For a third consecutive year, Gram Sabhas (village assemblies) across Baipariguda block in Odisha’s Koraput district are locked in an uphill battle to exercise a right the law has already granted them — the right to independently collect and sell kendu leaves, the forest product widely known as Green Gold.
Despite holding Community Forest Rights (CFR) under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, and despite resolutions, meetings, and letters to the highest levels of government, these Gram Sabhas are still waiting for one piece of paper: a deregulation letter from the state government. Without it, their lawfully recognised rights remain, in practice, worthless.
FRA 2006 — formally known as the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act — is unambiguous. Section 3(1) (C) of the Act guarantees individuals and communities the right to own, collect, use, and sell Minor Forest Produce (MFP). The kendu leaf is classified as an MFP. A 2012 amendment to the Act further strengthened this right, explicitly including the processing, storage, value addition, and transportation of forest produce — with transit permits to be issued by the CFR Management Committee or any person authorised by the Gram Sabha.
Crucially, the Act states that the ownership right over MFP overrides any conflicting provisions in state laws — including Odisha’s own Kendu Leaf (Control of Trade) Act (KL Act), under which the state currently controls the kendu leaf trade.
The law could not be clearer. Yet, on the ground in Baipariguda, clarity has not translated into action.
The irony that runs through this story would be almost darkly comic were its consequences not so severe. While the Gram Sabhas of Baipariguda block are denied the right to collect kendu leaf independently, the Kendu Leaf (KL) Division of the Forest Department — which holds statutory authority over the trade — is itself collecting the leaves in a manner that can only be described as perfunctory.
This season, the KL Division opened its designated collection point — the local fadi — in Baipariguda block for a total of just three days. During that narrow window, purchases were restricted exclusively to registered cardholders. The problem: only an estimated 20 per cent of households in the area possess the required collector’s card. The remaining 80 per cent — families who also depend on kendu leaf for their seasonal livelihood — were turned away entirely.
This is the bind in which tribal women of Baipariguda find themselves, and its logic is worth spelling out clearly. The state, through the KL Division, retains monopoly control over the kendu trade by invoking the Odisha Kendu Leaf (Control of Trade) Act. That same monopoly is the very mechanism being used to block the Gram Sabhas from exercising their FRA-granted rights. Yet when that monopoly is in operation, it serves fewer than one in five households, runs for a handful of days, and leaves the vast majority of collectors with empty hands and no legal alternative.
It is a peculiar kind of authority: one that neither fulfils its own obligations nor permits anyone else to step in. The department does not collect — not adequately, not equitably, and not for long enough. And yet it will not move aside. The Gram Sabhas, armed with legal rights and willing workers, stand at the edge of the forest and wait.
The cardholding system itself deserves scrutiny. With only 20 per cent of households enrolled, the majority of women who have collected kendu leaf for generations — who know the forest, the leaf, and the season — are rendered invisible by administrative design. No card means no access, even under the department’s own framework. And since the Gram Sabhas cannot yet operate their own collection, there is no fall back. The leaf stays on the tree, or it rots on the forest floor.
The contrast with the Gram Sabha’s own proposal is stark. The 20 villages have set a target of 30 lakh (3 million) bundles, to be collected over the full three-week season, with payment of Rs 4 per bundle going directly into collectors’ hands — regardless of card status, regardless of administrative enrolment, and at a rate higher than the government’s own offer of Rs 3.20. Where the KL Division offers three days and covers 20 per cent, the Gram Sabhas offer three weeks and intend to reach everyone.
This is not an argument against the Forest Department’s role in the kendu trade; it is an argument for honest accounting of what that role currently amounts to, and who it currently serves. If the department’s own collection is this limited in reach and duration, the burden of justification for blocking community-led alternatives becomes considerably heavier. The green gold of Baipariguda’s forests belongs, by law and by custom, to the people of these villages. What is being withheld from them is not just income — it is the practical exercise of a right already recognised on paper.
For the tribal women of Baipariguda — the single mothers, the widows, the households with no other income source — the equation is simple and unforgiving: collect now, or go without. The season does not wait. The deregulation letter must not either.
The 20 Gram Sabhas — including Kalatha Jodi, Kadali Joba, Gadaba Guda, Phatki Kumbhi, Pangan Pani, Tapa Jodi, Kupuli Guda, and Badali Beda — have successfully obtained Community and Resource Rights under the FRA. Following due process, they passed resolutions in their Gram Sabhas and formally notified Sub-Divisional Level and District Level Committee representatives, as required by law. These 20 villages are not designated kendu leaf collection centres by the KL division of Forest Dept.
This year, they have set a target of 3 million bundles of kendu leaf — and at their proposed rate of Rs 4 per bundle, this would put approximately Rs 1 crore 20 lakh directly into the hands of collectors, the overwhelming majority of whom are tribal women. The KL Division, by contrast, offers Rs 3.20 per bundle. The difference is not negligible — it represents a meaningful uplift for some of the most economically marginalised communities in Odisha. The collection window is narrow: just three weeks.
Yet, the deregulation letter that would allow them to legally operate has not been issued.
2024 was not an abstraction — it was a catastrophe. Despite a delegation from these communities meeting with the Tribal Chief Minister of Odisha, the deregulation letter was not issued in time. An estimated Rs 36 lakh worth of kendu leaf was destroyed by rain, rotting in the forest before it could be collected or sold. The loss fell entirely on communities that could least afford it — including single women, widows, and households with no alternative income.
“We are anxiously waiting for the deregulation letter,” says Parbati Khila, a tribal woman and member of the Gram Sabha Maha Sangha. “We just want to earn what the law says we are entitled to. We don’t want to see another year’s leaves go to waste.”
The Baipariguda Gram Sabhas are not asking for anything unprecedented. In April 2013, the Forest and Environment Department of the Government of Odisha issued a deregulation order for Nabarangpur district — later extended to Malkangiri district — allowing kendu leaf pluckers in those areas to sell independently and receive immediate cash payments above the government’s offer. The outcome was a marked improvement in livelihoods.
In November 2017, six Gram Sabhas under the Bhawanipatna (KL) Division in Kalahandi district received a similar deregulation letter, and their members have benefited from the kendu trade every season since.
The government has done this before. It worked. The question is why Baipariguda must wait.
On February 10, 2022, a high-level meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary of Odisha specifically addressed FRA implementation. The minutes of that meeting — at Point No. IV — record the following decision: “Gram Sabhas vested with CFRs may exercise their rights and engage in kendu leaf trade independently. Furthermore, capacity-building programs should be conducted to support these Gram Sabhas in advancing their business.”
That commitment has not been acted upon in Baipariguda.
Kendu leaf is not a luxury crop. In heavily forested, low-income districts like Koraput, it is one of the only reliable seasonal income sources available to forest-dwelling communities — especially for women, who make up the bulk of collectors. Access to kendu leaf revenue can mean the difference between food security and hunger during the lean months, and between a family’s dignity and destitution.
The 20 Gram Sabhas of Baipariguda Block are not asking for charity. They are asking the state government to honour the law of the land, implement a decision already taken at the highest administrative level, and issue a deregulation letter before the three-week collection window closes once more. If it does not come in time, the rain will decide — as it did in 2024.