Student Projects/Non timber forest product

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs)

The Soligas collect different types of NTFPs like honey, lichen, soapnut, soap berry, amla, wild mango, etc. throughout the year, these products are seasonal and hence can be collected only within a particular time frame. Handmade broomsticks are to be had year round. The NTFPs thus accumulated are marketed through Large Scale Adivasi Multi-Purpose Societies (LAMPS) and are a maSource of incomejor source of income. The Government of Karnataka set up LAMPS for the development of the Soligas. At present, there are three LAMPS functioning in B.R.Hills, Hanur, and Chamarajanagar of the BRT Wildlife Sanctuary. A significant portion of the Soligas income comes from the sale of non-timber forest produce (NTFPs) - primarily honey, lichen, gooseberry, and shikakai (Gandhi, 2010 and Lele, 1998). Coffee is fast replacing ragi, maize, and banana as the major produce here as it not targeted by wild boars, which once decimated up to 80 per cent of the food crops (Gandhi- 2010, 1998). Estimates indicate that the contribution of income (including imputed income from subsistence crops) is ~60 per cent (Lele, 1998). The Soligas retained sole right to NTFP extraction under the agency of tribal ve, LAMPS (Setty et al., 2008 and Bhat, 1997). The community at B.R.Hills derives nearly 59% of their total cash income from NTFPs, in Nagarahole 24 per cent, and in MM Hills 16% (Shaanker et al., 2004). Their predominant livelihood is through agriculture, NTFP collection, and labour in coffee estates or the forest department (Kothari et al., 2012). Very few families are engaged in livestock rearing. Most of the livestock is reared for self -consumption and the sale is limited. 75 per cent of Soligas have land and the remaining 25 per cent are landless. They have small size of landholding and are dependent on the rains for agriculture as they do not have irrigation facilities for their agricultural lands. Now Soligas cultivate agricultural crops like ragi (millet), maize, and horticultural crops like coffee, pepper, banana, and fruits. They have started to cultivate vegetables like potatoes, beans, etc. as they adopted modern agricultural technology, but have retained their traditional methods of cultivations even today. The style of agricultural cultivation pattern is slowly changing   among them as they are cultivating new crops. In the earlier days they used to cultivate agricultural produce only for personal consumption, but in recent years this trend has shifted to cultivating commercial and agricultural crops for personal consumption and as well as for  sale.