LIVELIHOOD CONTRIBUTIONS OF FOREST RESOURCES TO THE TRIBAL COMMUNITIES OF JHARKHAND (original) (raw)

The present study documents livelihood contributions of forest resources to the tribal communities of Bundu block in Ranchi district of Jharkhand state. The study is based on personal interviews of the selected respondents through interview schedule, personal observations and participatory rural appraisal tools i.e. semi-structure interview and focus group discussion carried out in the sample villages using multi-stage random sampling technique. The results of the study revealed the average size of forest based direct paid employment among sample population was 19.82 mandays/ household/ annum and the mean income earned from these activities was `2199.70/ household/ annum in the area. The livelihood generation from forest based secondary employment in the study area was nil as no wood-based or Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) based enterprises were established. The average income and unpaid employment generated through NTFPs based self-employment for the surveyed households in the area were estimated to be `4791.16/ Household/ annum and 88.22 mandays/ annum. The percentage of households involved in collection of various NTFPs varied from 1.83% to 100% and that involved in NTFPs marketing was 1.83% to 80.49% in the sample villages. The NTFPs had variable abundance according to season and the collection of these NTFPs recorded variations with the seasonal occupation of the local people. The overall income and employment generated through forest resources including direct employment, secondary employment and self-employment was ` 6990.85/ household/ annum and 108.04 mandays/ household/ annum among surveyed population. The agriculture contributed major share (36.23%) of total household annual income followed by forest resources (25.05%), labour (9.74%), livestock (8.86%), business/ shop (8.72%), service (6.77%) and others (4.63%). Thus, the livelihoods promotion among tribal people needs a shift of paradigm focusing on forest resources to keep pace with current development and future challenges in the area. 132 natural resources . These factors aggravated the problems of poverty, migration, unemployment, under-employment, food insecurity and malnutrition for millions of tribal people in India . The capability of agriculture and livestock production to form sustainable livelihoods of tribal poor is in continuous decline because the current overall endowments of production, distribution of productive assets and productive abilities are out of alignment with what is needed . Consequently, the tribal people are constrained to earn their livelihoods from forest resources. Forest is the second largest land use in India after agriculture covering 21.05% of the total geographical area of the country (Anonymous, 2011). Forests provide a wide spectrum of livelihoods for tribal communities in the form of direct employment, self-employment and secondary employment. The direct employment is provided by the forest department and other departments (rural development, agriculture and co-operatives) in the form of managerial, technical, research, planning and executive jobs. The other direct employments consisted of labour force for rural masses generated by these departments under regular forestry activities are growth, development and maintenance of the forests, research and training, survey of forest resources, protection and conservation of forest resources, soil and water conservation, harvesting, collection and processing of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), preparation of nurseries, fencing, soil working, transplanting, planting, tending operations, watering, fertilizer and pesticide application, protection and management of plantation and infrastructure development. The self employment in forestry create local people's livelihoods through the sale of fuel wood and fodder, grazing, lopping and grass cutting, forest based handicrafts and cottage industries, sericulture, lac cultivation, bee keeping, charcoal burning, leaf plate making, liquor making, rope making and basketry, medicines, collection, processing and marketing of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), cultivation of agricultural crops under agri-silvicultural practices, livestock rearing, social and farm forestry and availing of rights and concessions. The application of local skills and village-level technology in woodbased and small-scale forest-based enterprises provide secondary employment and livelihood opportunities for tribal people, main amongst are saw milling, rayon, pulp and paper, ply wood and panel products, wood seasoning and preservation, tanning, sports goods, match splints, veneers, wooden boxes, bamboo and cane products, agricultural implements, furniture, structural wooden items, musical instruments, bidi making, educational goods, wood carving, wooden utensils etc. (Pant, 1984;.