For the past few decades, SLTP partners NCSA and SF have been providing primary healthcare facilities to the communities living in and around Tiger Reserves in central India. The efforts of the team are invaluable as providing healthcare to local communities builds their trust, and helps draw conservation actions from them to protect the wildlife and forests.
Recent successes – benefit to the local community and forest staff
To understand the benefits of these camps better, let’s look at some of the recent successes:
- In 2021-22, 9354 patients were treated and more than 1300 of them were encouraged to lend their support in fighting forest fires and join programs for alternate livelihoods.
- Information was provided to participants regarding compensation (ex-gratia) package for crop losses, injury/loss of live, stock and humans by wild animals. This resulted in the clearance of 34 ex-gratia claims from villages where the health unit operates to ensure no retaliatory killings of wildlife.
- 678 frontline forest staff supported through provision of medicines and treatment to them.
Importance of sustainable livelihoods
NCSA and SF has been mentoring women’s self-help groups, assisting them in setting up small businesses and organizing skill-development programmes for unemployed youths. Alternate livelihood opportunities include mushroom cultivation, paper bag making or working as forest guides, forest labourers or in the hospitality industry. This helps them shift from previous forest-dependent livelihoods, which in turn helps reduce human-wildlife conflict and anthropogenic pressures on the surrounding forests. One such inspirational story is of Varsha Thackrey from Ghoti village in the Pench region who has received support from them from SF for setting up a sustainable micro-enterprise for manufacturing garlic-ginger paste. She mentions, “SF supported us in training us, procuring the machine, and labeling. I and four other women from our SHG work together and we are able to manufacture 1-2 kilos of ginger Garlic paste in a week which we supply to a local resort. SF continues to support us in every way possible.”
More power to Varsha and all the other community members who are supporting our partners in their conservation endeavours.