Ecological Refugees: Resettlement & Rehabilitation Success

The people who are displaced due to dam construction in the new place and land provided for the resettlement which happens to be forest lands or degraded land which had never been inhabited by humans. As the people who are displaced from the construction side face many problems due to several constraints. The resettlers are fully dependent on the agriculture and the natural resources as they provide new places for their resettlement but without knowing more about the socio-economic needs of the people. There is little social concern and mobilisation by the civil society for such expansive displacement and issues like Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) policy, right to livelihood, right to housing, etc. are hardly recognised. It is easier to mobilise public support and hence struggle against development projects that offer easy identification of the displacing agency. Tribal people in forests or those displaced from rural areas invite public sympathy but dispossessed urban migrants get stigmatized. If women migrate, they work as domestic workers, daily wage earners, etc. Their additional income is extremely important for the family since it is often used to finance their children’s education and health. They suffer great hardships in urban slums with regard to sanitation and privacy. Changes in policies and laws are modified and effective institutions are in place to deliver the goods. Issues of human rights, good governance, participation, people centered and decentralised development dominated the discussions. Projects get rationalised in terms of cost benefit analysis. Their entire focus is on the monetised economy. The National Committee for the Protection of natural resources attempt to combine land acquisition and R&R into one policy framework. The legality of actions of the state in displacing people allows the characterization of protest as illegal. There is illegalisation of protest and an aggrandizement of state power over people. Such notions of illegality have created an “us” and a “them” in public policy. The displaced people are seen as obstacles to development and are subject to the coercive rigours of the law. Even bodies recently have failed to protect the rights of displaced people and legitimise and legalise state actions around demolishing homes or displacing entire communities. It is important to explore mechanisms for rehabilitation. Displaced people must be better off than the project beneficiaries. Displaced people should be promised on their property rights. Rehabilitation and compensation should take into consideration loss of livelihood and shelter, security and work. The issues of displacement, development and R&R cannot be holistically understood without reference to the policies and programmes of multilateral and bilateral agencies, particularly the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and United Nation Development Program. The World Bank has been the single largest international donor for development initiatives in India.

Management of Plant Nursery for Successful Afforestation

Plant nursery plays important role in successful and economical afforestation program. Management plan is essentially required for managing nursery and to get suitable quantity of plants and seedlings as and when required. The documentation of management plan is also important to workout budget and schedule for the annual or long term plan. The management plan enlists both the short and long-term measures required for raising region specific priority species. Raising of plants in nursery is a costly and labour intensive activity if not planned properly. Before starting nursery basic infrastructure is required to support irrigation, fertiliser application, treatment to protect from pests, funguses, different pathogens etc. and protect germination from frost and provide suitable moist and shed at early stage of development. For efficient nursery management nursery need to divide into sub units viz., nursery area and propagation complex. Nursery area includes the nursery bed area and composting unit, whereas the propagation complex includes the mist chamber, hardening chamber, net house and soil mix preparation yard. Nursery area involves operations through out the year for raising quality planting material. Root trainers are mostly used in nursery for raising the planting material. Time schedule for major operations is very important to get best results. For composting September to October are suitable months, soil preparation, sieving could be done from December to March, ploy bags and pot filling between February to March and seed sowing between March to September months. Nursery experiments are usually 4-6 months duration experiments so their complete details such as design of experiments, duration of experiment, and nature of experiment received in first year. Such experiment give opportunity to understand ability of different species to reproduce by vegetative means mainly rooting of branch cuttings, nodal cuttings, juvenile shoot cuttings, rhizome cuttings, root cuttings, cladode cuttings etc. We can get good quality and fast growing planting material. Management of Nursery is a collective exercise and more research oriented schemes align with commercial enterprises. The composting unit is the main unit of nursery hence the time-to-time evaluation of the quality of the compost should be done and necessary pest and pathogen treatment to avoid and disease in the plants.

Biogas: Sustainable Energy Source

Presently the world population is more than 6 billion and as per the United Nations estimates it will increase to 8 billion by 2025. To meet future energy demand it has recognized by scientist that something has to be done for the large global population of about 2 billion people live below the poverty line, whose needs have to be addressed on priority basis, so that they are not margilised further due to globalization of economy and unequal sharing of resources and wealth. Biogas is important source of green and clean energy. Biogas is produced from biological breakdown of organic matter in absence of oxygen. Organic material such as animal dung, kitchen waste dead plants etc. could use as gaseous fuel. Methane and carbon dioxide are two gases which provide good caloric values to biogas when used as fuel. Biogas also has small quantity of hydrogen sulphide, moisture which causes pungent smell. Biogas produced from the anaerobic disintegration of manure in small- pit is called gobar gas; it is estimated that over two million households in India are able to use gobar gas due easily availability of cattle dung. It is popular source of fuel in many parts. The biogas plant is circular pit made of concrete with a pipe connection. The manure and waste material is directed to the pit through channels. The pit is also used waste water which help in fermentation through bacteria. The gas pipe is connected to supply points. Biogas plant help in get rid of organic waste and cattle dung in safe manner otherwise which could have adverse impact to environment by releasing methane directly to environment and spread diseases. Biogas plant is very simple and environment friendly sustainable source of energy because more people and more cattle more waste and more dung available to use respectively. Byproduct of biogas plant used as compost in agriculture and gardening. Most biogas plants which are operational in India are designed for cattle dung as their main raw material so very common used in rural areas. For fuel in rural area people are dependent on forest which causes damage to forest. Implementation of biogas plant help in reducing pressure on forest for fuel wood and saving in cost as compared to the use of kerosene or liquidify petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking. The biogas plant cost is around INR 8,000/- for 1 m3 capacity and Government also gives subsidy for construction of biogas plant. For one household, biogas saves 100 kg of LPG or 275 litres of kerosene per year, which is equivalent to 400 to 800 kg CO2 per year. People in village could save around 3 tonnes of wood per year with the use of biogas this helps in reduction of 5 tonnes CO2 if burnt otherwise all these gases release to atmosphere and accelerate global warming. Waste generation is directly related with population growth and we need tangible solution to get ride off from generated waste with minimum impact to environment. Production of biogas from organic waste and cattle dung is the best sustainable source of energy.

Importance of Ecological Analysis for Biomass Management

Biomass (wood, fruits and leaves) growth efficiency of the regions depends upon the type, quantity and stratification of vegetation. Therefore, for any study on ecology of these areas, a quantitative evaluation of its vegetation is required. The quantitative study on structure of vegetation is called Phytosociology, the principal aim of which is to describe the vegetation, explain or predict its pattern and classify it in a meaningful way. It is also considered as a basic biological science to be applied for the concept and realization of land management. With the change in environmental condition the vegetation cover reflects several changes in its structure, density and composition. The species in a community grow together in a particular environment because they have similar requirements for existence in terms of various factors such as light, temperature, water drainage and soil nutrients. Plant communities can be defined as a collection of plant species growing together in a particular location that shows a definite association or affinity with each other. The ‘community coefficient’ concepts, a mathematical expression for the similarity of plant communities were put forth. Since the publication of Jaccard’s formula it has undergone several quantitative and qualitative modifications. The absence of the absolute boundaries between the adjacent plant communities and therefore he proposed the ‘continuum concept’ in phytosociological researches. In order to express the dominance and ecological success of any species with a single value, the concept of Importance Value Index (IVI) has been developed by Phillips in 1959. Phytosociological works in India are mainly confined to the temperate forests of Himalayas and very meager literature is available for the tropical forests. Phytosociological studies on the vegetation of Chhotaudepur Forest division; Eastern Gujarat has been conducted by Shah in 1978. The increase in human population in the last few decades, demanding developments in various spheres, has resulted directly or indirectly in the sudden and of the far reaching disturbances in natural ecosystems. This has caused increased stress on the plants as well as on the ecosystem. Biomass studies are essential for understanding nutrient cycling, organic and energy transfer and predicting the effects of tree utilization, management procedures or other disturbances on productivity and stability of forest stands. Accurate estimation of biomass is the fundamental step in the productivity management plan especially in case of tropical forests. Biomass and nutrient accumulation studies in the pure and mixed plantations of indigenous tree species can be used in the selection of tree species and harvest designs to favour productivity and nutrient conservation. During the past decade there has been a marked shift from considering the forest as a production system for wood, to a realization that the total organic production is important. Increased demands for forest products, the search for renewable resources and an increased concern for the well being of forest ecosystems are combining to stimulate study of the total forest biomass. There has been an explosion in both quality and diversity of forest productivity and biomass literature in the past several years.

Woman Empowerment and Livelihood Intervention

According to Grosset Webster dictionary ‘Empowerment’ indicates “the situation of authority or to be authorized or to be powerful”. In other words ‘Empower’ means to authorize, so ‘Empowerment’ is a process, which gives women power or authority to challenge some situation. When we discussed and talk about women’s development issues and think about women empowerment then empowerment of women look nourished by development policies and programs that could enable women to get enough strength to challenge their dutiful social condition or status. The definition of empowerment according to the concept of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) includes the expansion of choices for women and an increase of ability to exercise those choices when women are empowered. According to UNDP definition improvement in women’s access to economic opportunities through credit and employment program could expand their choices to take over. Health and education related program could enhance their capability to take advantage of those choices. The two elements in the definition of empowerment are not separate issue but interrelated. It is perceived that when a development program increases women’s choices of employment by providing credit facilities, it expands choices before them and should raise also their ability to exercise those choices. Different programs and actions those attempt to strengthen women’s capacity to choose or capacity to exercise their choices can expand their choices also. Common programs like schooling program for women should both increase their voice in the family and the range of job options open to them. Economic globalisation in more generalised terms is dominating the world socio-economic scenario for the last two decades. The process is having significant impacts on India. Effectiveness of public sector economic development programs is increasingly being questioned. Higher accountability and participatory approach are becoming more acceptable means for implementation of programs. To assess the roles of the public sector and voluntary organisations in the process of conducting economic development programs for women in India is playing important role. For better understanding it analyses whether implementation of economic development programs involuntarily improves the level of empowerment of women. Women are micro-entrepreneurs and engaged in self-employment business for many years in different ways like managing small budget for household. During several watershed management projects it highlights that various Non Government Organizations (NGOs) development programs have contributed more than other programs to improve the economic and social status of women beneficiaries. The success stories of several micro credit programs where women got empowerment in managing things are classical example of success. Woman self-help groups for livelihood generation and managing natural and common property resources are prominent. NGOs are having positive qualities that make them more successful in reaching the poorer sections of society. The major positive point lies in the NGO development strategy or approach. This approach includes participation, partnership and member accountability. This gives woman confidence and hand in managing things.

Geology and Biodiversity Richness of the Himalaya

India occupies a special status in terms of ecosystem, genetic and species diversity because of its location, physical features and eco-climatic conditions. Presently the guess estimates is that this subcontinent supports 81000 species of fauna and 45000 species of flora. India contributes about 167 species of plants whose origin and diversity is in this country. The increasing population of human as well as cattle, incompatible land use practices, uncontrolled grazing, intensive logging and mining of minerals are the causative factors for the degrade of Himalayan forest, opencast, mining, development of hydroelectric projects and other industries pose additional threats to the ecologically fragile mountain ecosystems of Himalayas. The Himalaya is the greatest and the youngest of all mountain systems which extend with a smooth sweep from northwest to southeast of about 2500 km and its width ranges between 250 to 300 km. The Himalaya consists of four longitudinal belts separated by faults. Its geological and topographical characters are strikingly different. To the north of the plains is Siwalik mountain belt whose width ranges from 10 to 50 km and altitude exceeds 900 m. The next mountain belt is the Lesser Himalayan Zone with width ranging between 60 to 80 km and average height rises to 3000 m. The third belt is the Great Himalaya comprising of high snow capped peaks. This zone consists of lower alpine zone upto 4800 m and upper snow bound zone usually above 5000 m. Finally the Trans-Himalayan zone with width ranging upto 40 km and containing the valley of the rivers rising behind the Great Himalaya. It is a storehouse of not only rich mineral deposits but also a unique area for paleo-climatological and biodiversity richness. Troll in 1967 reviewed the vegetation in relation to climates in the entire Himalayas. Bio-geographically the Himalayan range is a complex with sharp and distinct contrast, characterizes the eastern warm and humid and western cold and arid conditions with a blend of these elements for the central region. Himalayan biodiversity is the demonstration in genes, populations and ecosystems. It is rich in both plant and animal variety. Variation is the law of nature. It occurs everywhere and every moment. The variation takes place at micro level at a small space and over a short time period, but these become apparent only over a large space and big a time gap. The Himalayas abounds in forests, meadows, marshes, swamps with their characteristic described nine forest types Himalayan biodiversity originates at the gene level and extends through species, population, communities to ecosystem. Any kind of disturbance is a key factor in the dynamics of communities and it plays an important role in the functioning and maintains of the ecosystem. Creation of the supreme power meant for the benefit of all His creation. Individual species must therefore, learn to enjoy its benefits by forming a part of the system in close relation with other species. Native biodiversities a source of pride for each country, compassing as it does a shining part of the national heritage.

Strategy for Sustainable Afforestation

We are living in an era of dwindling natural resources and environmental deterioration. Global biodiversity is being lost at accelerating rate. Urbanization, industrialization and other human activities have resulted in deforestation and pollution causing great threat to the environment. It contains many interesting and valuable plants from scientific point of view, apart from the economically important ones. Now the realization has come all over the world that survival of mankind is not possible without forests, which is an important ecosystem of our planet earth. Forests with their myriad of flora and fauna are rich sources of gene pool. So conservation biologists have increased efforts to understand its decline and encourage its conservation. Genetic conservation started with biosphere reserves, sanctuaries and national parks all over the world as a part of the conservation strategy. The importance of preserving diversity is to maintain ecological balance, economic use of species and genetic material for evolving new varieties in agriculture, horticulture, veterinary and medical fields, proper maintenance of life system, preserve aesthetic and religious values, know the socio-economic value of a particular area and to preserve its culture and nature. This necessitates making inventory of diversity of the country and the monitoring. The proximate causes of biodiversity loss may be anthropological, biological, social, economic or political, but because of their direct and indirect benefit we cannot afford to loose the biological diversity. Soil evaluation has become important due to worldwide problem of conserving biological diversity. Although soil is formed by the result of weathering of parent rock, effect of climate, topography, plants, animals and age of land forms. All the factors affect the formation of the soil in several ways. The close relationship between geology, soil and vegetation is clearly visible by the effect shown by parent material and strong biological activity on soil formation and characteristics. Geological studies have special importance in forestry where tree growth lasts over a long period and depends to a large extent on the minerals as a source of nutrients in the soil. The knowledge of mineralogical behavior of soils at good natural sites and at degraded sites opens at possibilities of optimal management inputs to augment production of the biomass from good site as well as from degraded site after suitable amelioration. In the present intensified programme of raising large scale plantation, especially of fast growing species, the fertility potential depends largely on the mineralogical composition of the soil. The underlying parent material plays a vital role in determining the success or other-wise of the plantations especially over a number of rotations in a given year. Geological studies have been helpful in understanding the ecological status of forest growth and in investigating the various problems like deterioration in growth, quality, loss of vigor, mortality etc. in forest crops often caused by nutrient deficiency and other soil factors, some of which are related to mineralogical composition. Diagnostic support to determine the interrelationship between geology, soil and vegetation and worked out potential productivity of soil as a useful tool for sustainable management of degradated sites. Soil is being enriched through nutrient contribution from minerals. Such evaluation helpful for the managers and land users to have a thorough knowledge about the content and nature of minerals present in the soil in diagnosing the fertility status and other soil-plant-parent material relationship in forestry. It is useful to work out proper requirement of nutrients for a particular species for a sustainable activity on such sites. In order to implement and enhance the potential use of soil mineralogical evaluation, some guidelines are proposed for eco-rehabilitation of natural forest sites as well as degraded land. A detailed soil and vegetation survey should be carried out and site matched species as per mineralogical studies should be identified and planted. A comprehensive study of different geological parameters of the sites should be conducted. Mineralogical evaluation should be carried out occurring under different conditions of soil, climate and geology to bring out suitable remedial measures for sustainable afforestation.