A 35-ha subabul plantation raised on a pasture in 1984 was handed over to Airni village in 1987 to manage. But in 1990, the mandal pradhan allegedly sold the plantation to a small wood contractor, against the wishes of the villagers.

Airni is a small, dry village in Dharwad district, dependent on a livestock economy. The villagers depend primarily on Prosopis juliflora and agricultural wastes to meet their fuel needs. The India Development Service, a local voluntary agency, estimates only 40 per cent of the villagers' fodder requirements is met. As a result, the milk yield of cows and buffaloes is low.

Women of the local milk cooperative, according to its president Shivalla Joyti, requested the mandal panchayat to supply them fodder from the plantation at a price. The women suggested they would collect the fodder themselves and pay a concessional rate. The women wrote to the Dharwad zillah parishad, requesting permission to harvest the fodder.

The forest department and the mandal panchayat claimed a village forest committee that had been established in Airni was aware of the informal auction. But the villagers told P D Gaonker, the then chief conservator of forests (social forestry), who visited the village with a World Bank-ODA team, that the committee did not exist.

Gaonker asked the zillah parishad to disallow the auction. At a gram sabha convened later, the mandal panchayat denied it wanted to auction the forest but the contractor revealed he had already paid Rs 40,000 for the trees.

After the plantation was handed over to the mandal, the mandal did not pay the guard for the first month and he apparently cut some trees in retaliation. Today, the plantation has become a free-for-all and many trees have been lost.