Holistic Interventions in the Western Ghats

ON AKOLE REGION, LOK PANCHAYAT AND ITS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

Lok panchayat

Western Ghats is a unique geological formation. Its uniqueness is in its diversity. Rainfall, geological formations, geographical formations – cliffs, grasslands, waterfalls, ravines, flora, fauna; you name it, it has it. No wonder that diversity is reflected in the culture of traditional communities inhabiting Western Ghats. In Maharashtra, Western Ghats is referred as Sahyadri.

Akole taluka of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra is located in the main ranges of Sahyadri. It is bestowed with natural beauty. Traveling through the taluka, one would obviously notice mosaic of landscapes ranging from cliffs to grass lands and paddy fields situated on the slopes. In between you would notice good patches of semi evergreen forests. Sacred Groves are also common in this terrain. Typical villages in mountainous Akole taluka house 50-100 houses with equally typical slopping roofs and thatched walls. Mahadev Koli and Thakar are the traditional communities in Akole taluka; beside these, in most villages there are Dalit families who also depend on the forests and cultivate small plots of land. History of Akole region dates back to Satvahan dynasty (circa 4 B.C) in Maharashtra. There are plenty of Buddhist caves in this region. Akole region has many historic trade routes owing to its location. It is situated on the main Sahyadri ranges as mentioned earlier. You get into Akole region immediately after climbing up main Sahyadri ranges from the Konkan. No wonder that Akole has important historic trade routes and forts that helped the rulers to monitor and regulate the trade. In historic time Akole would have been a flourishing area. In the British regime, pucca roads were made crossing the main Sahyadri ranges to reach Konkan. Due to comparatively more challenging terrain than adjoining regions, Akole remained devoid off such pucca roads. This resulted in Akole gradually fadingoff to oblivion. Traditional communites that once ruled the region were no exception to this.

Mahadev Koli, one of the two predominant traditional communities in Akole region was known for its warrior spirit. In Maratha history, Mahadev Koli would typically be guardians of the forts located in the main ranges of Sahyadri. While climbing up the fort, one would come across Met, a check post guarded by Mahadev Koli community. There would be a chain of such check posts guarded by Mahadev Kolis. Pucca roads and advent of technology in communication and transportation affected strategic importance of forts and thus of Mahadev Kolis. Thakar, another traditional community in Akole region was a farming community. Its cultivation mainly relied on shifting cultivation, locally called Dali Rann and small farms prepared on the terraced hill slopes.

From eighteenth century onwards, by the time forts had lost their historic relevance and Akole region was pushed off to oblivion, traditional communities in this region survived on seasonal cultivation on less fertile lands of this region and hunting and collection of whatever forests around offered them. In summer traditional communities here would be busy preparing shifting cultivation lands, in rainy season they would cultivate paddy in the farms on the terraced hill slopes and in winter, livelihood would be mostly on hunting small games and honey collection and collection of whatever forests would offer them like gum, resin etc.

Paddy farms needed heavy manure owing to their less fertile nature. This resulted in cattle rearing by the traditional communities. It is very striking in this region that farmers keep cattle in quite large number. Each family would have not less than 40 cattle heads at a time. Also farmers had a range of rice landraces to overcome all sorts of natural calamities and obstacles. There were short duration land races that would be ready to harvest in 90 days, another set of land races was of upland rice, still another was of scented, still another was medicinal and so on. In nut shell, farming community was self reliant. Paddy bunds would be cultivated with cucurbits which would constitute supplementary food.

Dali Rann, the shifting cultivation in this region was an elaborate process so much so that it had rituals associated. Remnants of the rituals can still be found in Sacred Grove festival celebrated in many villages in the region. Villagers mention that in past Dali Rann would not start unless deities in the Sacred Groves were propitiated. In its natural form, it would be a fifteen years cycle. A cleared piece of land would be cultivated for five years and would be left fallow for ten years. In the first year of cultivation, Nagli would be cultivated, in the second it would be Sava, in the third it would be Wari andin fourth Rala. In the final year of cultivation Khurasni, an oil seed would be planted. It would not be just these crops but there would be combination of tuber crops and leguminous and cucurbit trailers associated. It was a holistic cultivation with fabulous harnessing of resources in time and space. Crops in the Dali Rann would be ready for harvesting one after another, in sequence. This would provide the cultivator a continuous supply of much needed micro nutrition – minerals, vitamins and protein and carbohydrate supplement.

Collection of forest produce was elaborated as Dali Rann. Traditional communities had over the generations developed norms and rules to harvest forest produce that gradually became traditions to deal with fellow living beings in the forests. For example, there was a stipulated time period for honey collection. Communities have only two livelihood options: one is the NTFP collection, the other is rain fed agriculture. The major NTFPs are harada (Terminalia chebula) and honey. Another NTFp collected by the tribal people is karvanda (Carrisa carandas) which, however, did not generate much income. Though large quantities of this fruit are available, only 5% of it has been sold. Lokpanchayat has now commenced support to harvester groups for processing and selling this fruit. Over the last 10 to 15 years honey collection has decreased and the Apis cerana bee has become endangered; the participatory conservation of this bee is now very important.

Development has pros and cons. In case of Akole region, on the lighter side of the development is reaching of pucca roads to interior most villages, reaching of state transport bus to these villages, primary health centers, PDS (ration) shops at a village cluster level etc. On the darker side of the development is excess forest cutting, degraded hill slopes adding to decline in Dali Rann, cattle being replaced by browsers – goats, migration of youths to urban areas, decline in self reliance due to subsidized seeds and fertilizers.

Fifteen years ago Lokpanchayat volunteers noticed the darker side of development in the Akole region when they decided to work with local communities to empower them. An old man in Pachnai village, situated on the crest line of Sahyadri, mentioned that flowers of Fangla, Pogostemon parviflirus[tooltip content=”Pogostemon parviflorus, a Labiate, is spread over East Asia and a known source of honey!” url=”” ]Ref: 1[/tooltip], a common shrub around the village is a major forage plant for honey bees. Over last few years, goats in the village have increased and they browse whatever comes their way, including the Fangla. This resulted in Fangla flowering poorly and affected honey production.

Another specialty of the honey from this region is that after every three and seven year period honey from Apis cerana is white in color and rich in natural sugars; after some days this white honey is transformed to crystal form. The reason for the white honey is Karavi (Carvia callosa) and akhara(Lepidagathis cuspidata); both are shrubs, the former flowering in seven-year cycles and exhibiting a masting characteristic. The white honey shows above 56% of its sources come from akhara.

Lokpanchayt is working with 15 villages in Akole region. The initial activities included intervention in NTFP collection and processing. Lokpanchayat conducted training programs on sustainable harvesting of Karavanda (Carrisa carandas) fruits and honey collection. It also arranged for linkages with traders who would purchase the produce directly from the collectors, a process set in place over 3-4 years. This helped Lokpanchayat develop a rapport with the community and gradually the villagers form their own institution and Vanpanchayat was created. It is a platform for the local people to come together for periodic meetings and to share their experience and difficulties and to work out the solutions.

Over last three years, Van Panchayat has reached 950 families in twenty villages. It has been an important way for explaining the provisions of TFRA 2006, PESA, BDA, NREGA etc., to local communities that would otherwise not have access to such information. Village level volunteers of Lokpanchayat have helped develop proposals for claims of individual families over forest land as provided in the TFRA 2006.

Lokpanchayat has also established women SHGs in the villages. Processing of Karavanda fruits and hand pounded rice are the two activities promoted by Lokpanchayat; last year the women SHGs have sold 165 kg of Karavanda pickle and 200 kg Karavanda syrup. These SHGs have also developed granaries (Dhanya Kosh). As far as NTFP is concerned, nursery development of local tree species, intensive study of Hirda (Terminalia chebula), an important NTFP, are two ongoing processes.

Recently Lokpanchayat has also initiated Dangi Panchayat in these villages. Dangi is an indigenous cattle breed whose population in the region is gradually declining. Recently Dangi Panchayat conducted a socio economic study to understand importance of Dangi cattle in local livelihood and the data analysis of the study is ongoing. In the field of agriculture, a documentation of cultivars has taken place and a common interest group of Kalbhat, a local scented rice cultivar, has been set up. The group has been imparted with training on organic farming techniques and quality maintenance. In 2009, Lokpanchayat marketed Kalbhat through Irjik, a retail outlet in Sangamner town for organic products. A registration case is filed with New Delhi based Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer’s Rights (PPVFR) Authority to register Kalbhat as farmer’s variety as provided in the PPVFR Act 2001.