A Field Worker’s Diary _ Part 62
As part of the survey we conducted on non-timber forest products (NTFP) in 2009, we did a study on two villages in Rampachodavaram agency area. I and my then-colleague Rekha journeyed from Hyderabad to Rajahmundry and from there to Rampachodavaram, and started our work. Even before going to the villages, we went to Addatheegala upon coming to know that there was a tribal shandy taking place there. It was my first time seeing a tribal weekly shandy. While it looks quite similar to the shandies that take place in cities, there was more purchase of NTFP. We saw all the types of the forest products found in the agency area in that shandy. We also visited the supermarket established by Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC) in Rampachodavaram.
From there, we first went to a village called Tallapalam. It was just around 7 km from Rampachodavaram. It was a village that nestled in the midst of three hills called Peddakonda, Kappakonda and Gonukonda, and in-between two streams. They use the water from the big stream for irrigation and from the small stream for basic chores. In a village of 90 households, except for 10 households, the rest of the people belong to the various tribal castes — Kondareddy, Kondakapu and Koyadora. Almost all of them were dependent on collection of forest products for a living. The second village was Somannapalam, which was 15 kilometres from Addatheegala. NTFP collection was the main livelihood here as well.
Some people were practicing shifting cultivation or podu cultivation as well on the hills. They said that if they had one acre of agricultural land on hill, they cultivate 11 types of crops such as paddy, mustard, korralu, toor dal, etc., in a year. They don’t have a garden for food security. However, they are attempting to grow coffee plants in their hills. Since normal agricultural crops weren’t viable, the government thought to facilitate them to grow commercial crops like coffee for better profits. How far is it right to squeeze in commercial crops into a self-sufficient living style that focuses on food security?
One more thing that we mainly noticed was the accessibility of education by the tribals. With the cropping up of primary, high schools, etc., across the agency areas, most of the youngsters were all studying. Probably, the current generation won’t have the necessity to depend on forest products for sustenance like their fathers and forefathers. I felt happy to see the first generation of girls going to school in the family of Subba Rao Garu, in whose house we had stayed during the visit. Without shoes on her legs or a school bag to hold the books but taking a plate enthusiastically with her to school to have her mid-day meal, the girl was quite active in studies.
In the forest surrounding the two villages, a diverse range of forest products can be found such as kumkullu, tippateega (better known as malaria creeper), shatavari, nelavemu, karakkaya, amla, tamarind, vistaraku etc.. We did study on the value chains of each and every one of these products. From the time of collection in forest and till the time it reaches the hands of the consumers, a product goes through how many phases and how its value increases in each phase, what needs to be done to bring more profits to the collectors, etc., were some aspects that were part of our study.
In Tallapalem, I stayed in the house of tribal traditional healer Subba Rao Garu. He knows every shrub, herb, creeper, tree and hill in the forest. He also knows the medicinal properties of each and every leaf, stem, root, etc. He explained all of it very patiently. We also met and spoke to a large number of collectors. We observed the vistaraku (leaf plate) sewing machine and tamarind block making machine that were given by the tribal welfare department and were lying wastefully. They have established some rules for themselves for collecting each and every product in the forest. Collecting of vistarakulu is an easy job. It is just collecting of leaves that fall on the ground from the tree. That is why that job is left for elderly women to take up. The rest of the people don’t collect them. The elderly people sew the vistarakulu with hands and give it to one or the other of the younger lot for selling in the weekly shandy. The vistarakulu sewing machines given by the tribal welfare department are pedal-driven sewing machines. The elderly woman don’t have the strength to pedal, so they have left those machines. I wonder why officials don’t consult the stakeholders and locals about what they need and what would be useful to them before making such a costly attempt! After completing our study in two villages in Kurnool district and two villages in Rampachodavaram agency area, when we went to our office in Hyderabad and showed each of the NTFPs that we brought from the forest and explain to them what they were called, what they were used for, etc.; one of my Bengali colleagues joked that I could easily make a living as an Ayurvedic herbs street hawker if I were to lose my job. With god’s grace, I didn’t get into such a situation but that study had provided us with a good learning experience and memories!
Bharathi Kode