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This is the first of a 3-part series
Residents of Karlajhar became alert when flames were seen in the forest near the Chhattisgarh village at 10 pm on March 13, 2025. Karan Singh Nag gathered about 15 people and immediately ran towards the fire. Nag, and the village residents who accompanied him, were finally able to bring the fire under control after two-and-a -half to three hours of hard work. They reached home at around 12.30 in the night.
A similar incident of forest fire in the village also occurred on March 18. The residents were informed through a WhatsApp group at 10 am and 2 pm. Some 8-10 people immediately reached the spot and extinguished the fire after getting the information.
Nag, one of the fire extinguishers, admits that there have been four to five incidents of forest fire this year, which is unusual. However, in all the cases, the residents quickly controlled the fire, resulting in minimal damage. He told Down to Earth that someone from neighbouring villages must have started the fire, for no one from Karlajhar would have done so.
According to the Chhattisgarh forest department, there have been 19,003 incidents of fire in the state in 2025, which is the highest figure in the last four years. A total of 87,513 incidents of fire have occurred in the state during the last five years. Some 789 incidents of fire were recorded in Gariaband district this year and 866 incidents were recorded in the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve located in the same district, which includes them in the list of most fire-affected places.
Karlajhar is one of the villages in the core area of Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve in Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh, which has received Community Forest Resource Rights (CFRR) letters under Section 5 of the Forest Rights Act (FRA). A total of 134 villages in Gariaband district have received CFRR on 84,039 hectares of forest area. A total of 4,303 villages have received CFRR on forests of 1,936,387 hectares area across the state.
The fight for CFRR in Karlajhar started about a decade ago. But it gained momentum after 2021. According to Nag, “The forest department refused to give us the rights under CFRR as it considered the forest as its own. In 2018, we gheraoed the divisional forest officer, demanding CFRR. After this, rallies were organised till 2023, when the rights were finally granted.”
CFRR empowers Gram Sabhas to regulate access to community forest resources, manage them, and prevent any activity that impacts wildlife and forests. Section 5 of the FRA empowers the Gram Sabha to ensure that the habitats of forest-dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers are protected from any destructive practices that impact their cultural and natural heritage.
Villages like Karlajhar in Chhattisgarh, which received CFRR, have used these provisions of FRA to develop an independent and effective system of forest management. Through this, local communities are managing forests comparatively better than the forests under the forest department. Quick response to incidents of fire in Karlajhar is one such example. Such quick response is not seen in forests under the forest department due to limited resources.
The Community Forest Resource Rights Management Committee (CFRMC) of Karlajhar has adopted the ‘Thengapalli’ system to prevent illegal felling of forests, illegal grazing and poaching. Under this system, teams of five people each patrol the forest in turns every day. The Thengapalli team patrols around the forest, monitors it and informs the Gram Sabha if it notices any kind of illegal activity. Sixty-year-old Puneet Ram, who patrols the forests of Karlajhar under Thengapalli, said there are a total of 10 teams of five people each in the village. Each team has to perform Thengapalli functions for three days in a month.
The Karlajhar CFRMC prepares fire lines through volunteer work in summer. During this time, compost is prepared by collecting dry leaves in pits. CFRMC prepares seed balls by collecting traditional seeds in the open space of the forest and plants saplings by making nurseries. To prevent soil erosion in the forest, the Gram Sabha has surveyed small drains and constructed structures like boulder check dams, brush hoods and gully plugs through volunteer work.
The Gram Sabha of Karlajhar received CFRR of 1,623.866 hectares of forest in 2023, the management of which is in the hands of CFRMC formed in 2022. Nag is the president of this committee. He claims that due to the strictness and regular monitoring of CFRMC, illegal felling of wood in the forest has completely stopped.
He said before getting the rights letter, wood was cut in the forest to make a pavilion for wedding ceremonies. To stop this cutting, the committee has bought a tent (shamiana) which is given to the villagers when needed. Due to this, the cutting of wood has stopped.
Nag also said due to the strictness of CFRMC, illegal hunting in the forest has stopped. The committee caught four hunters of the village who were illegally hunting Sambhar in 2023 and registered a case against them. Later, they were also jailed. The forest department patted the back of the village residents for this work. According to Nag, no one dared to illegally hunt after that incident.
The forest of Karlajhar is adjacent to Achala village in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district. Since Achala does not have its own forest, the village residents are dependent on the forest of Karlajhar for produce like Mahua, Sal seeds, Sargi wild grass and Tendu leaves. The CFRMC of Karlajhar held an important meeting with the people of Achala on March 17, 2025, to ensure their participation in forest conservation. In this meeting, a resolution was unanimously passed that all the Paras or hamlets of Achala Gram Sabha will be given the right to dispose of the forest according to the rules and policies of Karlajhar. But for this, the responsibility of guarding the forest adjoining their border will be of Achala Gram Sabha. Along with this, a resolution was also passed that people of the Achala Gram Sabha can go to the forest to collect forest produce but will not set fire to the forest and will not illegally cut and exploit the forest.
The federation of nine Gram Sabhas receiving CFRR in and around Karlajhar decided to rent bamboo poles to the traders visiting the Devgarh Dham fair to stop the felling of trees from the forest in 2023. This stopped the cutting of about two trucks of wood from the forest during the fair, while the Gram Sabha also earned income from the rent. The Gram Sabha federation has decided that polythene will be completely banned in the fair to be held on Dev Dussehra in 2025. With such measures, Karlajhar is strengthening the livelihood of the village residents, along with the forest.