People living on the fringes of the Jim Corbett National Park have got an opportunity to explore business opportunities in lantana weed, through the launch of Women Empowerment through Lantana Furniture and Artefacts and Restoration of Environment (WELFARE) project.
In a new initiative, villagers in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand would be given training to make furniture from lantana, a weed that had threatened to destroy the native plant species in and around the world-famous tiger reserve.
The locals would be able to start making the furniture from the next tourist season in October-November under the brand ‘Corbett’. For this purpose, a couple of NGOs have joined hands to launch the WELFARE.
The project aims at reducing the dependency of the people living in surrounding areas of the Park on forests, thereby minimising the man-animal conflict as well as the spread of lantana, an environmental hazard, converting it into an alternative of livelihood.
The project was conceptualised after 52-year-old Bhagwati Devi of Dhikuli village was mauled by a tiger when she had gone to the jungles to fetch firewood last year. “Through this initiative, we will try open up new employment opportunities for villagers, who are heavily dependent on forest wood.
The lesser dependency on forest may also minimise the man-animal conflict,” said Anil Joshi, the head of HESCO, a Dehra Dun-based NGO.
In the first phase, the people living in four villages, Chhoti Haldwani, Sunderkhal, Ringora and Kyari, around the park area would be trained in making furniture from lantana, which is strong, long-lasting and termite-resistant. More villagers would be involved in the project at a later stage.
The villagers would extract lantana weed from the roadside and the jungles as the forest department launches programme every year for removing its bushes.
“The most profitable thing about Lantana furniture is that the raw material is available free of cost and that too, in abundance and top of all, it is very light weight and easy to carry anywhere,” said Joshi, who has been providing technological support in the field for several years now.
