Abstract

All forest land area in Jammu and Kashmir is State owned and are under the technical and administrative control of the State Forest Department. The department is, therefore, managing these forests in the interest of the State. The State interest has too often been expressed as an extension of the policies of the State and Central Govt. which usually focus on exploitation of these forests for the overall development of the State, as a result of which the local communities which inhabit the forest under exploitation are marginalized. Participatory Forest Management got its formal shape in the year 1990. A need has arise to evaluate the impact of this management tool. 58 VFCs are functioning both with the Social Forestry projects and the territorial wings of the forest departments for the rehabilitation of the forest land of Kupwara District. A study was taken up in Shumeriyal and Doban Village committees to assess the impact of Joint Forest Management on the socio-economic development of rural people and to identify the prime ingredients of this programme responsible for bringing about the desired change. It was observed that the household income has considerable increased due to alternative job opportunities, agriculture production has increased, reduction in distance travelled and time spent for fuelwood and fodder collection and institution building and other constructions (Entry point activities) has paved the way for sustainability of the whole process. For the present study, the two VFCs selected, one VFC (Shumeriyal) which is only 6 kms from the district headquarter Kupwara having the population of 5800 souls and the another VFC (Doban) which is near about 60 kms away from the district headquarter having population of 2740 souls. During the present study it was observed that the Shumeriyal village is more developed than that of Doban village due to proper transport facilities, communication facilities, land productivity, drainage system, education and employment, During the present study it was observed that the forest villages which are near to the District headquarter are well developed than those areas which are far beyond the District headquarter.

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