How Residents Of Two MP Villages Turned Their Barren Land Into A 1,030-Acre Forest In 20 Years

Deforestation is one of the biggest threats the world is currently facing and is adding to the pace at which global warming has accelerated in recent years.

The ever-growing need for resources has seen the forest cover globally shrink by more than half, just in the past few decades.

Stopping deforestation and focusing on reforesting is the need of the hour, but it is easier said than done.

Unsplash/Representational Image

But a group of villagers in Madhya Pradesh has shown that is not something impossible.

In a span of nearly 20 years, the residents of Manegaon and Dungariya villages in Madhya Pradesh¡¯s Sagar District turned their barren land into a lush forest.

According to IANS, the initiative was started by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative (IFFCO), a multi-state cooperative society engaged in the manufacturing and marketing of fertilisers.

All began on October, 1998

On October 12, 1998, as part of a pilot project, IFFCO planted two lakh trees on a stretch of a barren hillside to develop a forest, meant to provide employment and fuel for locals. The project was funded by Indo-Canadian Environment Facility and the villagers were given a stipend of Rs 5,000 a month to help them care for the young forest. But once the ICEF funding ran out in 2002, the villagers were left to their own devices.

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Within a few months, the new saplings were almost dead and the villagers decided to step in to protect them from human and animal interference.

Rajnish Mishra, a local farmer and social worker who exhorted the villagers to take care of the trees, said, ¡°The saplings that IFFCO planted here almost died as they were delicate and needed a lot of care and irrigation, but miraculously, they revived when we prevented human activities and cattle-grazing here. Gradually, the native trees¡¯ roots started sprouting again and today this forest has numerous trees, 70 per cent of it being sagwan (teak).¡±

"These trees are like my children"

¡°These trees are like my children. When the forest was young and the trees were hardly 3-4 years old, I got a call from a local saying someone was chopping down the trees and stealing wood without informing us. Back then, IFFCO used to give us funds to look after the forest. So, I ran to catch the thief, but on the way there I realised that our aim to develop the forest had emerged from our selfish motive of capitalising on forest produce, which really shocked me,¡± Mishra explained.

BCCL

He then resolved to protect the forest for posterity and not to make money, and asked the other villagers to do the same. ¡°Almost 20 years later now, we have never collected wood, nor forest produce. We all just serve the forest to pass it on to our children,¡± he added.

While Mishra has invested thousands of rupees from his own pocket to protect the forest from animals by building fences, paying labourers to clear out leaves and dry grass etc., other villagers serve the forest in kind.

And the forest they grew has now become a blessing for them.

AFP

Within the 15 km radius around the forest, the groundwater has slowly recharged over these two decades.

¡°Most villagers here are small-scale farmers. Earlier, they had to dig 200-250 feet deep borewells to get water for their crops and for daily use. All the wells and ponds would go dry and there were just one or two handpumps that still supplied water. But now, people find water just 15 to 20 feet below the earth, a maximum of 25 feet! This all happened in the last 20 years,¡± Mishra said.

A regular rain cycle has also developed in the area around the forest, making the region cooler and giving rise to small ponds nearby.

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