The Vidarva region of Maharastra is infamous for the highest number of farmers’ suicide cases in India. Few people know the brighter side of the region and more particularly the stewardship rights of natural resources asserted and exercised by the community that have led to gross economic empowerment. There are villages that earn revenues in crores of rupees per annum and able to meet the all of their developmental needs without depending on any government grants.
The villages of the region have set a trend for the rest of the country in exercising the ownership rights over minor forest produces like bamboo, kendu leaf (used for Bidi), and Mahua. The kendu leaf is a nationalized forest produce, so the state has monopoly over it in the market and it is not a freely traded forest produce. The only option for the villagers is to pluck the kendu leaf for the state forest corporation, which has the authority of storage and marketing the forest produces. The forest dwellers or kendu leaf pickers used to get some wage for plucking and drying the leaves. Similarly, mahua (mostly used in preparing liquor) is an excisable product and there has been a cap on hoarding the mahua and it is allowed only for domestic consumption. In the case of bamboo, the Forest Corporation has the authority to trade it and the villagers were mostly engaged in cutting the bamboo for which they were paid some nominal wage. The villagers never enjoyed ownership rights or were able to trade as they wished.
