Deforestation in Orissa was so rampant in the 1960s that by the early 70s about half of the forests adjacent to nearby villages had vanished. This wreaked havoc both environmentally and socially. With this impetus, communities across the state took it upon themselves to participate in forest conservation efforts, giving rise to the innovative concept of “conservation of the natural forest.” This is now popularly termed as Community Forest Management (CFM) with local communities demonstrating many successful models and Mayurbhanj district taking a pioneer role.

The success has been possible through the uncommon leadership over the last 20 years of the Budhikhamari JFPC, a federation of 95 Village Forest Protection Committees. A community-initiated and community-owned historical movement, it started in the remote villages of Hatikote, Ahari and Budhikhamari, and has since reached hundreds of villages. Today, 95 villages have remarkably joined hands to institute the federation that now guards and manages about 10,000 hectares of forest. Some remarkable aspects are:

> They have initiated a self-sustaining rotational mobile patrol team specifically to guard their forest.

> They have formulated their by-laws for forest management based on their own learning and experiences.

> Based on community estimates, each family earns about Rs. 17000 annually from the forest.

> As an expected effect of this unique conservation, new vegetation has grown up to flourishing forests rich with NTFPs. The ground water level has also risen. As per community opinion, rainfall has become normal and the sporadic presence of wild animals are also evidently marked giving rise to growth in biodiversity, soil fertility and the natural habitat. {Deepak Pani}