As a result of increasing urbanisation and various demands of the people, the destruction of forests for timber, cropland, fuel wood, pasture, urbanization have had an impact on many poor rural families who depended on forest resources for fuel, fodder, food, medicine, housing etc.
Moreover the deterioration of forests had given rise to many other problems like soil erosion, sedimentation of rivers, increased flooding, and hence over- taxed the land’s capacity to regenerate and sustain.
To overcome all these problems the government decided to launch schemes to create a sense of belonging among the natives and to conserve and develop forests through the joint efforts of the government as well as the natives.
The National Forest Policy of 1988 is the mind behind the formation of Joint Forest Management. The main aim of JFM was to ensure sustainability of the forests along with satisfying the needs of the people.
JFM has been successfully implemented in around 19 states in the country. JFM has left a positive impact as many forests under the scheme are regenerating.
In UP also JFM has been successful and there are 1942 committees formed under JFM. The JFM along with the poverty eradication scheme is already functioning in 20 forest divisions of the state.
The UP forest department has taken a step further and is now identifying village forests to be brought in under the scheme.
So far around 90 gram vans have been identified in various places, with a land area of around 14,000 hectares, including Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Mirzapur, Renukoot, Allahabad, south Kheri and Mahoba divisions.
The forest department for its Rs 575.20 crore worth scheme has been fortunate in collecting a fund of Rs 468.20 crore from Japanese Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC). The 8 year long scheme intends to develop at least 20,000 hectare forest area along with 60,000 hectare forest area that will be developed and managed through JFM committees.
The scheme will be launched in 14 districts of the state that includes Pilibhit, Bahraich, Balrampur, Shravasti, Lakhimpur Kheri, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Chitrakoot, Allahabad, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Chandauli and Hamirpur.
In addition to formation of self help groups, the scheme will directly involve people who are dependent on forests along with the women and weaker sections of the society will be given preference.
