Rajabhatkhawa (Alipurduar) April 19 : A group of senior
forest officials from Bangladesh is visiting Buxa Tiger Reserve to study the India Eco-Development Project
(IEDP) and Joint Forest Management (JFM) modules to implement similar
programmes in their country. Dhaka conservator of forests Manoj Kanti
Roy is leading the group.
"There is enormous pressure on forests in our country because
of the population density. Due to this, we have to involve people
in everything we do. As a result, we have decided to save our forests
with people's participation. We have, therefore, introduced participatory
forest management from 1990. We have come to Buxa to gain insight
into the successful implementation of forest management modules
like IEDP and JFM here," said Roy.
The Bangladesh officials visited different forest villages and
spoke to the members of forest protection and eco-development committees.
Officials of the tiger reserve accompanied them.
Samsur Rahman, the Dhaka conservator of forest (wildlife), said:
"The unique feature of forest management here is the level
of cooperation between the forest department, panchayats and residents
of forest hamlets. As a result of a well-coordinated strategy, the
villagers, who were once involved in illegal activities inside the
forest, have come forward to protect the forest and wildlife."
The group, however, feels that there were aspects of the management
modules which could not be replicated in Bangladesh.
"We saw the example of 20 families who were shifted out of
Bhutia Basti in Jainti and rehabilitated. This, however, would not
have been possible in Bangladesh because of land scarcity. We have
not registered a single new forest village after 1956, but the families
in forest hamlets have grown in size. We had initially provided
one hectare of land to each family in a forest village, but this
has proved insufficient as new members have been added on to each
family," said Rahman.
The participation of women in forest management programmes was
also praised by the team.
Rafika Sultana, a senior Bangladesh forest official, said: "The
active role of women members in forest protection and eco-development
committees has surprised us. We had never imagined that women in
forest villages could play such a crucial role."
The JFM programme was officially launched in West Bengal in 1991.
It proved to be a huge success and earned the state forest department
the prestigious John Paul Getty award. Under the programme, the
forest department initiated schemes for the economic uplift of forest
villages as well as adjacent revenue villages.
Courtesy
TheTelegraph |
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