Dasamantapur: The unemployment problem has assumed such proportions that tribals here in Koraput district, who used to guard the village forest round-the-clock from the timber mafia, have now themselves started felling trees for survival.
A large patch of forest known as Bari Dongorois located below a hilltop village, A Jholaguda, in Paika Fulbeda panchayat of this block, is now facing threat of extinction.
The residents of the village used to protect the forest from the mafia in the past as they depended on it for minor produce which they used sell in the nearby market to meet their daily needs. They were aware that the forest was important for their survival. However, the situation has since taken an ugly turn with increasing population and rising unemployment.
The villagers who had been protecting the forest are now felling trees to sell them as firewood to survive.
“It is painful for us to chop down the trees that we conserved for long. We have no option but to fell them for a living,” was the collective refrain of villagers like Bhagaban Paraja, Khoge Paraja, Daimati, Kamala Jani and others.
With no source of income in the area, the residents of nearby villages also sell forest timber as firewood for livelihood, a report said.
The villagers said they sell the firewood to Badamguda Sevashram. A bundle of firewood fetches them Rs 100 and helps them keep home fires burning, said another villager Rukmini.
Jayram Jani, another resident, said it pains them no end to destroy the greenery that they had grown with their own hands.
The villagers demanded that the administration should launch income-generating programmes to save the forest.
