Poor connectivity

 Almost all the villages in the project area are covered by unmetalled road.   It makes villages inaccessible during monsoon. The muddy road cuts off villages  from rest of the block. The picture shown is a very common site of the project area.

Drought or Desert?

Arki block has abundance of lac host trees. During April and May pruning of trees takes place to extract lac from them. The picture shows Ber-host tree  being pruned for lac. Such trees are found in large numbers and often unutilized. 

Cultural Logging

Tribal festivals in Arki region are celebrated throughout the year. such festivals revolves around forest and nature. Number of trees are cut to celebrate the festival. Picture shows tribals preparing for a cultural programme and have cut precious trees from  forest.

Arki is a remote block of Jharkhand state. It has very dense forest. It is located in Khunti sub-division of Ranchi District in India (http://jharkhand.nic.in/about/districts.htm). Munda tribe is in majority in this region. Forest plays a vital role in shaping their culture, economic and religions life. The region is rich in flora and fauna. Sal is the main type of forest found here. Other trees found are gamhar, mahua, palas, jackfruit, mango, tamarind, kendu and wide varieties of medicinal plants. Non Timber Foresst Produce (NTFP)  like laquer (locally called lac), Ber ( plum),Mahua (flower and seed), Kendu leaf, tamarind chiraunji are few of the widely available produce of this region.

Munda community has a very distinct way of life. This makes them very different from other community. Munda tribe in Arki region has been living in the forest since ages. This was to preserve their independence and identity. Right from the beginning Munda were united to protect their natural and livelihood resources from outsiders. They had their own traditional system of socio-cultural and political governance- the Parha and the Manki Munda system. They developed Khuntkatti system. They kept themselves away from the center of power. They resisted the tax imposed by the emperors and kings. This resistance became more prominent during the British rule in India .It resulted in the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT Act 1908).

Tribal in Arki have been alienated from their very livelihood resources –land forest and water. Their struggle today is no more a sociological issue. It has become a political question. The problem has also increased because most of the village heads, called Munda, are not literate. They are least aware about the various government programmes and schemes. In most of the tribal villages, the non-tribal traders and moneylenders are powerful enough to sway decision and schemes in their favour. Gram Sabhas are weak. They are ignorant about the rights. It has affected the poor tribal in a wider context: Forest and green cover has reduced at rapid pace in the last 10 years. The collection of forest produce has decreased. The rural’s food and livelihood security has been greatly affected. Medicinal herbs, which were easily available in the past in forest, are becoming extinct.
Anti tribal sentiments is prevalent among bureaucrats and businessmen alike. Time and again the peoples’ movement reminds the state of this reality.

The various Acts provided the British with a better way of collecting tax from tribal. At the same time they very consciously tried to destroy the self–governance of tribal. In turn they tried to set up their own bureaucracy in the region. This violated the self-respect and autonomy of tribal.  British formulated the forest policy in India. The aim was ‘consumption’ rather than ‘conservation’.  Even after the independence, the Forest Acts never considered tribal as an integral part of the forest.
See: Various forest Acts to manage forest.

AID was operating in education and health activities in Arki block for seven years. For more details see www.aidindia.org.uk.
During that period AID found that the Khuntkatti rights were not properly followed. Munda Raj system had become weak. That was leading to fast depletion of forest cover. Poverty level showed an increasing trend. So it became necessary to strengthen tribal panchayat. The aim was to give power to the people to control over forest.  Concern over depleting forest cover was also expressed by tribal. But they lacked proper information about Khuntkatti system. AID entered the scene to show them the way.

Arki block offered a great challenge for development. In order to make the existing Khuntkatti system strong, AID started to strengthen the village Munda panchayat. There are seven panchayat with 71 villages where the project is running at present. There are three area coordinators to monitor and supervise the work. The aim is to control and manage forest for economic security. The objective is to empower Gram Sabhas.
One of the first tasks of AID was to build up the capacity of the Munda panchayat (or Gram Sabha). Women Self Help Groups (SHG) and men Youth groups (YG)  were formed

The main focus of this project is Munda tribe. Particular focus is on revival of Khuntkatti system of tribal governance. Workshop on Forest Promotion & CNT Act takes place at regular interval. The aim is to teach about the various privileges and rights provided to tribal. Most of them are totally ignorant about such rights.
Case Study: Strengthening of Munda panchayat

Capacity building and strengthening of Community Based Organizations (CBO) has helped in preserving the community forest in many villages. The CBOs are Self Help Group (SHG), Youth Group (YG) and Munda panchayat. A means of local vigilance set up by GS to protect forest justifies to this point. People are more conscious about forest protection than what they used to practice earlier. GS used to discuss more on their local village issues and cultural events. The matter of forest protection was taken very lightly. But the sincere effort by AID staff has inculcated in them, the importance of forest.
Case Study: Awakening To Achieve The Mission

The local government is inaccessible to the tribal villages. The project drew a strategy to break this isolation and link up the area with government schemes and programmes in order to ensure self-rule of the tribes. Most of the Gram Sabhas are not aware about such schemes.  Therefore various schemes of the government have been explained to the tribal villagers at regular period of time.
Case Study:  Catalyzing the groups into action

The village panchayat have been geared to serve as a forest protection committee in each village.
Training on agro-forestry nursery raising and plantation in degraded farmland has begun.
Case Study: Preparing ground for greenery

Green & Wild: After a decade of dilly-dallying on the Jharkhand Social Forestry Project due to intense opposition from various pressure groups, the World Bank has finally given a green signal to the Rs.1147.77-crore programme. It is now re-christened Jharkhand Participatory Forest Management Project. The World Bank has asked the state government and NGOs to work together in this direction.

India shelves law empowering tribals: The Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Land Rights) Bill 2005, which seeks to recognize the rights of forest-dwelling scheduled tribes (FDSTs) over forest produce, has been pulled off the agenda for discussion by the Indian cabinet, following a heated debate between tribal rights and social groups on the one hand and environmentalists on the other, over provisions in the draft bill.
See http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/110977/1/