Gethsemane man-made forest: Hand raised by 35 Bodo youths the regenerated forest is a perfect destination of nature lovers but stares at new conservation challenges

Nearly 15 years ago, a group of 35 Bodo youths nourished a dream of regenerating a forest that had turned into a barren land near Assam, Bhutan, and Arunachal Pradesh tri-juncture due to illegal timber felling and flash floods. For others, the dream appeared to be a fantasy as the barren landscape was spread over extensive tract of 5,625 bigha (750 hectare) area and formed part of 22.24 sq. km. Bhairabkunda Reserve Forest (RF) in Udalguri district of Bodoland Territorial Region in Assam. However, step by step they planted 14 lakh saplings over a period of five years from 2007 and 2012 to turn the barren landscape into a wooded forest under a Joint Forest Management project.

Their success story now sounds like a fairy tale to visitors mesmerized by the serenity, chirping of birds, relaxing sounds of rolling waters and mysterious jungle trek inside the forest hand raised by a team of determined youths.

It was equally difficult to nurture the plants without abundant water sources. So, they took part in construction of a 4-kilometer-long irrigation channel from river Dhansiri flowing down from Arunachal Pradesh. Two more irrigation channels were dug out from Dhansiri to prevent the plants from dying due to lack of sufficient groundwater. The plants not only grew healthy but also gradually turned the landscape into a unique man-made green cover titled, Gethsemane Man-Made Forest (GMMF). An embankment constructed years ago has now become an undulating gravel road to take visitors to deep inside the forest.

The challenges of conservation of the hand-raised forest have also grown along with its horizonal and vertical expansion. These youths, however, hardly imagined that after 15 years, fresh challenges of threat of timber smuggling would arise, when barren landscape turn into a dense forest.

“To make a barren land into a lush green forest involving community people was a tough challenge, which the members of Joint Forest Management Committees overcame with hard work and dedication. The challenge now is, however, of manning the forest, to secure it from evil eyes of timber smugglers”, says Ansuma Basumatari, who is in charge of Elephant Country Camp, an eco-tourism centre inside the jungle established under the Udalguri Landscape Mission under Balipara Foundation.

Timber smugglers who sneak into the forest during night cause forest fires by throwing burning matchsticks or cigarettes on dry leaves, he adds, referring to a large patch of ashes which was covered with a number of matured trees till some days back. Members of GMMF try to keep watch against such illegal activities and store waters on hand sprays to douse such fire but the extensive tract of forest has made it a challenging task for them.

GMMF bears haunting memories of devastation due to both natural calamities and man-made activities. The original pristine forest cover was initially hit by a flash flood during 1981 by river Dhansiri that flows through the forest, says Naba Kumar Bordoloi, the then ranger of the Bhairabkunda Reserve Forest, who was instrumental in chalking out a project to regenerate the lost forest in 2005. It was followed by continuous and illegal felling of trees, he adds.

Bhairabkunda is located at the tri-juncture of Assam, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh and it is the meeting point of two rivers - Jampani from Bhutan and Bhaibari from Arunachal Pradesh. from this point it flows as Dhansiri through Assam. . Another river Daipham from Bhutan also flows through the reserve forest area. During eighties and nineties, the locality was severely hit by insurgency and counter insurgency activities. With absence of administration intervention, it became a fertile ground for all kind of illegal activities including illegal felling of trees. It became a sandy, barren patch of land. By the time the project was designed, the sandy and barren land was used by surrounding villagers as grazing land.

The Rs.72 lakh Gethsemane Man-Made Forest (GMMF) project, a joint forest management project, that started in 2007 included plantation of 11 lakh saplings in 5,550 bigha plot, construction of a four-kilometre irrigation channel from original Dhansiri river to regenerate the land, construction of a pond for fishery and a piggery farm inside the forest land for revenue generation, Bordoloi says. With further plantation in extended areas in subsequent years, the green coverage has now turned into a unique 7,500 bigha man-made forest.

To make the Joint Forest Management (JFM) project sustainable, six JFM committees covering six surrounding villages-Sonaigaon, Bhairabpur, Goroimari, Sapangaon, No.1 Mazargaon and No.2 Mazargaon were formed to undertake the afforestation drive. After the completion of the plantation activities and gradual growth of the plants all the six JFMCs constituted under the JFM scheme were dissolved. However, the members of the dissolved JFMCs were concerned about conservation of the forest they had hand raised and formed a new JFMC called Gethsemane Forest Management Ccommitee with Primson Daimari as the President and Bilup Daimari as the General Secretary and carry on the plantation and conservation activities on their own. Mobilising resources has remained a difficult task but that has failed to dampen their enthusiasm and commitment.

The plantation drive was designed to make the forest covered with plants species like khoyar, segun, sishu, simalu, titachapa and other locally available plants which are used as food plants by animals, birds, and butterflies. With growing of the green cover, number of wildlife species like deer, wild boar, different species of avifauna and reptiles have been sighted. Occasional visits of herds of wild elephants too, has become a common sight.

“Among the plant species, some trees like khoyar, segun, titachapa have high demand in commercial market, which draws attention to poachers. These miscreants also try to instigate local people citing examples of frequent human-elephant conflict in the area’, says Sunilal Bodo, a member of Gethsemane JFMC. He claims with pride that he practically knows each and every plant of the forest and their growth history.

The Elephant Country Camp has added a provision of a three-room homestay to facilitate eco-tourism activities of for nature lovers with an open space for conference and meetings, bonfire, and night stay at Gethsemane. A museum and provisions for tents are in the pipeline. Additionally, they have also engaged in environment friendly apiculture and melliponiculture, the cultivation of honey from stingless bees, as eco-friendly and sustainable economic activity. Honey, extracted from stingless honeybee have unique medicinal value, says Ansuma Daimary. “We have acquired the traditional knowledge on melliponiculture from a farmer in Dima Hasao district who have expertise on it. We have also introduced it among local people living on the fringe of Gethsemane to explore it as a sustainable livelihood option,” he says.

Gethsemane JFMC members have clear vision about the future of their project. They have given the best years of their life in making the dream of regenerating a lost forest come true. “We are against make tourism activities inside the forest on fully commercial scale. We want to encourage only true nature lovers to enjoy the silence of the forest and do not want to encourage overflow of tourists as it will disturb the tranquillity,” says Sunilal Bodo. Ansuma also echoes him.

Gethsemane manmade forest has given the birth of a hope of regenerating lost ecosystem amidst rampant destruction of forests and extinction of species. But for Gethsemane JFMC members, overcoming the challenges of conservation of the hand-raised forest to prevent this hope from turning into a despair has also grown big and needs more attention from all stakeholders.

Ratna Bharali Talukdar