THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, April 26: The Department of Silviculture in Forest, environment, and Climate Change here in Jharkhand has taken its maiden initiative to overcome the rampant menace of the invasive weed Lantana in the tiger reserve Palamu and to reduce this ‘waste to wealth further’.
Waste-to-wealth project
The forest conservator in the silviculture department, Snitha Pankaj, IFS, is keen for this waste-to-wealth project to succeed.
The task is not only big but difficult. However, the Tiger Reserve Palamu team, led by its chief conservator of forest and field director Kumar Ashutosh and his deputy of the north division of PTR P K Jena, is putting in their best efforts to make it people-friendly.
Lantana weed
Lantana weed is to be uprooted, but what will be rooted is people’s participation in the management of weeds in the tiger reserve Palamu.
Jena said, “We have begun a new chapter. It is Jan Bhagidari. Local people will be involved. They will be trained and made to know that a huge waste like Lantana weed can be a good source of their income!”
Villagers being shown Lantana at the tiger reserve Palamu
Not easy to fight invasive weed
New research has proved that it is not easy to fight this invasive weed, so it is more beneficial to use it. Here in Jharkhand, Palamu Tiger Reserve is making a foray into it.
Jena had praise for Snitha Pankaj, the head of the CF silviculture department, as she came to Betla on April 25 to preside over the one-day workshop on Lantana weed and its conversion into craft grade.
One-day workshop
A few women from the villages attended the one-day workshop simply because they remained too preoccupied with collecting Mahua fruits.
In the workshop held in Betla, Sandeep Ticham, a master trainer from Maharashtra, gave valuable tips on how to turn this waste Lantana into wealth.
PTR is trying to have its own trained trainers so that these trained hands fan out in larger areas of the PTR, making people about the benefits of Lantana as this weed has earned too bad a name like an invader, useless and non-palatable to any class of the herbivore.
Latana weed came to India in 19th century
It’s true also. This weed came to India in the 19th century from Australia as an ornamental grass. Still, over the period, this weed became the worst of the menace in India’s 50-plus tiger reserves.
It occupies the territory of the tiger reserves most rapidly. It does not affect the vagaries of extreme or standard climate, as even when there is no rain, this weed keeps growing and expanding.
25 hectares of land filled with Lantana weed have been cleared in the PTR.
However, Jena said this weed is stubborn. It just refuses not to come back. It sprouts again at the same place where it was weeded out.
Furniture is made of Lantana. It also makes figurines of tremendous wildlife like elephants, leaving timber far behind.
Jena said a tribal woman with experience and expertise in making wooden baskets and mats could quickly learn to make the crafts of this weed.
