RESOURCES AND DEPENDENCY

West Godavari District is basically an Agrarian District. Dependence of the people on forests and forest produce is in the following classes :

i). The tribals in Agency.

ii). The agriculturists of the Delta and Uplands.

iii). The Fishermen in the neighbourhoods of the coastal belt and.

iv). Other needs.

(i) The tribals in agency: The tribals mostly inhabit the Agency forests in Polavaram, Kannapuram and Jangareddigudem Ranges. They are mainly agriculturists and during off-season they work in forestry operations such as extraction of timber, fuelwood and bamboo. They also collect Minor forest produce like Honey, Beedi leaves, Bee wax, Tamarind, Adda leaves, Musni seed etc. Agricultural practices followed by these tribals especially in the interior areas are highly unscientific. They invariably resort to burning and shifting from area to area periodically, which is locally called Podu cultivation.

Consequent to introduction of Joint Forest Management, the people in the near by villages of the forest blocks have been organised into Vana Smarakshana samithies. Participatory management of forests through these Samithies has played a positive role in educating the forest dwellers on the need for forest conservation.

(ii) The Agriculturists of Delta and Upland: The chief demands on the forests are large timber for house construction, small timber for huts and agricultural implements, fuel for domestic purposes and for tobacco barns, bamboo for buroods, thorns and brush wood for fencing.

(iii) The fishermen in the neighbourhoods of coastal belt: The villages bordering all along the sea-coast are inhabited predominantly by fishermen. The fishermen need timber for their boats, small timber for their house constructions, bamboo for fishing stakes and for other purposes.

(iv) Other needs :

a). Bamboo supply to Burood SocietiesWithin the jurisdiction of Eluru Division there are so many registered Burood Societies with a membership of 1953. All these buroods are dependent on manufacture of baskets etc. with bamboo splinters, which are being supplied to them at concessional rates fixed by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. In addition to the societies registered in West Godavari district, the demands of the Burood societies of other districts like Hyderabad, Rangareddy etc. are also met to some extent.

b). Wood based Industries : M/s. A.P. Paper Mills Ltd., Rajahmundry is the major consumer of forest produce for production of paper pulp. This industry requires about 100000 tonnes of bamboo and 120000 tonnes of hard wood annually for production of 250 tonnes of paper per day.

There are about 240 private sawmills and 102 Timber depots scattered all over West Godavari District. They are basically involved in trade of Timber. Till about 10 years back, they were meeting bulk of their requirement from timber extracted from the forests of Eluru division. After closure of extraction works from the natural forests, they are meeting their requirement by obtaining timber from patta lands and the timber imported from states like Madhya Pradesh, Orissa etc. The requirement of the round timber to the private sawmills and timber depots is about 10000 cum. per annum. The details of private Sawmills are included in Appendix XLIII and that of timber depots in Appendix XLIII (a).

For curing the tobacco leaf in about 2000 tobacco barns during January to March, the fire wood requirement is about 40000 cum. Out of this, 1/3rd of the requirement was met from the forests and remaining 2/3rd from private patta lands in the district. With the ban on felling of forests, they now totally depend on private patta produce.

Markets and marketable produce :Bamboo and Timber are the major forest products that are marketed in this division. Bamboo extracted from natural forests and bamboo plantations in West Godavari District is either supplied to Burood socieities or sold in Public auction after transportation to major sale depots like GTD, Jangareddigudem. There is huge demand for the bamboo extracted from the coupes in West Godavari District. The Bamboo sold in public auction is utilized mostly for horticultural purposes for providing stakes to plantation crop.

Though there is no systematic extraction of timber from natural forests, the timber, poles, vasams, bajus etc. extracted from the Silvicultural thinnings of the plantations are sold in public auction through GTD, Jangareddigudem. Poles etc., are utilized in rural housing and in Agricultural implements. Further, timber involved in offence cases is also sold in public auctions through the government timber and bamboo depots enumerated above after due process of law.

Faggot/stem wood and root wood obtained from the silvicultural thinnings and harvesting of Teak and Eucalyptus plantations is being sold in public auction. There is no dearth of market and demand for the fuel as the fire- wood is the chief source of domestic fuel.

Most of the non-timber forest produce items are leased out to Girijan co-operative corporation (GCC) Ltd. Visakhapatnam. GCC purchases the MFP produce from the tribals at prefixed rates and auction them in convenient quantities. There is sufficient demand for these items also. The important items in this class are Tamarind, Honey, Myrobolans, Gum Karaya etc.

The other important item not traded through Girijan co-operative corporation ltd.Visakhapatnam is leaves of Dyospyros melanoxylon (Tuniki). This item is sold in public auction. The entire Eluru division has been organized into 5 units and these units are put for auction. There is advance sale and the quantities are sold in bulk. From 1999 season onwards, triennial sales are being organized.