Livelihood Issues and Sustainable Development: A Study of Two Villages in North Bengal (BTR), India

Abstract

The term ‘sustainable development’ is defined as development that has enough resources in its own environment/society to sustain and to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the future generation's interests or without any loss of natural resources endowed to a society. However, the model of rapid development has resulted in exploitation and misuse of vital natural ecological resources, thereby gradually depleting them in a significant manner. This depletion and decline of natural resources not only threatens the present generation (be it rural or urban population) but also throws the challenge of sustainability to the future generation.

According to a United Nations report, India's population is currently ∼1.2 billion people and is expected to grow by another 300 million within the next couple of decades. With cities generating two-thirds of the country's economic outputs, an increasing number of Indians are leaving rural areas to seek employment in cities, relying on the already crumbling urban infrastructure, and as a result there is migration explosion, unemployment, homelessness, beggary and rising crimes are being witnessed as problems of modern development in urban India. By 2030, it is projected that sixty-eight Indian cities will each have more than one million inhabitants, and six megacities, more than ten million each. The rapid growth of cities causes a large number of challenges, including insufficient power supply, unreliable public transport and limited access to adequate healthcare and educational services.

India's biodiversity is rich and unique. It is one of the twelve mega-diversity countries in the world having a vast variety of flora and fauna, which collectively account for 60–70 per cent of the world's biodiversity. Its ten bio-geographic regions represent a broad range of ecosystems. India has the world's 6 percent flowering plant species and 14 per cent of the world's avian fauna (FSI 2009, Forest Statistics in India, State of India's Forest Report (FSI: Dehra Dun).

There are nearly 45,000 species of plants in the country and similarly in fauna there are 81,250 recorded species (NFAP 1Non Timber Forest Product (NTFP, 1999, as cited by Goshal, 2011). It has 80 national parks and 441 sanctuaries, known as protected area, which is ∼14.8 million hectares and this is 4.5 per cent of the country's land area and 14 per cent of forest area. Forests contribute 1.7 per cent to the gross domestic product of the country. However, this figure does not take into account its numerous non-market and external benefits and the vast amount of fuel-wood and fodder and other forest products collected legally or illegally. One estimate shows that total annual removals from the forest is worth about US$ 7.1 billion or Rs.30,000 crores, which includes ∼270 million tons of fuel-wood, 280 million tons of fodder and over 12 million cubic metres of timber and countless non-timber forest products (NFAP please replace it with – NTFP 1999 ac cited in Ghosal, 2011). These are all simple statistics that could be weighed against commercial or economic profit and not include the real value of environmental richness and benefits provided by the ‘green zones’ of this country. In India, the total forest-covered area is 690,899 km², i.e., 22per cent of the total territory. Since centuries, several clusters of communities have been depending on forest resources for their livelihood, particularly the tribal population. In the post-globalisation open market economy, intensive development of infrastructure in the country has been putting high pressure on the ecosystem. Land classified as a forest is ∼23per cent of the country's area (76.53 million hectares). Out of this, forest cover is reported to be ∼63.73 million hectares in extent, of which more than 40per cent (25.51 million hectares) is degraded, or at least is recorded as open and scrub forests (FSI1999). Forest Statistics in India, State of India's Forest Report (FSI: Dehra Dun)

Over the decades, the forest cover has been gradually shrinking and such rapid depletion has attracted massive protests as those inhabitants whose only skills are to survive on forest produce for their livelihood have been pushed to marginalisation due to depletion, and now they have become marginalised within their own areas. Forests have been disappearing fast; the land left behind is ravaged and is not even fit for agriculture, thus forcing these people to migrate to poor living in urban areas. They have lost their sustainable livelihoods and are exposed either to the vagaries of nature and imprisoned in their areas or have left the forest lands in search of alternative sources of livelihood and migrated to low-level jobs (unskilled) in urban areas. The fast pace of deforestation has resulted in large shortfalls between needs and supply of forest produce, especially of timber, firewood and fodder – not only the necessity of rural population but also of large use for urban lifestyle and commercial needs. ‘Future generations’ are mainly going to suffer because of the environmental problems of resource consumption, and pollution and their distribution over long time horizons. In this context, this paper focuses on ‘studying sustainable development, marginalised forest communities and their livelihood issues’ for forest dwellers in general with a special focus on North Bengal (part of West Bengal, India) situated at the Himalayan foothills.

This discussion analyses strategies for sustainable development adapted so far by the Department of Forest Management, by government agencies (Tribal Welfare Department) in West Bengal, as well as the deprivation or preservation of forest rights (under the Forest Right Act) (2006), which are necessary for the survival of various age-old ethnic/marginalised tribal communities residing within and around forests who believe that forests and their livelihood are intertwined. This paper is based on a pilot study of an on-going research project that aims to emphasise on how to improve the quality of life for both existing and future generations in these areas by interrelating natural– ecological sustainability with forest livelihoods, thereby ensuring sustainable development.