Pilot project launched for collecting Mahua flowers easily in jungle

Pilot project is being launched by Forest Department in which green nets are tied below Mahua tree to collect flowers.

Staff Reporter :

Forest Department has launched a project on pilot basis for collecting Mahua flowers by reducing the risk to women. The green nets are tied below the Mahua tree which decrease the time required for collecting Mahua by the villagers in form of a livelihood. It may be mentioned here that villagers put on fires at such places to get Mahua easily. Moreover, now-a-days cases of tigers/leopards attacking and killing the villagers have increased. Therefore, the department has taken a lead by selecting active Self-Help Groups from three villages - Karwahi, Salai and Sawangi in Ramtek tehsil.

The green nets are distributed to the Mahua collecting people on rent basis. The tied nets give them clean produce and reduce time for cleaning of ground through putting fire. Dr Prabhu Nath Shukla, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Nagpur, said, the department is purchasing Mahua collected by these villages using green nets as the list of such persons is being maintained at SHG level.

For the department, it becomes easier to monitor the programme by involving Self-Help Group. Incidentally, the villages where this pilot project has been carried out have not witnessed any fire incidence in the current fire season. After witnessing the success of this project in preventing forest fire and encouraging response from women groups and villagers, Forest Department is planning to extend this activity in most of the villagers in next year. Meanwhile, entire Vidarbha is facing the brunt of Mahua flower collection which is a major source of livelihood in forest fringe areas of Vidarbha. In Nagpur forest division encompassing approx 1.5 lakh ha as many as 533 villages are situate on the fringes. Here major issue of concern for biodiversity conservation and wildlife management is the forest fire of which Mahua flower collection is main factor responsible among many other factors. During the seven fire incidences of fires in the current season, the main cause is said to be Mahua collection.