Bhog-Moksha Sambhava

Urbanization. Industrialization. Market Economy. Technocentric Lifestyles. Degenerated Consumerism. Air, Water and Land Pollutions. These are some of the tell-tale expressions, recurringly surfacing in the concerns about ecological disturbances across the continents. Today, however, as we are headed for an ecological disaster, there is not only a growing awareness against the “cornucopian technocentrism”, but also a far-stretched disillusionment with the one-way exploitative, economic development. And even the national planners are being questioned: Can the law of a nation supersede the Law of Nature? Should the rights of the people be allowed to be destructively manipulated by the rules of power? Must the wisdom-tradition of our ancestors be shelved to accomodate the flagrant hypocrisies of the Planning tradition? As a part of the Unesco Chair activities at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, a Conference: 13-16 October 1995, New Delhi, involved some of the highly reputed scholars in a stimulating dialogue on the “Cultural Dimension of Education and Ecology”. Its presentations are now offered in two volumes: setting out independently the Cultural Dimension of (1) Education, and (2) Ecology. Focussing on the ecological systems in the mountains, forests and islands vis-a-vis the hitherto-adopted modes of aggressive development, the 15 articles here underscore the urgency of changing the modern lifestyles, of befriending Nature and, above all, of returning to ‘wisdom-tradition’. Also included here are case-studies highlighting the aspects of culture that are being lived in the day-to-day lives of people — even today! This collection is invaluable to environmentalists, social activists, economic planners, policy-makers, and cultural scholars working for the revival of traditional wisdom.

This volume is the 4th in the ongoing “Man and Forest” series – a series trying to highlight the relevance of ‘indigenous knowledge’ of various tribal communities in the sustainable management of forests and local resources – more specially against the growing challenges of economic development vis-à-vis environmental hazards and a declining resource base. Orissa’s forests, covering a little over 57,000 sq km (or 36.72% of the state’s geographical area), are known to have a profusion of ‘minor forest produce’ (MFP) which has been upgraded due to its importance for tribal livelihood and is called Essential Forest Produce (EFP) through the book. It comprises simple fodder and fuelwood to baffling medicinal herbs, besides numerous economically important plants yielding dyes, tannin, fibres, flosses, essential oils, edible fruits, seeds, leaves, honey among many other items. Yet, despite its enormous economic potential, about three-fourths of this forest wealth has so far been unutilized by the tribal communities largely because of its inaccessibility. With a holistic “product profile” of Orissa’s forests, an eminent anthropologist here looks for the rationale behind the vastly deficient utilization of its EFP – identifying the entire range of causes: from the tribals’ incapacity to reach this forest resource to their exploitation by middlemen/traders/moneylenders to the larger forest policy issues. Dr Patnaik also proposes measures which would help tribals not only to actualize the inherent potential of EFP but, in turn, strengthen their economy as well. It is a painstaking empirical study of interest to social anthropologists, environmental activists, foresters, development economists, forest resource economists planners and policy-makers.