Ignoring livelihood issues may go against wild ass conservation, local development along the Little Rann of Kutch.

Counterview:Thursday,September 29, 2011. 

An authoritative study, conducted close on the heels of the Gujarat government’s move to displace thousands of salt pan workers, or agariyas, in the name of “preserving the Wild Ass Sanctuary” in the Little Rann of Kutch, has said that ignoring livelihood values of the Rann will be “counterproductive to both local development and well as wild ass conservation.”

Arguing in favour of a community based approach towards the governance of the Rann, instead of the current command-based one, to achieve “a balance between biodiversity conservation and livelihoods”, the study says that the Little Rann of Kutch as dry land and as wetland provides livelihood to traditional salt workers as well as farming communities. However, the communities equally play key role in wild-life conservation. Thus, ignoring livelihoods will prove counter-productive to both local development as well as wild ass conservation.

The study has been conducted by the Hyderabad-based Research Unit for Livelihoods and Natural Resources at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) in collaboration with Agariya Heetrakshak Manch (AHRM) and Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad. The study is based on primary survey of both salt pan workers and farmers living in 108 villages Surendrangar, Patan, Kutch, Rakot districts of Gujarat in the periphery of the Rann.

No doubt, the farmers, as of today, suffer huge losses when the wild ass and other wild animals invade their fields along the Little Rann of Kutch. In fact, one of the major conclusions of the study is, an estimated crop loss to farmers along the periphery of Rann 48-50%. Even then, 75% of the farmers said there was a need to conserve the wild life. In fact, the farmers are willing to forego up to 12% of their production for the wild ass, blue bull and the wild boar.

In fact, as of today, 43.51% people say, they have to keep their agricultural land in a fallow state due to the danger of attacks from the wild life. However, this can be overcome, if the farmers, pastoralists, fishers and charcoal makers do not face livelihood threat “in terms of accessibility due to the present command and control method of wildlife conservation”, the study says.

As for the agariyas, who remain in the Rann for nearly six months in a year to produce salt on their small self-cultivating farms, the study admits that there may be a ”focussed interventions for betterment of salt workers through state and central government”. Yet, the fact is, a lot more needs to be done for over 12,000 families migrating to LRK every year for more than eight months. “The current interventions of water supply, health, education should be more community based and community monitored”, it underlines, pointing towards their inadequacy.

The study shows around 75.76 % of the traditional agariyas fall into deprived category when they are evaluated through 15 indicators such as food intake, health expenses, debt, land holding, fuel used, education status etc. “ Amongst 12,000 families 80.48% are landless and 79.46% of families have salt making is the only source of livelihood”, the study says.

Around 84.35% of the salt workers say that they have learnt salt making from their forefathers, which also supports the argument that it is traditional occupation of certain communities.

Only 3% of agariyas have passed higher secondary while 31% have reached primary, and 12% up to secondary.

During last season, an average price of salt given to agariya was 13.86 paisa per kg. Thus, any efforts for conservation of wild life with command and control approach, and ignoring the livelihood needs of the salt pan workers would be detrimental to them, the study underlines, adding, “Interdependency of wild life and community in Rann is unique. Uniqueness is the conservation cost born by community and their tolerance to forego up to 12% of their produce, which really needs appreciation. The statistics of the Gujarat Forest Department shows that the number of wild asses has been continuously increasing in last 30 years. It is co-existence model which needs formal recognition from the government.”

The study stresses that, “Ignoring livelihood value of the Little Rann of Kutch will be counter-productive to both development and wild ass conservation as it will harm relationship between the two.” Its authors quote Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), and head of Forest department, Gujarat government, Pradeep Khanna, admitting that ”communities have contributed a lot in conservation of wild life in the Rann. We hope that the study will prove as first step towards the process of evolvement of balanced and comprehensive approach towards conservation of wild life and augmentation of livelihood.”

New technology to boost earnings of saltpan workers.

The Times of India:Tuesday,September 27,2011.

RAJKOT: In a bid to augment the livelihood of saltpan workers in Gujarat, Bhavnagar-based Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) has embarked on a project to provide them its patented technology to produce export quality salt and extract valuable chemicals from waste generated in the process.

The saltpan workers or 'agariyas', as they are called in Gujarat, is one of the most backward community, with over 70 per cent living below poverty line under harsh conditions in the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK).

The CSMCRI project titled 'saltpan cluster development programme' has been funded by the state industries department to train the saltpan workers to produce better quality salt that an fetch them good income and is being implemented with support from Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM), a non-governmental organization (NGO), working for the saltpan workers.

This initiative of the institute is also aimed at arming the saltpan workers with technology to extract valuable chemicals from bittern (the liquid pumped off after the salt is harvested from the brine), which could be sold to industry adding to their income.

"Under this project we train saltpan workers to use our patented technology using which they can produce better quality salt and also utilize the waste or reject from the manufacturing process to extract valuable non-common salts for industrial use," said a senior scientist at CSMCRI Dr V P Mohandas, adding that they have already trained over 500 saltpan workers.

This would augment their livelihood as they would be able to get more income from the salt and the rejects also, he added.

"Most of the saltpan workers are exploited by middlemen who buy salt at low price saying it is poor in quality and then sell it at higher price to big companies," he said.

"The workers presently produce only salt. They throw away the waste bittern that is generated. We have given them technology to extract from bittern chemicals like low sodium salt for hypertension patients, potash which is used in fertilizers and magnisium chloride for industrial use," Mohandas said. pti

"For every one tonne of salt similar amount of bittern is generated. And if instead of throwing away the bittern if valuable chemical are extracted and sold to industries it would add to the income of saltpan workers," he added.

Mohandas said they have already demonstrated such extraction at small scale, now they would be doing it at a larger scale. The saltpans in Maliya (Rajkot) are rich in sulphate content from bittern. There sulphate of potash could be obtained which is a better fertilizer than murate of potash obtained from bittern of saltpans in LRK region.

Under the project, saltpan workers are linked directly to the industries through NGOs SEWA and Anandi in LRK and Rajkot districts respectively by forming small collectives or associations, he said.

Some of the companies now directly purchasing salt and chemicals from saltpan workers include Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd, Punjab Alkalies, Indian Rayon and Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd.

According to AHRM, over 12,000 families of saltpan workers, including children, migrate from more than 100 village bordering LRK to produce salt.

The LRK is also home of the wild ass or the Godhkhar in local language and is declared as a protected area. The inland salt produced from LRK accounts for 40 per cent of salt produced in Gujarat, which in turn is also largest producer of salt in the country.

LRK characterizes a unique eco-system having saline desert and wetland with high biodiversity. It is also flood plain of eight rivers. The ecosystem supports various livelihoods of people living in and around LRK that consists of saltpan workers, marginal farmers, fishermen and charcoal makers.