‘Semane ate duraru asi jayechanti ama paye, amku tanku samaya daba katha!’ (They have come from so far only for us, we should give time to them) said an old man of Itamundia village, Baripada block.
An auto stopped on the lonely street of the village where two old men were staring at us to recall their memory of meeting us earlier. Latter a trembling voice came from back, the Sarpanch sahib is not available here, after introducing ourselves & explaining the purpose of our visit we could made us familiar with the villagers to sit with them for the discussion. I could able to see the forest from the place where I was allowed to sit, after hours of discussion on forest protection & forest right. I revealed some fascinating anecdotes from the villagers on protecting their forest for last many years. Apparently the forest which is of 700 Ha has been well protected by 4 villages through ‘Thengapali’ method for many years now. The word Thengapali has derived from a wooden stick mode of protecting the forest in a rotation manner where each member of the family volunteer to do the Thengapali, where the villagers believe the wooden stick (Thenga) is their master. The Thengapali method of protecting forest is quite popular amongst the villagers in many parts of Odisha such as Ranpur in Nayagarh district. In combined association of 4 villages to protect the forest at Itamundia, a committee was formulated in the year 1985 known as ‘Jugma jungle surakhya committee’ falling under Budhikhamari. Each village has been distributed with 200 Ha forest to protect by Thengapali under Jugma protection committee. The family members who volunteer to protect the forest can also be fined if he or she do misconduct of cutting trees during the protection period. Total 4 people do the Thengapali each day, I was amazed to see the trust & cooperation the villagers have built among each others for protecting their forest.
After hearing the motivating narration from the villagers on protecting their forest, I was literally anxious to see their forest in actual. Latter we took a long walk of 4 Km to see the forest & interacting with the persons who were doing the thengapali on that day. I was astonished to see the green dense forest well protected by the Itamundia villagers, during our presence the thengapali people caught a burglar trying to nick the wood from the forest. I could feel the throb of the villagers for their forest getting a small scratch; the yell of the women & mourn of the old man was enough for me to speculate that the villagers can converse with the forest. The symbiotic relation the villagers have with the forest was well reflecting; I could able to feel the trees welcoming us and trying to show us the direction, to relish the smell & beauty. The determining eyes & defending smile of the villagers were trying to convey us the message that ‘we will keep protecting & loving our forest till we are alive’.
The day was coming to an end as we were coming out of the forest; the trees started waving & were whispering something as though it was saying goodbye to us.
The Thengapali
Forest dwellers..
Forest protected by Thengapali
