Joint forest management in India with special reference to Darjeeling Himalaya

Historically, India's rural economy was intimately related to forest resources and they have been part and parcel of our economy, culture and tradition. The use of forest resource was controlled by the community as a whole in ancient and medieval period and had evolved a pattern for the same. The communities both agrarian and tribal groups evolved certain cultural and religious practices to sustain the forest resource. These resources comprised substantial part of natural resource endowment and were used and managed by local communities presumably in a sustainable form through their own indigenous methods based on variety of cultural, social and religious ethos.