List of Acronyms Acronym Full Form ACF Assistant Conservator of Forests AFD Agence France de Développement APFBC Assam Project on Forest & Biodiversity Conservation APL Above Poverty Line BPL Below Poverty Line CCF Chief Conservator of Forests CF Conservator of Forests CML Centre for Microfinance and Livelihood COMPELO Consulting Services for Micro Planning Enhancing Livelihood Opportunities DCF Deputy Conservator of Forests DFO Divisional Forest Officer EDC Eco-Development Committee EPA Entry Point Activity FCA Forest (conservation) Act, 1981 FD Forest Department FRA Forest Rights' Act FV Forest Village FYP Five Year Plan GHG Green House Gases GoI Government of India GP GaonPanchayat Ha Hectare IEC Information Education & Communication IIE Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship 2 JFMC Joint Forest Management Committee MDR Major District Roads MGNREGS Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme MoEF&CC Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change NTFP Non Timber Forest Produce OBC Other Backward Classes ODR Other District Roads PCCF Principal Chief Conservator of Forests PHC Primary Health Center PMU Project Management Unit PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal RGVN RashtriyaGraminVikasNidhi RO Range Officer SC Scheduled Caste SDG Sustainable Development Goals SLF Sustainable Livelihood Framework Sp Species ST Scheduled Tribe SWOT Strength Weakness Opportunity & Threat TV Taungya Village TV Television WLS Wildlife Sanctuary WPA Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 WPC Working Plan Circle Glossary of Vernacular Name of Trees, Shrubs, Herbs, Other Plants 3 Sl. No Local Name(s) Botanical Name(s) 1. Cham Artocarpuschaplasa 2. Rata Amorawallichii 3. Kurta Palaquiumpolyanthum 4. Jam Eugenia jambolana 5. Poma Cedrelatoona 6. Gomari Gmelinaarborea 7. Dhuna Canariumresiniferrum 8. Ramdala Duabangagrandiflora 9. Bonak Schimawallichii 10. Manipuri som Parkiaroxburghii 11. Garjan Dipterocarpusturbinatus 12. Jinari Podocarpusnerifolium 13. Jhalna Toonaciliata 14. Jhakura Mecarangadenticulata 15. Sialkata Euphetoriumodoratum 16. Phutkola Malathriamelabathricum 17. Nefafu Vitexnegundo 18. Gandhi Homalomenaaromatica 19. Agar Aquillariaagalocha 20. Nahar Mesuaferrah 21. Amloki Emblicaofficianallis 22. Bohera Terminaliabelerica 23. Arjun Terminaliaarjuna 24. Chalita Dileniaindica 25. Chalmogra Hydnocarpuskurzaii 26. Hona/Nauka Oroxyllumindicum 4 JARULTOLAJOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE CACHAR FOREST DIVISION, SOUTHERN ASSAM CIRCLE Micro-Plan (2016-17 to 2026-27) PART - I 6 1.Introduction 1.1 About the Project The vision of the Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation (APFBC) is ‘to enable sustainable forest and biodiversity conservation and management in Assam through multi-scale integrative planning and involvement of forest dependent communities in target areas and giving fillip to their livelihood activities through sustainable use of forest and non-forest resources’. The project’s objective has been stated as: ‘In collaboration with the forest dependent communities, to restore forest eco-systems to enhance the forest dependent community’s livelihoods and ensure conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity’. The above project is being mainly funded by the Agence France de Développement (AFD) - i.e. the French Development Agency, with co-funding from the Government of Assam. The Assam Project on Forest and Biodiversity Conservation Society (APFBC Society) has the mandate for planning, implementation, monitoring, coordination and management of all the activities under the above mentioned project. 1.2 Micro-planning and Livelihood Development In order to promote livelihood activities through market potential based value addition; the present project intends to take up activities like entrepreneurship promotion, product processing value addition and marketing under this project. This has become necessary on account of the pressures on existing forest resources due to the growth of population. There is a need to explore value addition to the existing forest and biodiversity products and services, based on the market potential. In addition, non-forest based livelihoods need to be explored and the capacities of the community members need to be built-up through skills development initiatives. A consortium comprising of Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) Guwahati, RashtriyaGraminVikasNidhi (RGVN) and Centre for Microfinance and Livelihood (CML) has been formed to implement (inter-alia) the micro-planning and livelihood development under the above project. The above consortium has been titled as ‘Consulting Service for Micro Planning Enhancing Livelihood Opportunities’ - COMPELO in short. As per project guidelines, this micro-plan includes ‘various operations of village and forest development ... livelihood support of forest dependent members and keeping sustainable forest management as the broad objective’. It includes both forest development and 7 livelihood development. 1.3Micro-Plan for the Jarultola JFMC This document gives the Micro-Plan for the Jarultola JFMC, which is located in the Cachar district of Assam. The JFMC falls under the jurisdiction of the Hawaithang Range under Cachar Forest division. The profile of the community is given in the next section. 8 2 General Description of the Area 2.1 General Description The Silchar Forest Division lies in the southern end of Assam in the fertile valley of Barak with North Cachar Hills District in the north Manipur State on the east, Mizoram on south and Karimganj Forest Division covering Karimganj Civil District and part of Silchar District towards west.The Reserved Forests are not evenly distributed. The central densely populated area hardly has any tree forest; all the Reserved Forests are distributed along slopes and foot hills of Borail and Lushai Hills or on Bhuban, Rangte, Bhairals and Chhatachura hills. The institution of forest villages was set up to create a captive pool of labourers exclusively for forest workers within the forest where labour supply was scarce. To attract people to settle in forest villages incentives such as lower land rate, free use of forest produce for home consumptions in lieu of 10 days free labour, later reduced to 5 days in a year were offered. Previously there were restrictions in offering lands for settlement of forest villagers only to certain classes of people who were traditionally accustomed to forestry works. 2.2 Location: The Silchar Forest Division is situated between 2408’’ and 2509’’ north latitudes and 92030 and 93016’’ East longitudes. This Forest Division comprises of recognized Cachar and Hailakandi Civil Districts. The total geographical area is 5,102sq.km. The total forest area under the Division, as per gazette notification is about 2583.45sq.km or about 50.63 p.c. of the geographical area.(Appendix I- Location Map; Appendix II- Approach to the JFMC) 2.3Soil Type The soil has originated from older geological formations. The low isolated hillocks occurring very frequently over the level of alluvium mostly contain more of coarse sand and gravel in different layers often invaded with layers of ferruginous clay. Hills along the south eastern boundary which are projection of LushaiHills , have alternate gradation of sand mixed clay. In Surma series shales are chief characteristic of lower beds while upper beds have mainly soft sandy shales with thin sand beds. These formations often give rise to swamp lands. Most of the scattered hillocks are made of sand with underlying sandy and 9 mottled clays belonging to tipam series. The lower beds of tipam series are harder than immediately underlying strata. Surma series and Dihing series is made up of pebbles and sands, stones and sands predominate in the southern for hills. Soil of the valley is mostly fertile clayey loam and that of low ranges are sandy loam. 2.4 Water The main rivers of the division are Barak, Khatakal, SonaiRukni, Jiri and Dulu. 2.5 Climate The Division has a subtropical climate with high rainfall spread over a long period and high temperature without much variation. The geographical configuration also contributed to the climate of the district. The moisture laden monsoon clouds enter the valley from west buffeting against the hills along the boundary causing heavy rainfall. Climatically the seasons are well defined with a comparatively dry winter from November to February; hot dry summer from March to May and a rainy season from late May to late October. Sometimes rain starts immediately after winter washing out the summer. About 70% of the total rainfall is confined during July to September. The driest month is December even than the average humidity never falls below 40%. The rainfall gradually increases towards north where Borail, “The Great Wall” stands. The lowest rainfall occurs towards east along Manipur Border. The highest Rainfall recorded at Kalain T.E. is 759.7mm during July.Harangajao just beyond the Barail Range has an annual average rainfall of 3383.5mm. Kalain recorded highest temperature of 35.50C during May and low of 5.40C during January. On the hills of Barail Range the temperature variation is more, unfortunately no records are available. The number of rainy days in a year progressively increases from south west to towards east Kalain has an average of 159.8 days compared to 130 days in Silchar. Humidity is quite high throughout the year. The mean average humidity at Silchar is 78p.c. 2.6 The Eco-system and BiodiversityThe total area of reserved forests according to gazette notification is 2435.13sq.km. This works out to be