Bharatiya Prakriti Parishad

Introduction - Overview of Issues - Projects - Map of Bandhavgarh - Bandhavgarh Flora and Fauna Photographs - Village Photographs - Get Involved - Contact

Summary of Projects

1. Provision of regular medical care for villagers in all of the villages bordering Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. The goal is to run 10 medical centers serving all of the area's population with regular visits.
2. Training of suitable and interested villagers in basic medical care, holistic medicine, and midwifery for long-term relief and independence from outside resources. The first year goal is one female and one male trainee in each center (ten women and ten men total).
3. Regular discussions with villagers on the need for conservation of forest resources and protection of wildlife.
4. Introduction of more efficient and productive methods and sources for construction, agriculture, and fuel.
5. Creation of "model homes and farms" through provision of aid to villagers interested in implementing such technologies.

In order to provide villagers with some benefit from the creation of the tiger reserve and to attempt to change the attitude toward the protection of the forest and wildlife, Bharatiya Prakriti Parishad is addressing some of their major difficulties. A survey conducted last year by the project contact revealed two main grievances of villagers: lack of medical care and crop destruction by wild herbivores.

Villagers have to travel up to thirty kilometers by foot over extremely difficult roads to reach a doctor. To combat this problem, BPP has selected ten villages, convenient to nearly all of the seventy concerned villages, to be visited regularly by a compounder (army medical assistant) and doctors. The compounder is a permanent employee of BPP and was hired to visit each center once monthly to perform medical examinations, treat minor ailments, and distribute free medications. The doctors visit centers on a monthly basis and are volunteers from the local towm, Umaria. A program coordinator is responsible for informing all seventy villages on the date and time of doctor/compounder visits, as well as carrying out the other projects of the organization. In addition to providing immediate medical relief, BPP will provide more educated and interested villagers with training in basic medical care. Educated women will especially be encouraged to become trained in midwifery, lowering the dependence on outside help.

The ten villages are spread across the park boundary, with two villagers selected from each of the five ranges. These villages are:

• Kallawah Range: Chhenchpur; Sakariya
• Tala Range: Kuchwahi; Damna
• Khitouli Range: Dudharoni; Harawah
• Magdi Range: Pathari; Rohaniya
• Panpatha Range: Panpatha/Kushmah; Umariya-Bakeli

Experts in various fields will be enlisted to provide information and consulting for improved crop productivity and protection, water management and irrigation, holistic medicines and medicinal plants, small and cooperative cottage industries and small businesses, and other progressive technologies. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to provide villagers the means to independently improve their living standards while reducing their dependence on forest resources.

At each medical camp, while the doctor/compounder is treating patients, the program coordinator will conduct discussions with villagers on the need for conservation of resources. He will use this opportunity to discuss population control and to introduce alternative technologies, described below, and to find interest villagers. On separate or subsequent visits, he will bring in experts in the various fields and instruct the villagers on how to implement the techniques. In most cases, one of the program's supervisors, listed above, can provide consultation and information at no expense. In each of the ten villages, to begin with, BPP will help the most suitable and interested villager with the financial aid required to accomplish the conversion, with the intention of keeping it affordable for others to copy. In this manner, BPP will create a model farm in each village. If these models achieve higher productivity, they will inspire their neighbors to follow suit. The goal is conversion of ten homes and farms to a more efficient and productive condition each year.

Examples of methods and technologies to be introduced and encouraged:

• Walls of cacti and other thick plants to block wild herbivores from entering crop fields and to lower soil erosion during monsoon (high priority).
• Planting of bamboo and other quick growing trees in open plots and along crop fields to provide fuelwood and construction material within a few years and lower soil erosion (high priority).
• Biogas plants, fueled by cow dung, and high efficiency solar cookers to replace fuel wood for cooking (high priority).
• Rainwater harvesting, to supplement groundwater supplies in areas suffering from limited or distant access to water.
• Switching from traditional crops to medicinal plants and other crops that are less attractive to wild herbivores and gain be sold for great profit in cities.
• Replacing several traditional cattle with low milk production with a few Jersey cows with high production. This process can be carried out directly by replacing cows or by removing old bulls and introducing a high quality bull to mate with all of the existing cows.
• Stall feeding instead of traditional grazing to lower cattle kills by tigers and leopards and competition between wild herbivores and cattle.

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