Livelihood boost for SHGs in Sunderbans

kolkata: In a bid to curb pollution as well as provide an alternative means of livelihood to the villagers of Sunderbans, the Directorate of Forest, South 24-Parganas Division and Kolkata Society for Cultural Heritage, a social enterprise, has rolled out three projects of paper plate manufacturing and crab and shrimp cultivation.

These projects will entail 40 Self Help Groups from marginalised sections of 6 villages bordering the forest land areas. The project will impact approximately 350 marginalised women from the villages like Laskar Pur, Vivekanda Pally, Jharkhali Bazar, Tridip Nagar and Purbo Gurguriya. The paper plate manufacturing project will start in the Jharkhali area under the Matla range.

Women from 12 different SHGs will be the part of the pilot project. The pilot project for crab and shrimp cultivation will be taken up in Kultali area under Raidighi Range. The projects will minimise the human-wildlife conflict.