Odisha Women Protect A Forest For 20 Years

They voluntarily came together to form Pir Jahania Van Surakhya Samiti after seeing the devastation caused by the 1999 supercyclone.

For close to 20 years after a supercyclone ravaged Odisha, a group of women along the coast has been standing sentinel over their beloved storm-shielding forest and mangrove cover. 70 women came together in 2001 to form the women forest protection committee with representations from every household to revive and manage the biodiversity of the 75-hectare forest area. Plus a 103 households nearby Devi river mouth also joined the movement.

It is the women who make up the protection and monitoring squad to look after these resources. The vigilantes use mobile phones these days to alert one another.

52-year-old Charulata Biswal is the secretary of the Pir Jahania Van Surakhya Samiti, nurtured by women who came together voluntarily in response to the devastation after the 1999 Odisha supercyclone battered the northern Indian Ocean. In 2012, the group won the maiden UNDP India Biodiversity Award in the community stewardship category for their efforts to rejuvenate the natural heritage of their village.

The members of the committee formulated and passed resolutions for a set of regulations for the management of the forest, including practices that help them avoid conflicts with neighbouring villages who depend on the same patch of forest for their stock of firewood.

At the outset, the women invested time and energy in generating awareness on the importance of the forest cover. A concerted effort of the local communities, spearheaded by the Samiti, led to the regeneration of mangrove vegetation. And the forest cover (especially of mangroves), went up by 63% from 2.58 sq km in 1985 to 4.21 sq km in 2004, as per the India Biodiversity Award citation.

Courtesy: odishanewsinsight.com and scroll.in