Sustaining Hope
a green economic strategy for wastelands

The semi-arid tracts of Bundelkhand have 20-25 percent of land as degraded in one form or the other.  These include both cropland and forests and therefore threaten food security and supply of fuel and fodder.  Bundelkhand is a laboratory for our on-going experiments in the development of sustainable livelihoods. 

The successes is Bundelkhand need to be synergised.  According to Air Vice Marshall S. Sahni, who is managing all development projects in Bundelkhand, these efforts are to be taken up on a `war footing’ by all concerned agencies in the Government, NGO’s and people if, we want to achieve self sufficiency in food production.  Bundelkhand is the most successful laboratory for Development Alternatives and while we want more participation in wasteland development, we are now looking at ways to provide a better livelihood to the people. 

Despite the wage earnings from afforestation programmes, popular interest in rather low as far as protection and management of newly afforested areas is concerned.  This is in sharp contrast to the enthusiasm and participation generated in cropland improvement programmes probably because of the more direct nature of the benefits accured. 

Our current thrust therefore is to understand and search for ways that makes afforestation attractive to people.  One obvious way is to mobilise local people and form local institutions to manage and distribute usufruct - mainly fuel wood and fodder - equitably among members.  Our experience here shows that work as wage labour in towns and agricultural fields is more attractive to people as it adds to their daily income.  Consequently we are now looking at the potential of interspersing multipurpose species in current and future plantation work which have potential for setting-up small enterprises that can yield income on a sustained basis and can be managed by local communities (see Box). 

Apart from including multipurpose species in plantation work, we are also considering those which are available in the wild and can serve as inputs (resource) for micro-enterprises, in addition to those which can be cultivated by farmers as a source of additional income. 

Species like ambari, sunnhemp and dhanicha can be cultivated for additional income generation.

Among the species, dhaincha, (leguminous shrub) has multiple uses.  It is not only drought resistant and useful for reclaiming saline and alkaline lands, it is also used as cattle feed and green manure. 

Multipurpose species in the wild include palas, munj, salai and khus.  The uses of khus as a low-cost way of controlling soil erosion, as a barrier to weeds, as a fire resistant and insect repellent are well known.  Munj is also an effective soil binder. 

Land development programmes based on grasses, shrubs and trees, either in pure or in dispersed spatial and temporal arrangement, can be adopted in the region.  All the wild species mentioned above, along with trees like neem can be integrated with fast growing speices like Acacia nilotica (kikkar), A catechu (khair), Holoptelea integrifolia (chirol) and Prosopis juliflora (vilayati kikkar). 

A serious weed which has overrun the wastelands of Bundelkhand is lantana.  Manual eradication of this prolific breeder is both tedious and cost prohibitive.  Development Alternatives is now experimenting with pyrolising lantana stems for making briquettes and for gasification to run diesel engines to generate electricity. 

As mentioned earlier, our future natural resource management programmes in Bundelkhand will be looking at the feasibility of linking micro-enterprise development with them.  This obviously entails location -specific R&D regarding suitability of species and site requirements; techno-economic feasibility studies for enterprise development; awareness generation of local communities for sustainable utilisation of biomass for existing and potential enterprises and; training and extension services for enterprise development. 

Tumkur and Bundelkhand are two specific examples that demonstrate that sustainable livelihoods can be created and pressed into the service of conservation.  Infact, the two ae like the `before and after’ results of a programme.  Starting from a wasteland regeneration programme, today, we have taken the first cautious step towards fulfilling our larger vision of a better lifestyle for people in Bundelkhand.  Only time will reveal the extent of our success.

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