|
|
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
| India:
Loss of Forest Control Impoverishes Orissa Villagers |
| |
| Gomti Majhi, a middle-aged
tribal woman in this village, has survived terrible poverty.
Her husband died during the 1996 drought here in Orissa,
in eastern India, due to illness and inadequate nutrition.
The death was reported as a "starvation death."
Three years later, the underlying causes of poverty and
hunger remain intact here, as elsewhere in the "hunger
belt" of western Orissa. Drought or no drought, villagers
in the districts of Nuapada, Bolangir, Koraput and Kalahandi
are short of food and the means to buy it. |
| |
| Many marginal and
landless farmers here depend on the forest for their livelihood.
They collect firewood, clear patches for farming or collect
and sell forest produce like the flowers of the Mahua
tree, an ingrediant used in locally-brewed liquor. |
| |
Dependence on the
forests is a fall back mechanism for the poor people.
Deforestation for commercial purposes, rather than sustenance
needs, and centralized control of forests deprived the
people of this guarantee against drought. The people seem
to be unable to break away from the cycle of poverty because
there is little effort to empower them, NGO activists
argue. And the response of government officials has been
less than adequate. Continuing poverty leads to malnutrition
and poor health. Health
workers note that a major cause of the high disease rate
here is malnutrition, apart from recurrent instances of
malaria. |
| |
| But medical attention is
not the solution. It cannot cure the diseases of continuing
poverty. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Share
4 Nature
|
|
|
| - Wild Fact |
| - Green Tip |
| - Quiz |
| - Atricle |
| - Campaign |
| - Wild Photos |
| - Your Experience |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
