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TONGBOLGRE

The CONTENT

  1. Tongbolgre village

  2. The Village Resources

    1. The Social Resources
    2. The Natural Resources
    3. Type of forest Cover and Wildlife
    4. Cultivable Land
    5. Water Bodies
    6. Spring Inventory

  3. Problem Analysis

  4. Community NRM Plan with Estimates

  5. Brief Justifications on Proposed activities

    1. Community Nursery
    2. Composting
    3. Plantation/Afforestation/Reforestation
    4. Spring-shed Development and Management
    5. Check Dams
    6. Forest Management Plan

  6. Annexure - 1

    1. Attendance Sheet
    2. LULC Map
    3. Photo Gallery

  1. TONGBOLGRE VILLAGE

The TONGBOLGRE village falls under Samanda C&RD Block of East Garo Hills district in Meghalaya. The village is inhabited by Garo Community with 119 households with 273 populations. Sex ratio in the village is 430 females per 150 males. The VNRMC in this village was formed on 13th November 2019. The village is 20 KM from Samanda Block and 30 KM for the district headquarter Williamnagar. The Land Use Land Cover (LULC) map of the village identified GPS co-ordinates of 25.60042 and 90.40083 for latitude and longitude respectively. The village elevation reading is 678 msl. The village Tongbolgre 5 implementing projects at present:

  1. The Village Resources

    1. The Social Resources

The land in the village is owned by a clan which is called ‘Nokma A’King1 land’. The main institutions in the village are the Nokma, the Village Employment Council (VEC) 11 noS Self Help Group. There is no ‘Water and Sanitation Committee’ in the village, which the project need to promote. The Nokma has a total of 3 members with a Sordar, President and a Secretary. Women representative in the Nokma is just 2nos. It is been only 4 years since CLLMP has adopted the village. Hence VNRMC members are finalised. Everyone in the village use fire wood as the main source of fuel requirement and in addition that 15 HH also use LPG. The village has good electricity connectivity with all households being electrified. There are 3nos of INSTITUTION in the villages two private school and one is primary and 1 is Dispensary and 2 Aganwadi and 2nos Church.

    1. The Natural Resources

Through GIS technology the project has collected data that the TONGBOLGRE village has total of 598.52Ha of geographical area of which the total forest cover area which is also open forest is 249.35 Ha. Water bodies’ coverage is 0.46Ha. The village has Agricultural land measuring 23.05Ha and 294.53 Ha of culturable wasteland. Banana, pineapple, Rubber, Arecanut, Black pepper plantation is the major cash crop in the village. Total barren land measures to 1.76 Ha of land in the village. The degraded land identified by the community measures to 294.53 Ha caused mainly due to jhum cultivation. Villagers have opted to cultivate wheat& (Local vegetables cultivation) and Black pepper which brings better income.

    1. Type of Forest Cover and Wildlife in TONGBOLGRE Village

The LULC provide that total forest land in the village is 598.52- Ha (total forest land is also an open forest) which is in conformity with the villagers during the PRA exercise. Surprisingly there is no dense forest in this village. The biomass in open forest is reducing year after year. There is community forest (which is also defined as open forest) measuring 598.52ha with sites name TONGBOLGRE Reserve, TONGBPLGRE JANGITTE BISIK, RONGAL BISIK dare. There is no private forest. These forest cover includes major 20 nos of indigenous fruit and non-fruit bearing species such as Megong, boldak, bolsil, jackfruit ,bolgipok , Broom grass, nengitchak, me ‘gong, jackfruit, Hoolock gibbon, golden langur,wild boar, deer chappi, kimde, sambanguri etc. In addition to indigenous species, there are large numbers of fodders’ species used by the villagers for feeding the cattle like Nengitchak, thysanolaena spp., Dakdak. There are also NTFPs in Forest like micromelium.

    1. Cultivable Land

The village has 23.05 Ha of agricultural, horticultural and plantation land. The village has also Jhum land in around 2.52ha of land. Soil erosion is taking place in around 2.52Ha of land. The land is becoming less productive due to unavailability of irrigational facilities. The villagers are engaged in multi-cropping which are season based. The farmers have been suffering with pest attack which has been destroying their paddy field.

    1. Water Bodies

The village has 2 springs 3streams and 1 Simsang rivers passing through the village. All these water bodies are perennial, however, during the lean season the water discharge in many springs and streams reduces to large extend. Out Of 2 springs 1 spring are affected ( Rongal Bisik). Out of 3streams one is (Didil). Only one spring has been tested out of these water bodies as on date for intervention. These water bodies are used for domestic and irrigational purposes.

    1. Spring Inventory

The Master Trainers has taken the discharge measurement chako spring latitude of 25.593555°N and longitude of 90.398948 °E with elevation of 751.12m. It’s a depression spring with perennial in nature with the bamboo outlet. The water of the spring is used for drinking and for domestic purposes. Spring discharge was calculated 5.03 LPM through stopwatch- bucket method. The PH value of the spring is 6.5 LPM. The catchment area of spring is in the private land. Broad geology in and around the spring location is of weathered rock.

  1. 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 is still rich in natural resources. At the same time natural resource degradation has started in the village that need planned actions and interventions. The area of open forest is increasing, and it seems that there is no more dense forest anymore in the village. This is due to jhum cultivation, cutting down trees for timber, firewood and for other Are canut and Rubber and Black pepper plantation, 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. The flora and fauna in the village is also reducing drastically. Irrigation facilities are now required during the month of March to May.

  1. Community Natural Resource Management Plan with estimation

The Villagers and VEC members of the village came together on the 16th NOVEMBER’ 2020 to identify social and environmental issues and plan out interventions to address challenges faced in their village. The VEC with facilitation from DPMU-EGH and SPMU has proposed a list of activities to be taken up within the budget provision of 21.55 Lakh.

Proposed Activities

SL Proposed activities Site Name Benefitted area in Ha No. of HH benefitted Estimated Amount (Rs.) Start date Date of work completion
1 RCC Check Dam Jangite Stream 16.5 10 317530.00 2-Mar-21 21-Jul-21
2 RCC Check Dam Bolsil Ading Stream 7 12 150000.00 4-Apr-21 18-Jul-21
3 Community Nursery Jangite Stream 4.12  97 112800.00 23-Jul-21 10-Aug-21
4 Afforestation Village Reserve 6.2 97 192400.00 6-Jul-21 24-Jul-21
5 Contour Trenches Tongbol Chisam and Jangite 7 5 40100.00 28-Jul-21 18-Aug-21
6 Erosion control Gabion wall Tongbol Stream 4.5  11 312600.00 1-Nov-21 18-Nov-21
7 Hot Composting Trumen's Land 15 83 32800.00 20-Dec-21 6-Jan-22
8 Spring Chamber Rongal Spring 2.5 10 160300.00 13-Dec-21 18-Jan-22
9 RCC Check Dam Sangma Rongbrak Chiring 4 7 320700.00 28-Feb-22 21-Mar-22
10 Water Storage Tank Tongbol Songgital 2.5 15 243300.00 5-Jun-22 15-Jul-22
11 Dug Out Pond Sithen Sangma's land 6.5 97  90300.00 30-Sep-22 10-Oct-22
12 Agro-Forestry Demejing 3  97 202200.00 9-Jun-22 20-Jun-22
13 Water Storage Tank Wage Chiring 2.5 11 178870.00 26-Aug-22 30-Sep-22
14 Water Storage Tank Chaku Chiring 3 12 243300.00 6-Aug-22 12-Aug-22
15 Lemon Plantation (Horticulture) Jamdam 4.5 97 57800.00 12-Jul-22 15-Jul-22
  Total 104.88 671 26,55,000    

  1. Brief Justification on the Proposed Activities

    1. Community Nursery

The details of the Community Nursery can be seen in the Annexure. The proposed nursery is meant for raising the saplings which will be planted in the open forest, catchment areas, reserve forest, and private land covering to a total of around 1098.76 ha of land. The villagers envisage that their village will be back to dense forest coverage within 7 to 10 years that would bring about drastic environmental and economic benefit to all inhabitants in the village. The village has planted in the Nursery at jangite streams which is Gasampe, Cheena, Jambura, Boldak, and Chambu.

    1. Composting

The villagers have also proposed to improve land productivity in around 7.58 ha of agricultural land using composting so that the soil will be more fertile and that healthy plants in return would fetch more productivity leading to increased income.

    1. Plantation/Afforestation/Reforestation

In the village there is only open forest in the village which is about 249.35 ha. Villagers have realized that open forests are increasing which leads to climate change and loss of biodiversity is increasing day by day. The villagers have decided to Afforestation or reforestation & Agro-forestry both in the open forests as well as in the private land which bring to a total of 23.05ha of land. The village has cultivate Lemon plantation at Jamdam.

    1. Spring-shed Development and management

There are 10 springs and stream in the village which are perennial. The water discharge from these springs reduces drastically during the lean 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 NA ha of land that would help in increasing the discharge both peak and lean season catering to 14 households and reduced drudgery, especially of women. The springs and streams are: Tebu chiring, chako chiring, Sarat chiring, Jangite chiring, Rongal Chiring, Wabok Chiring, Tibong Chiring, Tiwan Chiring, bolchim Chiring.

    1. 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 3nos of check dam which is 1) RCC check dam at jangite stream 2) Rcc check Dam at Bolsil Ading stream 3) Rcc check Dam At Sangma Rongbrak chiring 4) to be constructed for irrigation and domestic purpose from which around 29households will be benefitting from it. It is expected that NA 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.

    1. 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.

  1. Annexure

ATTENDANCE SHEET

LULC Map

PHOTO GALLERY

  1. The land belongs to a clan which is called NokmaA’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.↩︎