The residents of Odisha’s Tilabadi and Mittukuli villages have a special bonding despite facing disputes over traditional boundaries for filing Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR) claims in August 2021.
The two villages are located adjacent to each other. There is a chunk of around 100 hectares between them and the areas they have cliamed under CFRR. Both of them wish to claim it for themselves and this is the major cause of conflict.
Despite this, people in the two villages share their resources, welcome guests and celebrate festivals together. They also engage in exchanging their agriculture and minor forest produce for personal use. If there is a guest in one village, they automatically become the guest of the other village as well and the two host them generously.
The dispute has not created any animosity between the two villages. On the contrary, they have come closer, as they feel that they stand united against the forest department that kept them away from their land for ages.
Sulochna Nayak, president of the Tilabadi forest rights management committee, said the dispute will now be decided by higher authorities:
We share our boundaries with three villages, Tabeda, Munduli and Mittukuli. While the other two villages are clear on their boundaries, we have a dispute with Mittukuli. Both the villages have applied for the claim. Now it is up to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee to resolve the dispute.
The residents of Tilabadi have applied for CFRR titles for over 840 acres (339.93 hectares) of forest land, while the people of Mittukuli applied for CFRR titles last year, for over 1,720 acres (696 hectares) of land.
They have already made forest management plans, even though the process for finalising the claim is due. They are counting their chickens before they have hatched, but cannot help it.
“We get Rs 1.4 for one bundle of tendu leaf that we give to the government centre. Each bundle consists of 22 leaves, but they do not count the first and last leaf; so for 20 leaves, we get Rs 1.4. If we make 100 such bundles, we earn Rs 140,” said Jasoda Nayak, who runs a small tea shop and makes tendu leaf bundles in the Tilabadi village.
If we had the claim over our land, we would be able to sell the leaves by ourselves and get a better price, she added.
The villagers have already constituted a committee for forest management in anticipation of the claim and fixed the price of harvesting bamboo for personal use.
If villagers need bamboo, they can take small pieces for Rs 1 each, Rs 2 for every stalk for the variety used for making a fence and Rs 10 for long stalks used in construction. If outsiders need the bamboo, the committee will have a meeting and decide if we can let them harvest, depending upon the condition of the bamboo forest, added Sulochana.
They have also decided to fine anyone who harvests bamboo without the committee’s permission. A local, Janak Muduli, had to pay a fine of Rs 1,200 when he gathered bamboos without the permission of the committee, earlier this year.
“We will also devise a plan to auction tendu and saili leaves once we get the titles. The locals do not get a fair price for these products. We will try to get some income and distribute the same among the villagers. We will also try to keep a part of it for the conservation and protection of the forest,” said Sukhdev Nayak, secretary of the forest management committee.
The application of the claim has already empowered the villagers to stand up to the forest department officials who used to harvest bamboo without the villagers’ consent and used to prevent them from using their own resources, said the locals.