DEFORESTATION IN SOCIAL CONTEXT: A CASE STUDY OF PURULIYA DISTRICT IN WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Abstract

Deforestation is conceived as a word more ‘physical’ than ‘social’ in policies and practices so far. But it is the time to rethink about it. At present, most of the forest destruction in the world and in India also, is caused either through the decisions taken ‘socially’ by the power-centre or so-called ‘illegal’ or extra-legal activities evolved through complex socio-economic and political dialectics. Even the consequences of deforestation is attracting more and more social controversies that are not minor in impact than their physical counterparts like soil erosion, loss of bio-diversity and weather imbalances. Thus deforestation in a particular forest land may be defined and should be dealt with close connection to its social context, with particular reference to its different stakeholders residing within, in the vicinity of and far away from the forests.

Puruliya district, where the present study is nestled in, is an economically backward district, situated in the western boundary of the state of West Bengal. At least 14 percent of the district’s total land surface is under forest cover. Once lush green healthy vegetal cover of Puruliya is now reduced to discreet patches, due to massive deforestation occurred in recent past. Almost one third of the district’s total population belongs to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories. Moreover, 95 percent residents live in villages. Thus dependence on forest for food, fodder, fuel, fertilizer, house building materials and medicines are high. But the access to those forest resources is restricted by several forest laws having colonial legacy that give birth to shady practices and instigate deforestation in the district. A perceptive survey through pre-fabricated questionnaires in randomly selected forest and revenue villages in Puruliya district reveals that the present form of deforestation can be defined as a product of the conflict of ideas between the hegemonic power centre and the marginal people of the district. Thus, any attempt to sustainable conservation of forest resources in Puruliya have to consider the strong social factors active behind deforestation.