As we approached, the village of Shivpur in Haveri district of northern Karnataka seemed quite green. This turned out to be a mere prelude. Puttappa Malagond, the President of the Village Forest Committee (VFC) led me and the staff of the Samaj Parivartan Samuday (SPS) to the 400 acres of lush green forest. With SPS’ help, villagers formed the VFC 6 years ago under the Joint Forest Management scheme. They have shown that those who live close to and depend on the forest are best able to prevent its destruction.

Puttappa explained that by stopping people from encroaching forest land, the VFC allowed natural regeneration. “Earlier there used to be only Nilgiri (Eucalyptus) but many native species have come up now” said Puttappa pointing to a young teak, the bamboo groves, black and white Matti and Dindal. Chandrappa, another member said that the VFC had to stop cattle grazing and at times defaulters had been brought before the VFC and fined. Groundwater level of Shivpur had been falling and people strained to find fuel-wood. The Nilgiris, planted for commercial purposes, were of no benefit to the villagers.

Villagers constructed this pond in Shivpur, Karnataka for harvesting water.

I saw a few people coming out of the forest with a head load of dry twigs and branches. The VFC allows small sustainable extraction - 2 bullock carts of wood once a year to each family. The VFC sells bamboos at a reduced rate of Rs. 5 each to the poorer villagers for home construction. With this revenue, VFC pays the salary of a watchman.

A short walk led us to the edge of the forest where villagers had dug a pond. The pond harvests water, and also helps in the natural regeneration of forest. I saw a few people fishing in the shade of the bamboo that had grown naturally on the banks and a lady giving a bath to a calf with great care – they were the rightful owners, or trustees, of the water, forest, and land: the Jal, Jangal aur Jamin.

Somnath Mukherji, an engineer in Boston, visited Samaj Parivartan Samuday (SPS), whose work AID supports.