A CASE STUDY ON FOREST PROTECTION IN CHITAPAL VILLAGE.
The village Chitapal is situated in Madhya Pradesh state in Katni district of Dhimerkheda block of Kachnari panchayat, with a population 265 in which 135 are male and 130 are female, with 57 households. The village is surrounded by hills covered by forest on three sides. The forest comes under Sagwon belt region and is home of many wild animals especially wild pigs and tiger. The forest is rich in trees like Sagwon and Seasame and NTFP like mahua, char, amla, chironji etc.
The village is home of three bold women i.e Jeera Bai, Dhaniya Bai and Kamli Bai who took initiative to fight against their Sarpanch from Siloudi to protect their forest. The incident dates back to the year 2006 when Water Organisation Trust started their watershed project in the village of Chitapal and Mukhas. During the implementation of the project it was known that the forest in the village were prone to deforestation as the valuable woods were cut down and sent to main market in Siloudi for making furniture’s. The wood cutters involved were the village members as they did it to earn money and were unware of the fact that cutting these trees was banned and it would also degrade the environment of their village. While interviewing some of the villagers it was also known that they went to cut forest trees under threat of their life as the Sarpanch was involved in this sinful act.
Water Organisation Trust took initiative to mobilize the community to make them aware about the facts and bring a behavioral change in them. As watershed involves community participation, transparency, learning in the project, it started mobilizing people in different meetings and trainings to make them understand the importance of the project. The organization also took the villagers to other villages to show and make them understand the project its benefits. Organization also showed various nukkad nataks etc to mobilize people. It was through great effort that people understood the importance of forest.
In words of Jeera Bai, “Ie hamar jungle hai. Hum apan jungle bachawat hai, jungle bachawe se hawa, pani, barsa hot hai, achi kheti hot hai, dhan hot hai aure acha paisa milat hai”
It was in the year 2008 that in spite of knowing the facts that cutting of Sagwon other forest trees was banned people were reluctant to protest as they knew that the Sarpanch was involved and the villagers were scared. It was then when the three bold women of the village i.e Jeera Bai, Dhaniya Bai and Kamli Bai came forward. They formed Self Help Group of women in the village and come forward to protect their forest. They involved each women and divided into small groups to keep a check on tractors coming into the village. A women reported of sound of axe coming from the forest at night, which indicated that trees were cut. Getting the information all women organized themselves at sat on dharna at the road entering to the village to stop the tractor. This action of village women had somehow reached to the ear of the sarpanch and he directed the tractor driver to change its route. But all the effort sarpanch went in vain as the women had intentionally made a fake plan to sit at the main road whereas they were waiting at Nakka for the tractor to come. It was late midnight when the tractor arrived. The women slept down on the road and as soon as the tractor stopped Jeera Bai threw a big stone on the headlights. Seeing this the driver tried to run away but was caught.
The women took all the wood logs back to the village, and reported the case in nearby police station along with the driver where he confessed and punished. The woodcutters involved were fined Rs 500/- as punishment.
Mr. Namdev the chief functionary of the village said in his interview that 16 wood cutting machines were found in Siloudi in which 10 of them were of the sarpanch. He even said that it was after this incident that the people understood their right and decided to elect a panch from their village gram panchayat so that he or she works for the development of the village. In this process Kamli Bai was elected as panch. It was during Kamli Bai’s office bearing that funds for road construction and Gram Swasth Samiti was received.
While conducting different Focused Group Discussions and interviews with the villagers a good feedback of Water Organization Trust was received. People are happy with the benefit they have received form but still there are issues on water sharing. People also gave their opinions on various other project requirements especially on health, sanitation and education.