Nexus of Good: Twin solutions

Water scarcity and forest fires are quite common in hilly tracts of the country and, ironically, these two problems are linked but unaddressed. Here follows the story of a group of enlightened youngsters who attempted to address these issues and succeeded.

In the summer of 2003-04, the flow of water in the Kosi River, which is also known as the lifeline of Almora city, had reduced from its normal flow of 1,400 litres per second to 95 litres per second. Due to the decrease in the water level, the water pumps stopped working — disrupting the supply of water from Kosi River to the city. Almora was in turmoil due to non-supply of water for three days. A similar crisis was experienced in the Syahi Devi Sitlakhet reserve forest area, 30 km from the city. Disturbed by this unprecedented water crisis, some youth of the area — Gajendra Pathak, Girish Chandra Sharma, Ganesh Pathak, Harish Bisht, Ramesh Bhandari, Kailash Nath, Late Prakash Pathak, Late Piyush Chand, Lalit Bisht, Puran Singh Negi, Dhiraj Mertolia, Girish Ram, Bhola Ram etc. — tried to find the cause of water crisis by forming Shyahi Devi Vikas Manch, Sitlakhet.

The forum members found that:

⁕ In the absence of any kind of proper alternative, uncontrolled exploitation of broad-leaf trees of silver oak, rhododendron, alnus, myrica etc. was being done for firewood and agricultural use.

⁕ The forest was catching fire every summer, which was a big cause of concern. Due to inaccessible geographical conditions, and limited resources and staff; complete control over forest fire was not possible for the forest department.

⁕ As water sources are found only in mixed forests in mountainous areas, due to uncontrolled and unscientific exploitation of these mixed forests, the water level in the water sources was decreasing.

After identifying the cause, the Manch, along with the Forest Department, decided to launch the Save Jungle-Save Water campaign.

The members of the forum, along with the Forest Department employees Roop Singh and Ranjit Singh, came together with women from the villages of Salla Rautela, Naula, Matila, Dhamas, Bhakar, Kharkia, Suri, Gadsari, Padula, Barsila, Sadka, Chhidriya, Harda, Patalia, etc. and organized awareness seminars to save broad-leaf species of trees.

After two-three years of concerted efforts, the women agreed not to exploit broad-leaf trees for firewood, and decided to support the Forest Department in taking care of forest fires by extinguishing and clearing oak leaves from the paths. In 2012, Shri Kuber Chand, a conscientious forest beat officer appointed in the Sitlakhet section, played an important role in connecting the women of the area to the Save Jungle-Save Water campaign.

Taking the increasing awareness among women into consideration, the forum convened a meeting of all women at the Shyahi Devi temple on the day of Ramnavami in 2005 and unanimously passed the resolution of dedicating the forest of Syahi Devi Sitlakhet to the Goddess Shyahi Devi for the coming five years. The condition of the forests started improving rapidly after this decision. At the same time, the Forest Department started making rain water harvesting structures in this area on the demand raised by the forum.

The forest began to revive through ANR (Assisted Natural Regeneration) – supporting the forest to regenerate by reducing use of broad-leaf species trees for firewood and checking the incidence of forest fires. Continuing the awareness campaign, the forum, in collaboration with the Forest Department, organized awareness seminars every year on the occasion of Ram Navami/World Environment Day. In one such awareness seminar in 2009, the then Divisional Forest Officer SK Banerjee announced that if the forest of Sitlakhet area did not catch fire next year, then each Gram Sabha would be given a reward of Rs 5,000.

The forum and Mahila Mangal teams took the challenge and kept cleaning the paths continuously throughout the year — with the help from local employees of the Forest Department; if there was any incident of fire, it was controlled within the first half hour itself. There was no major incident of forest fire in the year. Banerjee kept his promise and gave Rs 5,000 as a reward to 10 Gram Sabhas of the area.

Parallelly, there was a constant demand raised by the farmers to find an alternative for the manufacturing of wooden ploughs to save the oak trees as wood from the trees was used for making their ploughs. This forest of Syahi Devi-Sitlakhet area happened to be the main source of wood for the agricultural equipment of the farmers of the nearby villages.

In 2012, Vivekananda Hill Agricultural Research Institute, Almora, introduced the first version of 'VL Syahi plough'. A collaborative project was sanctioned by the Uttarakhand government for the distribution of 500 such ploughs. Lightweight, cheap, durable and stronger than the wooden plough, the VL Syahi plough is being used by more than 90 per cent of the farmers of the villages around this forest. The intervention has been successful in saving hundreds of big oak trees every year.

Meanwhile, during the horrific forest fires of 2012 and 2016, this forest area also suffered damage. Research revealed that the biggest reason for forest fires was the random stubble (locally called Ond) burning in March to prepare the farmlands for the upcoming monsoon crop. While women are usually cautious in burning the stubbles, in many cases, the fire spreads to the nearby farms and the reserved/panchayat/civil forests — resulting in incidents of forest fire.

To create awareness about the forests of Sitlakhet Syahi Devi area, Mahatim Yadav — Divisional Forest Officer in Almora Forest Division — walked from Almora to Sitlakhet in 2020, and also prepared an action plan to develop this area as an eco-tourism centre connecting the local unit of ITBP to protect the forest. The local people have been supporting the Forest Department in the conservation and promotion of forests. For the first time on the initiative of the Divisional Forest Officer, the district administration gave 14 vehicles and Rs 20 lakh to the Forest Department for forest fire management.

Gajendra Pathak, the advisor of the Village Industries Development Institute, Dhaili, Almora, suggested celebrating April 1 every year as Ond Day, which was accepted by the women. Also, on April 22, on World Earth Day, an awareness rally was taken out by the Forest Department in Sitlakhet, and a programme was organized in which many organizations, government officials, and villagers participated at large scale.

What has happened in Sitlakhet is a wonderful example of Nexus of Good. A model has been evolved to grapple with a problem that afflicts a number of villages. This model can and is being scaled through public-private partnership. The chief minister of Uttarakhand has recognised these efforts, and has announced the replication of the 'Sitlakhet Model' in other parts of the state under the Save Jungle-Save Water campaign.

Views expressed are personal