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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Bamboo ‘revolution’ to beat back Maoists

Bamboo ‘revolution’ to beat back Maoists

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published Published on Aug 18, 2012   modified Modified on Aug 18, 2012
-The Hindu

Amid reports that Maoists are against according bamboo rights to Adivasis in Gadchiroli, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has asked the Chief Ministers of six Naxal-hit States to emulate the success of Mendha Lekha village in that Maharashtra district.

Mendha Lekha became the first village with Community Forest Rights (CFR) to be given transit passbooks to harvest and sell bamboo in April 2011. Since then other villages in Gadchiroli have applied for and got transit passbooks. Mendha Lekha collected Rs. 93.31 lakh in bamboo sales and has been putting the funds into community development. According to a status report, 2.95 lakh bamboos were harvested over a year and the gram sabha has decided to spend 50 per cent of the funds on forest management activities and the remaining on innovative projects.

Piquant situation

However, a piquant situation arose some months ago when one of the leaders from Mendha Lekha was threatened by Maoists and asked to go slow on his campaign for CFR. Some villages have given in writing that even though they have CFR, they are not keen on acquiring transit passbooks. Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT) also has a contract to harvest bamboo in the Gadchiroli region till 2014.

While Mr. Ramesh has been demanding that transit passbooks be given to villages which have CFR, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has cited the agreement with BILT as a possible impediment.

Mr. Ramesh, in his August 9 letter to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand, said: “There have been recent newspaper reports that Maoists in Gadchiroli are unhappy with this revolution that has taken place in Mendha Lekha. I for one am convinced that we need to create more Mendha Lekhas and empower gram sabhas in order for us to successfully roll back the spread of Maoist activities in a sustainable manner.”

‘Send official team’

Mr. Ramesh has urged the Chief Ministers to send a team of officers to Mendha Lekha and study what happened there and also override the objections of the State Forest Department and hand over full control of the transit passbook for bamboo to the gram sabhas where CFR has been recognised.

Mendha Lekha first village to be given transit passbooks to harvest and sell bamboo

Village using sale proceeds for community development

The Hindu, 18 August, 2012, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article3787379.ece


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