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| Out of the woods? A social History of local institutions, changing patterns of Resource use and Community forest management in two Central Himalayan Indian villages" (Kilmaro & Katuul) |
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Reference |
| Kapoor-Britt Charla : 1995 "Out of the woods? A social History of local institutions, changing patterns of Resource use and Community forest management in two Central Himalayan Indian villages" (Thesis) |
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Introduction to the Institution |
| Situated in the north-eastern corner of Ramgarh block the villages exists in a mountainous terrain at altitudes ranging between 1,400 and 1,800 meters. The villages are about 10 hours (by car) from Delhi, and roughly equidistant to Nainital and Almora. Kilmora and Katuul are both entirely Hindu village, with majority Thakur population. Katuul is composed of Brahmins, Thakurs and Aryas, while Kilmora contains just two castes, Thakur and Arya, about 91 percent of the population here is Thakur ( 71 percent population in Katuul) with only four Arya ( a scheduled caste group ) households. Kilmora contains 46 households with a total population of 313 persons whereas Katuul contains 36 households with a total population of 236 persons. The older houses occupy the lower, warmer and more fertile regions of the valley but the newer homes do not have this luxury. The older houses are built in the form of joint family house "bakhli" and can be easily spotted out by their fine wood carving on doors and around windows . They are fairly large in size and are two storied, livestock occupy a room on the ground floor "goth". Other rooms at this level contain crop residues and seeds for agriculture. In the upper floor "paeri chaakh" there are separate room for sleeping, a shrine and a kitchen. Both villages share the same means of production. Agriculture is considered the main occupation. Most families keep animals, they own atleast one buffalo, one bullock, several goats and one cow. Most livestock in Kilmora and Katuul are stall-fed, with fodder collected from private land and wooded areas. Eighty-four and 65 percent of animals are stall-fed in Kilmora and Katuul respectively. The difference is accounted for the reason that a larger number of livestock is allowed to free graze in Katuul, then the grazing restrictions in Kilmora's community forest.
In Kilmora there is a combined total of 2,836 nali* of owned land, and in Katuul the total land owned is less than half of Kilmora, at 1,345 nali (*Twenty nali is equavalent to one acre). Land ownership is markedly different between the castes. The majority Thakur households own more land with a mean of almost 56 nali, Brahmins own 40 nali and Arya families have substantially less with 25 nali. |
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Rules for Management
of the Institution |
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(a) Boundary Rules |
| Residents of the villages. Everyone in the village had to be member and pay a token membership fee. |
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(b) Governance
rules |
| Households from all three castes represented in Katuul are included in the initial decision making process. Presently there is a village Sarpanch who is suppposed to be the head.
A separate Kilmora forest committee and community forest was only established in 1969. Before this date the community forest was combined with forest area with a neighbouring village. The present Sarpanch for that village suggests that Kilmora forest area was separated out in 1969 because of differences in approaches to forest management between the villages
MAINTENANCE: Different sections of the forest are demarcated for use and the Sarpanch and Patwari issued trees. In Katuul, early activities concentrated on enabling regeneration and protection. A rotation system for protecting the forest was begun at this point. A 'chabras' (like an armband) and hammer was requested from the forest inspector in Nainital. The hammer had an imprint -gram panchayat (village committee)- on the face and was used to mark trees for cutting. The chabras was used as a symbol for forest watchers (chowkidar). Under a system of rotation, the chabras with its engraved brass plate would be passed from one house to the next in a predetermined order. The chabras served a dual purpose: it was a means of notification, designating the receiving household to be responsible for forest surveillance during the following day, and it lent authority and legitimacy to the wearer who could levy fines for illegal activities in the forest
Chabras rotation continued in Katuul for over 30 years. Areas where the forest had been harmed were reported to the Sarpanch at the end of the day, which forced the watcher to regularly observe changes in the forest. Familiarity with the forest seemed to have increased awareness.
In Kilmora there was never a chabras passed on from one household to the next, but a similar system of rotation was employed. In a report book, the forest watcher for the day would record the route taken through the forest and encounters with encroachers or wild animals sighted. The system of forest watcher duties was relatively unsuccessful in Kilmora probably because incentive for this was low. Since there were fewer households and most residents could rely on sources closer to home for fuelwood and fodder, there was less pressure on the community forest. |
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(c) Resource Allocation |
| Not clear |
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Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Sanctions: Women usually collected forest products in groups, If someone was caught cutting illegally, a fine was levied and her (or his) equipment was confiscated. The apprehending watcher was rewarded with half of the recovered fine. There was a five rupee fine for unauthrized cutting of trees and 25 paise penalty for lopping green leaves |
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Changes in the Institution over time |
| Sometime in 1988 CHIRAG (an NGO) started working in Kilmora and the following year the role of the forest watcher was redefined as ' forest maintainer'. Under this new title a forest watcher is expected to do more than fine and deter. The responsibilities include : weeding around and providing dry leaf compost to young saplings, repairing boundary walls and protecting trees from improper lopping |
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Purpose |
| To study various aspects of community forest management |
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Country |
| India (Uttar Pradesh,Kumaun) |
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Region |
| Kilmora and Katuul |
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Date Of Publication |
| RS-17/09/96 |
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