Collecting forest fruits and other produce may sound charmingly simple but tramping through dense jungles to collect them can be tough, even life-threatening. Though it is the only livelihood for more than 1,50,000 forest dwellers who collect forest produce daily across Kerala, the lack of competitive rates is worrying several communities.
“The rates we get for our produce are nowhere close to the market rates,” says Ulladan tribesman P.J. Dalan at Pinavoorkudi in Ernakulam district.
Seasonal passes
The harvesting of forest produce in every village is governed by a Vana Samrakshana Samiti (VSS), constituted by the Forest Department as a participatory forest management scheme with the dual aim of protecting forests with the help of the Samiti members and bringing income to forest dwellers by overseeing the sustainable harvest of non-timber forest produce such as fruits, tubers, and bamboo. Each VSS awards seasonal passes for resource extraction to its members. Based on the rates offered by buyers for the produce, the unit remunerates its members in cash as well as services such as medical loans.
The Pinavoorkudi Adivasi VSS, formed in 2000, permits extraction of non-timber forest produce across 1,200 hectares.
Tribal people living in the village — Muduvans, Ulladans, and Malayarayans — collect non-timber forest produce such as thelli (black dammar or kunthirikkam ), inja (Acacia caesia, a wild shrub used as a body scrub), honey, arrowroot, eetta (reed bamboo), and wild nutmeg.
“We get just ₹600 per kg of wild nutmeg from VSS,” says Reghuraj M.R., an Ulladan tribesman who collects forest produce. “In the open market, it is worth ₹900,” he adds.
Muthuvan tribesfolk Ponappan T. and Ani C.G. of Fifth Mile near Neriamangalam also feel that better rates will make life easier for them. “Even among us, only healthy people can go for the strenuous job of collecting eetta . We have no insurance, but we have been told it will come through in a few weeks,” he says.
The lack of competitive rates is a concern, according to Forest Department sources. However, a minimum support price will soon be made mandatory for all forest produce to make sure that buyers offer competitive rates, they say. The mechanism will be fashioned in such a way that the money goes directly to the accounts of beneficiaries, unlike the case now.
Yet, the feeling that they are part of an unprofitable VSS unit could alienate communities from forests. “We have received our first set of free LPG cylinders from the Forest Department. This is a ploy to stop us from collecting firewood from forests. We are losing our freedom,” says Rekha Biju, a resident of Pinavoorkudi.
There are at present 389 VSS units and 187 eco-development committees registered with 35 forest development agencies across the State, which employ 78,501 Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families.
