Social, Economic and Ecological Impact of Social Forestry in Kolar

Abstract

"The rapid stride of deforestation in India has led to a great number of problems. At the macro level the resulting accentuation of floods and droughts have led to uncertainties about the level of agricultural production. At the micro level the loss of forest cover has made the satisfaction of basic requirements of forest products of the rural people, like fuel, fodder etc., have become more and more difficult. To provide the rural people with these requirements and to improve the rural eco-system social-forestry programmes have been launched by many state governments in India. The present study analyses the social, economic and ecological impact of social forestry practiced so far in the district of Kolar in the state of Karnataka. It also extends the analysis to the futurological study of a larger social forestry project to be launched in Karnataka in the coming five years with financial help of the World Bank.

"It has been observed from the present study that the social forestry in Kolar district, as practised so far, has been lacking in the organisational and economic preconditions for the satisfaction of the basic needs of forest requirements of the rural people to be met by the increased tree cover. It has, however, been highly successful in motivating individual farmers to participate in the farm forestry component of the programme. In this process a substantial amount of new forest cover has emerged at the cost of foodcrop cultivation. The implications of this shift in land use is found to worsen the condition of the landless agricultural labourers as well as the marginal farmers, both in terms of employment opportunities and the availability of food, fodder, fuel and other essential forest produces. The incomes of large and medium farmers have, however gone up. The proposed World Bank aided programme, as an extension of current practises, is expected to accentuate these impacts in the coming few years."