The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Village Forest Committees get new technologies

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Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Village Forest Committees get new technologies

Special Correspondent

Vana Vikas Centre launched for technology transfer

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

SAVING GREENERY: D. Venmalar, scientist from IWST, briefing the Village Forest Committee members about new techniques on preservation and wood crafting at the inauguration of Van Vikas Centre, in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE: The garden city now has the country’s first Vana Vikas Centre (Forest sciences centre). It was launched on Tuesday during the first ever scientific forest protection training programme for the Village Forest Committees (VFC) at the Forest Technical and Training Institute at Kadugodi on the outskirts of the city.

On this occasion, five indigenous technologies in forest protection and wood craft developed by the Institute of Wood Science and Technology (IWST) were transferred to the Village Forest Committees.

Inaugurating the Centre, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests A.K. Varma said that for all these years, the research products of various forest research facilities and technologies developed by the institute were not reaching the rural craftsmen and the Village Forest Committees (VFC). But the concept of Vana Vikas Centre has opened up new ways to quickly transfer technologies to rural and tribal people individually or through the VFCs. These technologies were designed to help rural people to improve their skill levels in wood crafting.

Mr. Varma said the Forest Department was in favour of preserving the autonomy of the VFCs in collecting, sharing and using the Minor Forest Waste on a cooperative basis.

He said there was a demand that the VFCs should be merged into the gram panchayats for operational purpose but the Forest Department was against such moves, he added. He said because of expansion of urban areas and industrial activities, the forest areas were shrinking. Malnad areas, which boasted thick forest cover, was now experiencing denudation. Shettihalli forest area in Shimoga district was a classic example of urbanisation of forest areas.

He said in this case thick forests were just 10 km from the town which was not just unusual but also undesirable development.

The five technologies transferred to the VFCs on this occasion included wood seasoning and preservation, portable distillation unit and wood plasticisation, ammonia fumigation technique and modern nursery practices.

Mr. Varma told presspersons that there were 4,500 VFCs, and 6,000 villages in the State spread over almost all districts in the State. He said 85 per cent of them were having full quorum and the activities taken up by them were in conformity with the mandate given to them, he added.

He said the second phase of the Joint Forest Management Committee had been allocated Rs. 100 crore by the Centre and this would be re-financed to the Village Forest Development Agency, which was a federation of VFCs for taking up forest development activities.

The department had recommended that at least 5 per cent of the fund allocated for National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme should be reserved for programmes related to the forest development, he added.

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