In 2001, the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) started its work in Chitravas, the southern Aravalli ranges in India. They were involved in helping the local village committee come up with plans to manage the forest through organising meetings to understand the traditional forest use patterns in the area, so real forest users could be included. Based on the evidence gathered in these meetings, the communities jointly prepared a customary user rights list. This helped in deciding the voting rights for the Village Forest Committee.
Organising in this way led to various improvements. The community has been able to establish a true form of local self governance. Now, the villagers have started accessing other programmes available from the local government, such as agricultural services.
In dense forest, soil losses are six times less than in open land. Women have been able to take part in the community decision-making process and have even assumed leadership. Lastly, the plot now provides water. The number of wells has increased from ten to forty. Flash floods used to happen regularly in the monsoon and the banks of the stream were eroded year after year. Now the plot stores water.
