Nayagarh: In Jiginipatna no one ignores the call of the village forest protection committee.
It started with a group of villagers who got together to save their forests from the timber mafia and interestingly while people in the village are divided on caste lines, they are all united when it comes to protecting their forests.
"We may be enemies when it comes to politics but we are one when it's a forest protection issue," said a member of the Jigipatana Forest Protection Committee.
"We don't want to fight, we don't have guns. That is not how we operate. We go there with only
lathis but the idea is to persuade the offenders to behave and help our cause," said another member.
Jiginipatna is one of the 810 villages in Nayagarh district that are part of the Jungle Surakshya Mahasangh, a grass roots level people's organisation that took shape in 1992 when local activists led by a school teacher Joginath Sahu launched a campaign to form village level committees that would take over the protection and management of forests.
"Nobody can be a better forester than the villager because he's a beneficiary and therefore a stakeholder.He is a protector without any uniform, salary, van or gun," said Shramik Jogi, founder, Jungle Surakshya Mahasangh.
The campaign worked and people across hundreds of villages joined hands to form committees at the village, regional and zonal levels. And since then the Mahasangh has grown in strength.
People in Nayagarh have set up not only a great example but a hugely successful model of community based forest management which is self-financed and self-regulated and in which each of the 80,000 members is a stakeholder.
Mahasangh's strength comes from its fiercely democratic support base. The village committee is supreme and the Mahasangh doesn't receive funds from the government or any NGO. It's the annual contribution of Rs 4 from every member that helps.
"It is self financed. We collect
Chuli Chaanda from members to ensure our autonomy and independence as a true people's organisation. We don't want outside support," said Kailash, Leader, Jungle Surakshya Mahasangh.
The key to Mahasangh's success is their understanding that people will defend the forest with all their might only if they are allowed to share its bounties.
"Along with forest protection we also take care of the basic needs of people, especially of those who earn their livelihood from forests. If we prevent them, they will turn against us and the forest," added Purna Chandra Mohapatra, President, Jungle Surakshya Mahasangh.
The Mahasangh is not a registered body. It rejects the government's Joint Forest Management theory. But the fact that the govt has had very little to complain about the people's body only proves the Mahasangh model of community management works far better than theirs.