One fine morning in 1990, forest officials informed tribals in Thakkarwari in the Pune district of Maharashtra that they had no right to plant trees in the forest they inhabited. The baffled tribals, of course, had no clue to the fact that the MEF had just issued guidelines for joint forest management.

Their leader, Baba Pansare, a social worker from Parivartan Prabodhini, finally resorted to satyagraha. It worked, but he was told that his men would be allowed to plant trees only if it was done under forest departmental guidance and with material and financial help from the government.

The tribals' plea that they did not have common lands, and were entirely dependent on government land -- now out of bounds -- to meet their needs fell on bureaucratically sealed ears.

...but some officials were civil

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) A K Banerjee, posted in Arabari, West Bengal, as chief silviculturist, had a problem. Every now and then local villagers would raid his plots, part of an agricultural experiment, for fuelwood and fodder. Instead of resorting to his statutory powers, he invited a community stake in the protection of forests by arranging to give the villagers 25 per cent of the benefit from the sal timber, as well as the right to all minor forest produce. Much before the JFM circular existed, Bannerjee's tactic paid dividends, both to the villagers and the forest department.

Two other officers -- B M S Rathore, DFO of Harda, Madhya Pradesh, and R S Pathan, conservator, Southern Circle, Gujarat, organised village level cooperation. Rathore galvanised 150 villages into action, forming Forest Protection Committees. His ingenuity and success lies in the evident largescale regeneration.

In Gujarat, Pathan persuaded Mandvi's forest labourer societies to mobilise community leaders for the joint protection of forests. In 1988, Pathan suggested a management partnership with the forest department. As long as he was there, the jerry-built machinery worked.