefore, the efforts should be at mitigating the obstacle in loss of utilizing the rain water to revitalize the existent hydrological cycle. Another issue to be tackled is the erractic nature of the Indian rainfall. In Orissa, 78% of the rainfall is received in the monsoon season (June to September) and remaining 22% is available in eight months.

Table No. 1

Water Resources: India & Orissa (Unit in BCM)

The Public-Private Partnership in the Resource Conservative Techniques involves action research to be conducted under an eminent Investigator, who will utilize scientific temper alongwith the community experience to design water scarcity mitigation solutions. The outcome of such action research effort could be piloted initially to understand a wider benefit to the larger population. An active collaboration with the ongoing Government projects on water resource conservative technologies, both for drinking water purpose as well as for irrigation is another avenue for development.

Drainage is an essential part in completing the hydrological cycle, therefore the importance should be provided to both conserving the water as well as at creating proper drainage channels. In this regard, watershed development seems an ideal project to revitalize the eco system and also, to integrate the public-private model of programme delivery. Community participation is a key in the conceptualization as well as the implementation of the project. For, people are the best informants of the water resources and availability of water round the year. Organising people into Community based Organisations (CBOs) like the Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Farmer Groups (FGs) is identified as a method to implement the projects and percolate the benefits through group effort. The involvement of the local self governing bodies i.e, PRI’s in the loop of research as well as programme implementation is also sought as a mode for empowerment of the community level leaders

Direct benefit to end users

In any model to be implemented in the water sector should have a direct and ready impact on the lives of the end users. We believe that this benefit should be measureable in terms of increase in yield and its economic benefit to the farmers with the introduction of irrigational facilities. Once the relationship of direct benefit from water scarcity mitigation projects is understood through visible outcome to the end user, they will be enthusiastic to become active participants.

Water Resource Conservation Technologies

Orissa stands out as a paradox with the status of an underdeveloped State within India though endowed with rich natural and mineral resources. The estimated water resource of the State is one of the highest in the country, being of the order of 11% with 4% geographical area. Yet, the per capita agricultural production is one of the lowest and majority in Orissa, are small and marginal farmers practicing subsistence farming.

Thus the strategy to be adopted in planning and managing water resources assumes greater importance.

Agriculture is a vital sector in India contributing to about 30% of the GDP, a primary consumer of water at 80%. After independence, the need for expansion of irrigation facilities was fully recognized for increasing food grains production to meet the growing requirement of the population. However, the Irrigation sector is facing the problem of inadequate water management and maintenance. Better water management in agriculture will go a long way in improving our crop productivity and thereby, the total output. This would also make more water available for other crucial needs like the domestic and industrial sectors.

We at BISWA, see a clear convergence in water management or ecological development, and economic growth equating to ‘Quality of life.

The linkage between ecology and rural people’s economies has been decided as a thumb rule for any intervention in the sector. The focus is laid upon conservation, regeneration and the judicious use of all the resources - natural (land, water, plants and animals) and human. As an organization spread across all the 30 districts of Orissa, there is immense possibility at the offing to be realized from drought proofing to flood mitigation and solving water logging.A research based approach is sought in the initial stages to understand the geography of the area and find agricultural water management practices like techniques for increased water-use efficiency, dryland water conservation methods, social structures for cropping regulation, Low external input sustainable agricultural methods, etc. This helps us to integrate the traditional and localized water conservation methods with the modern conceptual technologies. In the implementation stage, these technologies are tailor-made to involve active community participation and percolation of benefit to the lowest common denominator in the social structure.

Fact sheet: Learnings from the People

Participatory Irrigation System in Tribal Area

The Khond tribals in present day Bolangir and Phulbani districts developed an irrigation system in the 16th century. A system of percolation tanks, diversion weirs and channels can take advantage of sloping terrains to conserve natural run off and utilize the flow of the streams. This system required community participation to sustain it.

Unfortunately, modern irrigation practices destroyed this system and this fertile area is now drought prone.

Katas / Mundas / Bandhas

The katas, mundas and bandhas were the main irrigation sources in the ancient tribal kingdom of the Gonds (now in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh). Most of these katas were built by the village headmen known as gountias, who in turn, received the land from the Gond kings. Land here is classified into four groups on the basis of its topography: aat, (highland); mal (sloped land); berna (medium land); and bahal (low land). This classification helps to select.A kata is constructed north to south, or east to west, of a village. A strong earthen embankment, curved at either end, is built across a drainage line to hold up an irregularly-shaped sheet of water. The undulations of the country usually determine its shape as that of a long isosceles triangle, of which the dam forms the base. It commands a valley, the bottom of which is the bahal land and the sides are the mal terrace. As a rule, there is a cut high up on the slope near one end of the embankment from where water is led either by a small channel or tal, or from field to field along terraces, going lower down to the fields. In years of normal rainfall, irrigation was not needed because of moisture from percolation and, in that case, the surplus flow was passed into a nullah. Similarly in the years of scanty rainfall, there were mechanisms to combat the situation.
(Ref source: Down to Earth)

We profess to promote the traditional water resource conservative technologies, integrated with a modern approach through public-private partnership.