Bhubaneswar, Sept. 13: Slash and burn cultivation, popularly called podu, is taking a toll on Odisha’s sylvan wealth.
Podu involves burning patches of vegetation, mainly on hill slopes, and ploughing it crudely to raise paddy or millet. However, it renders the used patch completely barren for the next several years. While long stretches of forests in southern Odisha districts such as Koraput and Malkangiri have turned into scrub land with local tribal people taking to podu in a big way, many of the hills in the region now sport a bald look.
“The alternative had been offered to them with a buy-back arrangement, but they did not like the idea as podu comes to them easy,” said an official.
Sources blame on lack of education among the tribals, unaware of the modern farming methods. Long ago, the Odisha government had made an attempt to wean the tribals away from this agricultural practice by offering them an alternative in the form of orchard cultivation. However, the tribals found it to be too cumbersome and rejected it.
Civil society activists blame abject poverty of the tribals and lack of education among them for rise in podu cultivation. “The tribals are so poor that they cannot afford to buy proper farming implements. Under the circumstances, they cannot be blamed for taking up this kind of slash and burn cultivation in a big way,” said an NGO activist, who has worked in Koraput district for a long time.
To make things worse for the tribals, jobs, even the temporary ones, are shrinking.
There is hardly any government project coming up in Koraput and Malkangiri districts where people can be employed. “Half of the blame for this should go to the fear psychosis created by Maoists in this region. They won’t let any contractor execute a project. So, where is the question of people being employed on these projects?” asked an activist.
“We are already working on some ideas. If they materialise, we hope the trend will change,” said a senior official, adding that political representatives of the affected districts must also play a role in bringing the podu menace to an end.
