What all strategies were employed by forest officer A.K.Banerjee for getting the village people involved to help in the protection of 1,272 hectares of badly degraded sal forest?
all of these
In response to the continued grazing of cattle by local villagers in an area of new plantation, thereby jeopardising the crop, A.K Banerjee asked the locals to refrain grazing in the plot, in return for a share of the final timber harvest. The strategy was found to work, to the benefit of the Forest Department, and the local community alike. It was therefore 'discovered' possible to devolve responsibility for protection of forest land to people, providing they had a stake in it. Banerjee also launched a 'Socio-Economic Project' in the same Arabari Block, where eleven villages became engaged in protecting areas of sal coppice, in return for subsistence NTFP's, preferential employment, and a 25% share in the profits from sale of short rotation sal poles. 618 families initially participated, in protecting 1272 ha of forest. (Malhotra and Deb, 1998). The success of JFM spread quickly throughout the state, and by July 1990, 1611 Forest Protection Committees had been formed, protecting 195,000 ha of forest lands in the three southwest districts of West Bengal; Bankura, Midnapore and Purulia - 47% of the total forest land (Malhotra and Deb).