India: Loss of Forest Control Impoverishes Orissa Villagers
11/23/99
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Title: India: Loss of Forest Control Impoverishes Orissa Villagers
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 23, 1999
MAHOLKOT, India, (Nov. 23) IPS - Gomti Majhi, a middle-aged tribal
woman in this village, has survived terrible poverty. Her husband died
during the 1996 drought here in Orissa, in eastern India, due to
illness and inadequate nutrition.
The death was reported as a "starvation death." Three years later, the
underlying causes of poverty and hunger remain intact here, as
elsewhere in the "hunger belt" of western Orissa.
Drought or no drought, villagers in the districts of Nuapada,
Bolangir, Koraput and Kalahandi are short of food and the means to buy
it.
Gomti and her late husband Bhanuan Majhi were dependent on a meager
income earned from selling the firewood they collected from the
degraded forest a few miles away. "We hadn't gone to the forest for
nine days, because of fever," Gomti recalled.
Many marginal and landless farmers here depend on the forest for their
livelihood. They collect firewood, clear patches for farming or
collect and sell forest produce like the flowers of the Mahua tree, an
ingrediant used in locally-brewed liquor.
But the forests are bound by strict forest laws that deny forest right
to the villagers. A monopolistic market offers a pittance for forest
products, accentuating the community's poverty.
"Historically, the local tribal people have been marginalized since
the 19th century," said Dr. Fanindam Deo, a professor at Khariar
College, a few miles from the village. Stringent colonial forest laws
and an influx of outsiders have led to loss of their common land and
access to natural resources, he said.
For the last century, this area has witnessed recurrent droughts,
possibly due to environmental reasons, notes Prof. Artabandhu Mishra
of Sambalpur University in western Orissa. Droughts have wreaked havoc
with the thin strips of rain-fed land that marginal farmers mostly
own.
"Dependence on the forests is a fall back mechanism for the poor
people," noted Mishra. Deforestation for commercial purposes, rather
than sustenance needs, and centralized control of forests deprived the
people of this guarantee against drought.
The villagers are not allowed to store, transport or sell forest
products on their own. So the "legal" traders buy Mahua flowers for
two and three rupees per kg when the actual market rate is six and a
half rupees.
The local market is controlled by affluent migrants from other states.
In Kantabanji, the nearest town, the traders' cartel buys agricultural
produce cheap and resells it at high prices.
For instance, an onion is bought for one and a half rupees a kg during
the season, and sold at four times the price here after a few months.
The villagers have no means to store such food.
Often villagers barter forest products for food or salt. Gomti Majhi
said she often collects Mahua flowers, either from the forest or from
private farms, and then trades them for an equal weight of salt.
The people seem to be unable to break away from the cycle of poverty
because there is little effort to empower them, NGO activists argue.
And the response of government officials has been less than adequate.
The former village chief of Maholkot complains that his letter to
local officials about the "starvation death" of Majhi was ignored,
until a local tabloid reported it and the regional press followed it
up. "Then they came here and blamed me for going to the press," said
Sabar, the former chief.
Sabar implies that the causes of poverty are more than environmental.
He notes that most of the villagers own one-half to two acres of land
-- or none at all. Those who do not own land clear forest patches or
migrate in search of odd jobs.
It is usual for people to sell land at dirt cheap prices during a
drought year, NGO activists point out. In Amlapali villager a few
miles away, 60 percent of the land is under mortgage to people from
other villages.
Continuing poverty leads to malnutrition and poor health. Health
workers note that a major cause of the high disease rate here is
malnutrition, apart from recurrent instances of malaria.
The massive seasonal exodus from this part of western Orissa also has
a serious impact on health. "Migrant laborers come back with different
kinds of diseases, after living in unhealthy, unhygienic conditions,"
said S.S. Panda, a government doctor in the neighboring district of
Bolangir.
Diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition among migrant workers and their
children is a major problems, health workers say. Births are often
complicated because the expectant mother received no prenatal care,
according to Dr. Panda.
In Maholkot, Gomti said she had to pay 50 rupees for an injection
prescribed by a "quack" as treatment for fever. Maholkot, cut off by a
river, has no access to health care.
But medical attention is not the solution. It cannot cure the diseases
of continuing poverty.