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The
forest provides fuel wood, building materials for houses, animal
grazing areas, fodder for cattle, leaf litter for compost, bamboo
for making baskets, different kinds of wild vegetables and mushrooms.
Barking deer, Himalayan thar, Ghoral, monkey, porcupine, fox,
and leopard are wild animals that are found in the forest. The
total area of the forest is about 200 hectares. Our villagers
are totally dependent on the forest for living. It is hard for
us to imagine living without the natural forest.
Just above the village we have 25 hectares of protected forest
called "Baraha Ko Patal," which means forest of Baraha.
Baraha is a goddess who lives in the forest. Therefore, the forest
is protected for religious reasons and is sacred. Nobody dares
to take wood or leaves from the forest. Also we don't urinate,
defecate or spit inside the forest. We worship the goddess of
the forest every year.
According to the stories told by our grandparents, the forest
around our village was much denser sixty years ago. There were
lots of wild animals in the forest. It was much easier to get
fire wood and fodder for cattle in a short time. Now we have to
spend a full day.
We are totally dependent on the natural forest for getting fuel
wood for energy, building materials for houses, feed for our cattle,
bamboo for making baskets, and leaf litter for making compost.
In addition, the forest absorbs rain water in the monsoon season
that comes out as spring water from the ground, which is the only
source of drinking water for people, wild animals, and birds.
What would happen if all the natural forest above our village
were lost? We know the answer already: we could no longer live
in this area. Therefore, conserving our natural forest is our
biggest concern, but it is not an easy problem to solve. What
do we do? Do we stop raising our cattle? Do we stop collecting
leaf litter from the forest floor to make compost? Do we stop
burning fire wood to cook our food? What do we use for building
our houses if we stop cutting down the trees? Do we move from
the mountain to lower land to save the natural forest?
We can neither stop using the natural resources nor move from
the mountain to the already crowded lower land. Therefore, we
are compelled to find ways to live in the village while at the
same time conserving our natural forest.
Some of our practices have caused the forest to become seriously
depleted:
Removal of leaf litter from the forest floor
We must make compost to put in our fields to grow crops because
we don't use chemical fertilizers in our field. We use leaf litter
and cattle dung to make compost. All the leaf litter fallen from
the trees is collected by scrapers. The removal of leaf litter
from the forest floor affects the regeneration of the trees by
removing seed. Moreover, removing leaf litters means removing
nutrients that would have been recycled for the use of the trees.
Removal of leaf litters also cause soil erosion. When the rain
drops fall on the forest floor without leaf covering, the soil
is easily washed away from the mountain slopes.
Grazing of the Cattle in the Forest
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Cattle are let go free during the day because
we don't have enough fodder to feed them in the barn. We
also raise goats and sheep in the village for meat and wool.
They also go into the forest for grazing. The cattle, goats
and sheep eat naturally grown saplings on the forest floor,
and the leaves ofsmall trees. Once the old trees are fall
down, there will be no trees to replace them.
Cattle stroll along a path to the village |
Stripping the Branches off Fodder Trees
Cattle come back to their barn in the evening after grazing.
We need to feed them so the cattle give more dung for making compost.
However, we are dependent on forest for fodder. We strip green
branches from the trees leaving them bare. Without leaves for
protection, the soil is washed away by the direct hit of torrents
of rain. When the trees can't produce more leaves they die and
there are no roots to hold the surrounding soil firmly.
Harvest of Bamboo for Making Baskets
The types of bamboo that grow in the mountains are different
from the bamboo in the lower region. Mountain bamboo are a much
smaller, bushier type. They grow under the trees in the forest.
We have about 50 hectares of forest where bamboo grows. Once every
year people in our village gather in the forest to harvest bamboo.
After the harvest, the bamboo are divided equally in number to
each family. A family gets about 300 bamboo in one's share. There
are 112 families in our village. This makes at least 33,600 bamboo
that are harvested a year, not included other bamboo that is harvested
because more are needed for house use. We make different kinds
of baskets called Doko, Soli, and Jhyak for carrying things, and
roofing sheets called Bhakari for temporary cattle barns.
A cowshed in a field |
The bamboo harvested as mentioned above are
just a small portion of the total number of bamboo plants
destroyed. There is another type of bamboo called Jarbuto
in the higher elevations the shoots of which are used as
vegetables. During the summer time numerous bamboo shoots
are collected. This practice has destroyed the habitat of
wild bears, musk deer and red panda that live in the upper
elevations.
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Practice of shifting cattle barn
We move cattle from one field to another field in a makeshift
cattle barn, which we must do to make compost for each field.
We use wooden poles to build the makeshift cattle barn, and must
cut at least 130 small trees from the forest to make a small barn.
These poles last only for two years. A family in the village at
least needs to have sets of poles for two or three barn. All the
112 families in the village are raising cattle because we must
raise cattle to make compost. This means a family cuts at least
260 small trees every other year to make a makeshift barn. Thus
14,560 small trees from the forest are cut every year, a number
which is greater than the number of trees we plant a year.
In conclusion, our practice of subsistence farming has become
one of the main causes of the tremendous depletion of the natural
forest. It can be put this way; "If we let the trees live
we die of hunger. If we try to keep ourselves alive, the trees
in the forest have to die." We need to find some alternatives
for feeding our cattle and fertilizing our fields. We are looking
for ideas so that we may live in harmony with nature, as well
as lessen the hardship of living in the mountains.
Conservation Activities
Over twenty years ago, a British group started a project called
Lumle Agriculture Research Center. It was based in lower hills
and the group had worked in our area for more than two decades.
They introduced new varieties of crops, fruit trees and new breeds
of animals, like rabbits, cows and buffaloes. They also started
a community forestry program, helping villagers to start nurseries,
and began awareness programs for tree plantations. Millions of
trees were planted in the mountains with their support, which
people appreciated very much. However, they left the project in
1995.
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Nursery in Development |
Our village had also planted more than forty thousands trees
in the community land before 1995. After the British left, a Japanese
organization called the Institute for Himalayan Conservation has
been helping the management of three nurseries in this area, including
the nursery in our village. Our nursery produces about 20,000
saplings a year for plantation. We have made plans to plant 100,000
tree saplings, mostly for fodder trees, by 2000 AD.
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