Mendha-Lekha, a remote village in the Maoist-affected Gadchiroli district of eastern Maharashtra, has become the first in the country where Tribals have been given the right to sell bamboo harvested from the surrounding forests.
The Maharashtra government and the Union Environment Ministry recently gave the transit passes to the villagers thus enabling them to sell the bamboo from the region in the markets. The transit passes are required to take the bamboo from the village to the market, but the state forest department had refused the facility to the villagers for over one-and-a-half years.
It is to be noted that the British enacted the Indian Forest Act in 1927, which categorised bamboo as a tree, thereby preventing local forest dwellers from harvesting them without requisite permission from the forest department. The regime had been followed in independent India. Now bamboo will not be treated as a tree under Indian Forest Act anymore and will be considered a minor forest produce like tendu leaf.
The likely impact of the decision:
This decision to enable the villagers to sell the bamboo in the markets is a step forward in making them economically stronger and is a right step in economic decentralization of our villages. If we see the decision from conservationist’s point of view, we can empathetically say that giving forest rights to the local people is the best way to save our forests. Here it needs to mention that the Forest Right Act gives theforest dwellers the right to gather and sell minor forest products like bamboo, mahua, tendu leaves and sal seeds.
