Transitional Peri-urban Landscape …
449
remains the fact that forests provide direct economic support to about more than 15
lakhs people in the rural areas of Assam (Tamuli and Choudhury 2009). Changes in
forested landscape cannot be assigned to single factor. A multitude of factors act at
various scales starting from shifting cultivation, smallholders’ agricultural expansion,
grazing, logging to large-scale clearance for development of infrastructure causing
forest fragmentation and thus loss of forest.
Rani Garbhanga Reserved Forest is located at the southern fringe of Guwahati
city with a cover of 227 km
2 and partly comes under my study area. Topographically,
this Reserved Forest represents an ecotone in the transition zone between Meghalaya
Plateau and Assam Valley consisted of different habitat types embedded in the hillyforested terrain with perennial and seasonal streams.
The people living in peri-urban area use fuel wood, kerosene, LPG and combination of those as cooking fuel. The high urban people go to the forests towards
medium and low urban impact areas for collecting fuelwood. The studied households use fuelwood and LPG the most as their cooking fuel. The study shows only
22% households are not using fuelwood in high urban areas and 16% in low urban
impact villages. In relation to the adoption of LPG as cooking fuel, a trend showing
decrease in fuelwood collection is expected. However, it is not apparent from the
survey results. Thus, we can see that the majority of the people are still dependent
on forest for their domestic demand. In lower urban impact area, villages adjacent
to the forest collect fuel wood for selling as they are using LPG as cooking fuel.
The control of the forest area is under the State Forest Department. However,
it has been reported that illegal timber logging and activity of timber mafia have
been going on at large scale in Rani-garbhanga Reserved Forest area (The Assam
Tribune 2012). It is encouraged by the illegal sawmills along Assam-Meghalaya
border. The spillover of urban population has resulted in increased residential and
commercial built-up area in the northern part of the forest, which has also promoted
other infrastructure like road development (Saikia 2013).
Only in medium urban area, the increased LPG use has an impact on fuelwood
collection, showing a decreasing trend in quantity of fuelwood collected (Figure 3).
The quantity of fuelwood collection by household shows a negative correlation (r =
0.8) with the livelihood diversification index which reveals that the households who
are more dependent on forest resources have less diversification of their livelihoods.
Nevertheless, the adoption of LPG is quite significant the landscape, it is not able to
replace the fuelwood collection at the same rate. Specially in the low urban area.
Although the collection of timber is banned in the forest area, there are households
who have been collecting timber from the reserved forest. The number of timber
collecting households have been declining, yet a 10.5% of sampled population in low
urban area is collecting timbers in present decade (Table 4), and it is actually expected
to be higher. Period and frequency of wild vegetable collection varies from village
to village and household to household. Cane and bamboo are two major sources of
income for the forest dependent communities. In Assam, culturally diverse ethnic
societies close to nature have developed many eco-cultural landscapes and those
linkages can be seen as effective tool for conservation management. Bamboo (D.
Hamiltoni) is a very important NTFP of the landscape that provides subsistence and
449
remains the fact that forests provide direct economic support to about more than 15
lakhs people in the rural areas of Assam (Tamuli and Choudhury 2009). Changes in
forested landscape cannot be assigned to single factor. A multitude of factors act at
various scales starting from shifting cultivation, smallholders’ agricultural expansion,
grazing, logging to large-scale clearance for development of infrastructure causing
forest fragmentation and thus loss of forest.
Rani Garbhanga Reserved Forest is located at the southern fringe of Guwahati
city with a cover of 227 km
2 and partly comes under my study area. Topographically,
this Reserved Forest represents an ecotone in the transition zone between Meghalaya
Plateau and Assam Valley consisted of different habitat types embedded in the hillyforested terrain with perennial and seasonal streams.
The people living in peri-urban area use fuel wood, kerosene, LPG and combination of those as cooking fuel. The high urban people go to the forests towards
medium and low urban impact areas for collecting fuelwood. The studied households use fuelwood and LPG the most as their cooking fuel. The study shows only
22% households are not using fuelwood in high urban areas and 16% in low urban
impact villages. In relation to the adoption of LPG as cooking fuel, a trend showing
decrease in fuelwood collection is expected. However, it is not apparent from the
survey results. Thus, we can see that the majority of the people are still dependent
on forest for their domestic demand. In lower urban impact area, villages adjacent
to the forest collect fuel wood for selling as they are using LPG as cooking fuel.
The control of the forest area is under the State Forest Department. However,
it has been reported that illegal timber logging and activity of timber mafia have
been going on at large scale in Rani-garbhanga Reserved Forest area (The Assam
Tribune 2012). It is encouraged by the illegal sawmills along Assam-Meghalaya
border. The spillover of urban population has resulted in increased residential and
commercial built-up area in the northern part of the forest, which has also promoted
other infrastructure like road development (Saikia 2013).
Only in medium urban area, the increased LPG use has an impact on fuelwood
collection, showing a decreasing trend in quantity of fuelwood collected (Figure 3).
The quantity of fuelwood collection by household shows a negative correlation (r =
0.8) with the livelihood diversification index which reveals that the households who
are more dependent on forest resources have less diversification of their livelihoods.
Nevertheless, the adoption of LPG is quite significant the landscape, it is not able to
replace the fuelwood collection at the same rate. Specially in the low urban area.
Although the collection of timber is banned in the forest area, there are households
who have been collecting timber from the reserved forest. The number of timber
collecting households have been declining, yet a 10.5% of sampled population in low
urban area is collecting timbers in present decade (Table 4), and it is actually expected
to be higher. Period and frequency of wild vegetable collection varies from village
to village and household to household. Cane and bamboo are two major sources of
income for the forest dependent communities. In Assam, culturally diverse ethnic
societies close to nature have developed many eco-cultural landscapes and those
linkages can be seen as effective tool for conservation management. Bamboo (D.
Hamiltoni) is a very important NTFP of the landscape that provides subsistence and