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| Turf and Forest Management in a Garhwal and Hill Village" in "Whose Trees ? Proprietary Dimensions of Forestry |
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Reference |
| Moench, Marcus; 1988 "Turf and Forest Management in a Garhwal and Hill Village" in "Whose Trees ? Proprietary Dimensions of Forestry ",Louise, fortmann and ruce, John W (ed), Westview Press: Boulder,CO p.127-135 |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Munglori is a medium sized, Rajput dominated, agricultural village with access to extensive oak forests, grassland and rain-fed agricultural with little irrigated lands(refer Table.1). The village production activities are primarily directed at subsistence level, the activities being based on locally available resources, of which fodder and fuel are key elements.In Munglori, roughly half of the total wood-fuel required comes from the small twigs remaining as a by product of fodder collection.Oak (Quercus incanna) is the dominant species which is used to meet all the requirements.Here there is a customary system of land and tree tenure termed as "turf". Turf is defined as a system of resource tenure that is: 1)Geographically based
2)Associated with a distinct social unit such as village, clan or family
3)Not incorporated into any official, statutory tenure system.
In this study the turf and forest management have been examined on inter-village and intra-village level
The operation of Turf has two basic elements: a)a clearly defined area of forest use for the village as a whole
b)hazily defined areas of individual or group use within the village area
The former one is explicit whereas the latter one is more implicit |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Spatial: Munglori is 12 north-east of Mussoorie in Tehri Garhwal, the predominant local culture being Hindu Pahari.Despite close proximity to the major center of Mussoorie, Munglori is isolated by the area's steep topography
Social: Each village has a clearly defined "turf" area in the forests over which it claims use right.Although this right has no legal standing but is explicitly recognized by other villages and thus seves as an effective unofficial control on access to forest.Therefore "turf" in Munglori is ownership of resources that are officially in the public domain.Within each village's forest families or small groups of families have hazily defined areas of regular use, adjacent to outbuildings, but these areas are not explicitly recognized by other members of the village yet it does provide a basis for limited management |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| Forests in the Munglori region are owned by the state and under control of the Forest department
Maintenance: The starting point of maintenance deals with the lopping system.Lopped areas are essentially production forests towards the supply of fodder and to a lesser extent fuel.Regular lopping is one of the prerequisites for the production of fodder.In addition to this another element of management is the reservation of oaks in the vicinity of "chans" (outbuildings near or in the forest where stock are kept) for cutting during periods of high labor demand.These chans belong to individual families in the village.The leaf fodder available on the oaks near the chans is not collected except during periods, such as harvest when little time is available for the collection of fodder from other areas.During this time the chan owners use the fodder which has been saved for their stock
Other elements of use include grazing and entry of fires from adjacent grassland areas.Grazing is uncontrolled in most part of lopped areas
Fires are set in grassland areas during the period prior to monsoon to ensure a good grass crop. Gradually under the dryness of the season they spread to adjacent lopped oak areas and into the main forest |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| Inter-village operation: villages have clearly defined areas of forest as their own.The forest area has well defined boundaries, it is bounded by the ridge crest above the village and by a spur of land between it and the next village downstream within the main watershed.Within the area recognised as "belonging " to Munglori, the village has exclusive right to collection of fodder, grazing of stock and cutting of fuel
In the upper ridge crest boundary, often members of other village, from across the ridge, enter this area for fodder collection
Intra-village operation: Within the village turf area , villagers have equal access and equal right to all portions of the resource.Each family owns between two and four "chans" where stock are kept and the dung produced can be distributed on family agricultural fields.S tocks are rotated between chans on a seasonal basis depending on fodder availability and agricultural requirements
Villagers plant farm trees as,Grewia oppisitifolia, Celtos australis, Ficus nemoralis near outbuildings.These trees are owned by the planter and the fodder they produce is used as a supplement to other fodder |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| The concept of turf can be useful in designing forestry projects, turf control forest use and access. But if intra or inter village turf rights are ignored in the development of projects there is a potential of conflict between the project and the village |
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Problems Faced by Institution |
| Overuse occurs in forests near villages on the opposite side of the watershed that are near large towns and the road.Forests are heavily lopped by thr people without care for the condition of forest.A primary function of turf would be to control access of numerous villages from getting it over-utilized |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| Not reported |
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Other Features of Institution |
| Since the turf system is not based on exclusive set of rules, several elements basic to its functioning require control over access to the resource or the exclusion of outsiders.The elements are: a) The ability to lop on an effective rotation which produces branches of desirable characteristics ; b) the ability to limit lopping to a point where the productive characteristics of the trees are not damaged; c) the ability to reserve fodder in the vicinity of chans for use during periods of high labor demand. A number of adjacent villages are extremely limited intheir access to good sources of leaf fodder. Therefore without any limitations on access to the forest there will be greater utilization pressure which result in gradual degradation of the forest. |
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Purpose |
| Maintenance of Forest Resources |
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Country |
| India (Uttaranchal, Mussoorie) |
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Region |
| Munglori |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-15/04/96 |
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