Contents
1. Nengkra Awe VNRMC
The Village Resources
Problem Analysis
Community NRM Plan with Estimates
Brief Justifications on Proposed activities
Annexure - 1
THE NENGKRA AWE VILLAGE
The NENGKRA AWE village is in Samanda C&RD Block of East Garo Hills district in Meghalaya. The village is inhabited by Garo Community consisting of 315 households with a total population of 1288. Out of this 637 are females and 695 males. The VNRMC in this village was formed on 29th July 2021. The village is 40 KM from Samanda Block and 14 KM for the district headquarter, Williamnagar. The Land Use Land Cover (LULC) map of the village identified GPS co-ordinates as 25.501816 and 90.689894 for latitude and longitude respectively. The village elevation reading is 265.33 msl. Nengkra Awe has 5 localities which are nengkra Ara gittim, nengkra Adinggittim, Nengkra Megadok, Dimbilme gittim and Tenali gittim.
The Village Resources
The Social Resources
The land in the village is owned by a clan which is called ‘Nokma A’King1 land’. The main institution in the village are the Nokma, the Village Employment Council (VEC) and 16 nos. Self Help Group. The Nokma has a total of 3 other members to help him manage the village affairs- the Sordar, President and a Secretary. Everyone in the village use fire wood as their main source of fuel for household uses and in addition, that 30 HH also use LPG. The village has good electricity connectivity with all households being electrified. There are 4 schools- Government LP school, SSA, Higher Secondary school, little wood school. The village has 3 Aganwandi centres, 3 churches and, also 1 police outpost. There is 1 Public health centre in a nearby village at Dobu. Although majority of the population are farmers, there are residents who are teachers, businessmen, retail shop owners, and, some work in Government offices.
The Natural Resources
Through GIS technology the project has collected data that Nengkra Awe VNRMC has a total of 524.60 Ha of geographical area of which the total forest cover area is 206.68 Ha. Water bodies’ coverage is 6.35 Ha. The village has Agricultural land measuring 29.32 Ha and 223.17 Ha of cultural wasteland. Banana, pineapple, Rubber, Areca nut, Black pepper plantations are the major cash crops in the village. Total barren land measures 2.37 Ha that is just 0.18% of the total land in the village. The degraded land identified by the community measures 57.69 Ha (6.17%), caused mainly due to jhum cultivation.
Type of Forest Cover and Wildlife in NENGKRA AWE Village
The LULC provided that total forest land in the village is 206.68 Ha which is only open forest since there is no dense forest available. There is a community forest which they named as Nengkra Awe Reserve Forest. The residents are not allowed to graze animals, cut trees, or settle in this land. Anyone found to break this rule has to pay a hefty fine to the village committee. This forest cover has many indigenous trees like Bolchim (Duabanga grandiflora), Boldak, Jobret, Bolbok, soka, Gambare, Bolsal (Tectona grandis), chagro (Macaranga denticulate), neem, boldotdong, Laham, sal & bolgipok (white teak), jackfruit, etc.
Cultivable Land
The village has 29.32 Ha of agricultural, horticultural and plantation land. The village has also Jhum land in around 2.14 ha of land. The land is becoming less productive due to unavailability of irrigational water, landslides and decreasing soil fertility. The villagers are engaged in multi-cropping which are season based.
Water Bodies
The village has 10 springs and 17 streams. All these water bodies are perennial, however, during the lean season the water discharge in many springs and streams reduces to a large extent. Of 6 springs, 3 spring are affected mostly in summer- Chinakatok, Sure and Jewalkap.
Spring Inventory
The Master Trainer at the time of PRA exercise, has taken the discharge measurement of Jewalkap spring- latitude of 25.505744°N and longitude of 90.698023°E with elevation of 270.61 m. Spring discharge was calculated as 4.09 LPM through stop watch-bucket method. The PH value of the spring is 7.24 LPM.
Problem Analysis
The above village resource data collected through GIS technology, primary data collection made through CNRMP template and Spring Inventory templates suggests that the village open forest is increasing due to jhum cultivation, cutting down trees for timber, firewood and clearing jungles for plantations, etc. for immediate economic benefit. These have resulted in less water discharge of water from springs, streams and rivers which has brought about low moisture content in the ground, loss of soil fertility and low crop production.
Community Natural Resource Management Plan with estimation
To solve and prevent the degradation of natural resources, the Villagers and VEC members of the village came together on the 7th FEB’ 2020, along with DPMU CLLMP & SPMU to identify and plan out interventions. The VEC with facilitation from DPMU-EGH and SPMU has arrived at the list of activities to be taken up in next three years within the budget provision by World Bank. The villagers strongly feel that these interventions would enable them to conserve and improve the natural resources in terms of land, water, vegetation as well as flora and fauna.
Proposed Activities
| SL | Proposed activities | Site Name | Benefitted area in Ha | No. of HH benefitted | Estimated Amt. | Date of work order issued | Date of work implementation | Date of work completion |
| 1 | Afforestation | Tewalkap Stream | 10 | 216 | 180000.00 | 1-Jul-20 | 3-Jul-20 | 14-Jul-20 |
| 2 | Community Nursery | Near Paddy field | 3.5 | 216 | 108840.00 | 1-Jul-20 | 21-Jul-20 | 20-Aug-20 |
| 3 | RCC Check Dam | China Kaltok Stream | 2.5 | 15 | 131400.00 | 26-Apr-21 | 6-May-21 | 10-Jun-21 |
| 5 | Contour Trenches | China Kaltok Stream, Jojra stream & Mangchiga stream | 4.8 | 10 | 38550.00 | 26-Apr-21 | 3-May-21 | 7-May-21 |
| 6 | Agro-Forestry | Megadopgittim, Tinaligittim & Jojragittim | 7.8 | 216 | 192400.00 | 8-Jul-21 | 12-Jul-21 | 16-Jul-21 |
| 7 | Spring Chamber | Manchiga | 2.5 | 15 | 160300.00 | 22-Sep-21 | 11-Oct-21 | 23-Nov-21 |
| 8 | RCC Check Dam | Mikgitap | 2.5 | 43 | 201400.00 | 22-Sep-21 | 11-Oct-21 | 27-Oct-21 |
| 9 | Spring Chamber | Mandra Bipek Spring | 2.5 | 15 | 160300.00 | 30-Nov-21 | 3-Dec-21 | 17-Jan-22 |
| 10 | Hot Composting | Megadopgittim | 18 | 216 | 32800.00 | 30-Nov-21 | 10-Dec-21 | 27-Dec-21 |
| 11 | Protection Wall | Rongtam | 3.5 | 15 | 252500.00 | 28-Feb-22 | 15-Mar-22 | 9-Apr-22 |
| 12 | RCC Check Dam | Mangchiga-II | 3.5 | 10 | 338300.00 | 28-Feb-22 | 10-Mar-22 | 12-Apr-22 |
| 13 | Water Storage Tank with CC Dam | Dimbarma Depek | 2.5 | 15 | 277300.00 | 5-May-22 | 1-Jun-22 | 12-Dec-22 |
| 14 | Dug Out Pond | Nengkra A.we 1 | 4.5 | 218 | 80910.00 | 5-May-22 | 16-Jul-22 | 23-Aug-22 |
| 15 | RCC Check Dam | Chinakatok Dipek | 2.5 | 10 | 216400.00 | 17-Jun-22 | 4-Oct-22 | 16-Nov-22 |
| 16 | Water Storage Tank with CC Dam | Bolchim Chiring | 2.5 | 10 | 208500.00 | 17-Jun-22 | 24-Aug-22 |
Brief Justification on the Proposed Activities
Community Nursery
The proposed nursery is meant for raising the saplings which will be planted in the open forest, catchment areas, reserve forest, and private land. Trees like mango, lemon, Burmese grapes, tamarind, bolchim, bolkasin, etc are being raised in this nursery.
Composting
The VNRMC has started hot composting so that they use the compost to germinate seeds in the nursery and in agroforestry and for plantation.
Plantation/Afforestation/Reforestation
Since the forest cover is decreasing, the VNRMC have implemented Afforestation or reforestation & Agro-forestry both in the open forests as well as in the private land. This will help prevent soil erosion and prevent water from streams from drying up.
Spring-shed Development and management
There are 8 no.s of springs and streams in the village which are perennial. The water discharge from these springs have started reduce is summer season. Development of spring-shed approach in the village along with rejuvenation activities such as afforestation, contour and staggered trenches in the catchment areas benefitting to about 117.62 ha of land that would help in increasing the discharge both peak and lean season catering to 188 households and reduced drudgery, especially of women. The springs and streams are: 1) sure dipek 2) mandra 3) Mangchiga 4)Chinakatok depek 5) sure spring 6)Dikkakru 7)Dimbarma 8)Jojra
Check Dam
Since there is unavailability of irrigation facilities during the month of March to April and the land become less productive, villagers have proposed 4 nos. of check dam which is 1) Rcc check dam at chinakatok Depek 2)Rcc check dam at china kaltok stream 3) Rcc check dam at migitap 4) Rcc check dam at Mangchira-11 5) Rcc check dam at chinakatok Depek to be constructed for irrigation and domestic purpose from which around 106households will be benefitting from it 1 nos is community and other 3nos are private. It is expected that 117.62 ha of land will be benefitting from this structures. Availability of water throughout the season can help the villagers to practice multiple cropping and follow crop rotation throughout the year which will increase the production and their income as well.
Forest Management Plan
The village has a Reserve forest which has been preserved by the community but due to extraction of timber by the villager themselves now it is consider as open forest. After the villagers realized that open forests are increasing which leads to climate change and loss biodiversity is increasing day by day. The wanted to reclaim the forest which is around 60ha to be brought under forest management plan which further increase its forest cover, take more activities which is Nursery for food forestry, boundary survey, Forest fire control, in-situ and Ex-Situ conservation, assisted natural regeneration in open Forest.
Gabion Wall/Gully plug
The village has constructed gabion wall at Rongtam in order to control land sliding on road side and also to prevent water logging area from further destruction. This has prevent blocked of road , soil erosion etc.
Annexure
ATTENDANCE
LULC Map
PHOTO GALLERY
The land belongs to a clan which is called Nokma A’king land. It is under the custody of its female head, the Nokma, whose husband acts on her behalf in all clan decision-making; the Nokma has no authority to take decisions on land and its use. Decisions are meant to be collective among representatives of the clan.↩︎