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Indigenous forest dwellers from Odisha’s Koraput district fear that a delay in receiving permits to sell kendu leaves from the state forest department will damage their produce and they will incur heavy losses.
The indigenous people have not been able to get an approval from the forest department to sell 620,000 bundles of produce worth Rs 34 lakh even three months after harvest.
Kendu leaves or tendu leaves are used to roll tobacco and make beedis (local cigarettes). These leaves are a vital non-timber forest produce (NTFP) that serve as a major source of income for tribal communities in Odisha.
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 allows forest-dwelling communities across the country to sell forest produce in order to eke out a livelihood. Such rights over land and the forest produce fall under community forest rights (CFR).
NTFP is frequently not procured from the centres, depriving tribal communities of stable income.
As a result, nearly 4,000 pluckers from 99 Gram Sabhas (village decision-making bodies) of Boipariguda block in southern Odisha had joined hands in April this year to sell kendu leaves directly by exercising their CFR, bypassing middlemen.
Community members had hoped to earn more by demanding Rs 4 per bundle against the Rs 3.2 offered by government-licensed traders.
However, Odisha’s forest department deems such a sale of forest produce as ‘illegal’.
Bidyut Mohanty, secretary of SPREAD, a nonprofit that advocates for tribal rights in the region, told Down To Earth (DTE) that about 25 per cent of the produce is already on the verge of spoilage.
“The Gram Sabha is currently facing challenges in storing the processed leaf because of a lack of storage infrastructure, and the kendu leaf (KL) Division of Jeypore is not providing the necessary permits. Even traders are hesitant to take the risk of obtaining permits from the Gram Sabha, fearing that the forest department might seize the kendu leaf,” Mohanty said.
Mohanty said repeated requisitions have been made to political leaders, including the chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi. “We have made multiple applications to leaders on June 21, seeking deregulation notification for the Gram Sabha. But the demands have not been addressed,” he added.
With the southwest monsoon progressing and poor storage facilities, the NTFP is expected to get spoiled. This would be an enormous economic loss, said Dhanapati Jani, one of the community leaders who have taken the initiative.
However, the forest department has termed the move illegal and said the villager residents will have to face the losses and channelise their produce through the contractor.
Sarat Sahu, divisional forest officer at the KL Division, Jeypore, told DTE that no provisions allow the villagers to sell their produce directly.
“There are about 35 established centres which purchase produce. One of the centres is about two kilometres from these people. They should’ve sold at the centre. The claim that their produce was not picked up is not true,” he said.
Sahu added that kendu leaves are harvested and sold by April. The contracts for the same are issued in December. “The forest department picks up the produce and delivers it to traders within a couple of days. The logistics happen immediately after the harvest as they may face damage,” he explained.
He said now that the season has passed and the monsoon will only spoil the produce, it will be harder to purchase it.
“The village residents have been misguided and it is advised that they should sell their produce via the forest department,” Sahu said, adding that in 2024, the forest department purchased kendu leaves worth Rs 33 crore from 66,000 village residents.
“The forest department has not done selective pick up of kendu leaves. The misguided village residents decided to not follow the procedures,” he said.
However, Mohanty argued that under the modified transit permit regime, the CFR Management Committee or a person authorised by the Gram Sabha will issue transit permits for the transportation of minor forest produce.
“The forest department cannot prevent these people from receiving permits. The ownership right over minor forest produce supersedes any conflicting provisions in state laws, such as the KL (Control of Trade) Act of Odisha. The intention behind this legislation is to ensure that individuals and communities have the autonomy and empowerment to benefit from the forest resources they have traditionally relied upon,” he said.