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Projects
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Deficiency in natural forest area has necessitated
Forest Department Haryana to put community, panchayat and other wastelands under
tree plantations. Department has been able to top external funding agencies and
implemented various projects in the state. In past, Social Forestry project and
Aravalli project were implemented mainly to afforest panchayat / common lands
and supply seedlings to farmers and develop the village level institutions. At
present EU funded Community Forestry Project is being implemented in 300
selected villages for the development of community areas.
Social Forestry Project (1982-1991)
The Social Forestry Project aided by the World Bank
was started during 1982-83. The project period was 5 years, but it was extended
upto March 1991. During this period, about 70000 ha. area of panchayat
/community lands was planted. Though the social forestry programme in Haryana
got appreciation from all corners but these programme did not attain dimensions
commensurate with the needs. Appreciable efforts made to ensure the
participation and motivation of the people in tree planting programme but more
continuous efforts were required to make them self dependent. It was also
realized by the World Bank Missions that the social forestry activities
succeeded well in Haryana as compared with the works of other states.
Aravalli Project (1990-99)
The EU aided Aravalli Project successfully
rehabilitated degraded Community Lands of 294 villages in southern Haryana. For
this purpose, all activities for rehabilitation were planned and implemented
with active involvement and participation of local people. Awareness was created
through training programme and periodical meetings. Gender issues were specially
addressed through (i) establishing village women centers for skill development,
(ii) making easy accessibility to fodder, (iii) creating sufficient wage-earning
and other income generating opportunities through mahila-nurseries and grass
seed collection, (iv) motivation for savings and (v) introduction of fuel
efficient stoves. Their capacity of asserting their viewpoint was developed
through making their membership of VFCs compulsory and regular capacity building
meetings held by Women Extension Workers.
Nearly 38000 ha area was rehabilitated through
planting and natural regeneration in Aravalli region. Satellite imageries reveal
that forest cover of this region, which was around 10,000 ha in 1990, spread
over 42,000 ha in 1997. Those villages that co-operated in protecting
rehabilitated areas were rewarded through an incentive scheme. The incentive
money was used to create assets of scio-economic relevance. Many of the wage
earners in the Project were able to buy buffaloes with their savings. The
increased fodder availability contributed a gain of 7% per livestock unit,
increasing daily milk yields by over one liter per buffalo. The difference in
income between the economic strata of the project village narrowed down. There
has been a trend of increased school enrolment due to the release of child
labour as fodder is now more easily collected and fewer goats and sheep are kept
which children had to herd previously.
The Aravalli Project has gone a long way to provide a
blueprint, which can be adopted, for other districts and states with
modifications to suit their particular ecological and social conditions.
Surrounding States are already showing considerable interest in sharing the
Aravalli experiences through workshops and from the project publications and
training manuals. The project was given prestigious "Indira Priyadarshi Vriksh
Mitra" national award by the Government of India in 1995 and again in 1997.
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