A decade-long initiative in Madhya Pradesh to reclaim land overrun by lantana helps residents restart agriculture and restore native biodiversity
In Amjhar village of Mandla district in Madhya Pradesh, residents regularly remove lantana saplings from the common land that was cleared of the weed in 2022 (Photographs: Bhagirath) Nirmala Marawi choked up with joy and gratitude as she harvested kutki, a little millet, from her 2.8 hectare (ha) field this November. “This is the first crop I have sown on the land in more than two decades,” recalls the 55-year-old resident of Manikpur Raiyat village in the tribal district of Mandla, Madhya Pradesh. The land was taken over by lantana (Lantana camara), one of the 10 worst invasive species in the world, and was lying fallow all these years. “I could not even access the five mahua trees (Madhuca longifolia) on my field until we started clearing the weed three years ago,” she says. With lantana rooted out, Marawi could collect 250 kg of mahua flowers this summer, which she sold for Rs 8,750 in the local market. “So far, I had to make my ends meet with the 0.8 ha farm that remains unspoiled by the weed. My income will now treble with earnings from the reclaimed land,” Marawi says. She has, however, not let down her guard and promptly uproots any sapling of lantana that she spots on her field or in nearby areas.
Lantana is not native to India. It was introduced in the country as an ornamental plant by the British in the 1800s, and has since spread over 574,186 sq km, covering 50 per cent of the country’s “natural areas”, according to an October 2023 study in the Journal of Applied Ecology. A 2020 estimate by researchers, published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, shows that the plant occupies 40 per cent of forests (over 154,800 sq km), including tiger reserves. A 2019 review paper published in Botanical Review states that lantana has also invaded most pasture lands (132,000 sq km) in the country. Eradicating lantana is difficult “because of its rapid spread, intensity of infestation, allelopathy [chemicals released to discourage growth of native plants], opportunistic growth behaviour, reproductivity biology traits, and tenaious resistance to cutting and burning,” states the review paper.
In Mandla, lantana had not just affected cultivation and biodiversity but also reduced the area available for grazing of livestock. “It had also restricted the tribal communities’ access to non-timber forest produces (NTFPs) like haritaki (Terminalia chebula), bahera (Terminalia bellirica), amla (Phyllanthus emblica) and mahua,” says Pradyumna Kumar Acharya of the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), a non-profit based out of Anand, Gujarat, that works on conservation of nature and natural resources.
Since 2012, FES has been helping the village residents of Mandla with technical and financial assistance to weed out lantana. The process has been long and arduous. It has not only changed the fate of the communities, but also holds clue for successful eradication of the world’s most notorious invader.
Acharya, team leader for FES Mandla, claims that so far lantana has been cleared from 7,000 ha in Mandla. This includes 3,279 ha of agricultural land, along with village common land and forest department-owned land. The initiative first targeted 15 ha in Indravan village in 2012, at a budget of Rs 4,500 per ha. The process began with identification and mapping of the patch to be cleared. The shrubs were cut down and the ground was dug up to extract the deep roots. The stem was kept upside down (with the roots away from the soil) and left to dry. All the work was done by residents as well as labourers, who were paid wages similar to those under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Experiences gained from Indravan were used in other villages, says Acharya. “Initially, lantana was eradicated from community land only. Positive results prompted residents to request help for their private lands as well,” he says. For instance, at least 30 ha of private land has been cleared of lantana in Manikpur Raiyat village. This has helped 20 farmers, most of whom had given up cultivation on the affected land and collecting NTFPs.
If the roots are not extracted properly, the shrub can start growing again. Its seeds are also so light that they can be easily dispersed by the wind, says Acharya. Hence the residents “mop” the land for two years after the first extraction, which means cleared fields are monitored and regrowths are removed quickly. Residents used the dried lantana stems to fence their fields or burned to use as charcoal.
To capture the social, economic and ecological impacts of lantana eradication, FES in July 2023 published a report based on interviews with 191 farmers from 18 villages in Mandla. The report says 50 per cent of the farmers are now cultivating in the cleared lands (continuous cultivation also helps deter lantana regrowth), while 94 per cent of them are using this land for open grazing or fodder collection. Fodder availability from managed land has also increased by eight times (0.64 tonnes per ha) as compared to non-managed land (0.08 tonnes per ha).
According to the report, 46 per cent of the farmers surveyed have started getting forest produce like mahua and leaves of Coromandel ebony or tendu (Diospyros melanoxylon) from restored land. Of the 191 farmers surveyed, 145 believed that there has also been a reduction in crop losses. Earlier, wild boar and deer would find hiding spots amid the thick lantana shrubs during the day and raid farms at night. “There was so much fear due to these wild animals that people had to build scaffolding to guard farms day and night. Now there is no need to do so,” says Bisen Marawi, a resident of Barkheda village.
Residents also report other benefits. In Barkheda, which is home to 370-odd Gond tribal families, 77 ha of forest land has been cleared of lantana. It is now used as grazing land for animals. Raisingh Kushram, chairperson of the village development committee, says there is also return of biodiversity with trees like palash or Flame of forest (Butea monosperma) and jamun or Java plum (Syzygium cuminii) flourishing.
Keeping lantana at bay requires consistent management. Hence, villages have set up committees. For instance, Kanhari Khurd, Kanhari Kalan, Jhurup, Sarhela and Umaria villages, located around the Siddha Baba temple in Bicchiya block, have reclaimed 63 ha around the temple since 2010. The Siddha Baba Committee imposes a fine of Rs 5,000 for felling trees on the land, which now resembles a forest. Similarly, in Indravan, a penalty of Rs 500 is levied on those who allow their animals to graze on the reclaimed land and Rs 200 for any damage to the re-emerging native plants.
But there are signs of gaps. Acharya notes that in villages like Indravan, the shrub has re-emerged over the last two or three years due to inadequate monitoring. He says this can be avoided if management of lantana is included in works taken up under MGNREGS and the gram panchayat. Bhaskar Raman, an environmental activist from Nainpur town in Mandla, says some 5,000 tribal people across Madhya Pradesh are already using lantana to make furniture. Promoting more such commercial use will help boost efforts to curb the invasive shrub.
This was first published in the 16-31 December, 2023 print edition of Down To Earth
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