Forest Rights & Governance

Helping forest villages get legal rights over their forest, and look after it together.

Umred taluka, around the Muniya Conservation Reserve

Villages near the Muniya forest depend on it for food, fuel and income. NiViM helps each village Gram Sabha (the meeting of all adults in the village) use the Forest Rights Act, so the people who live with the forest also decide how to care for it. Every step is taken with community participation.

What we do

Help Gram Sabhas apply for, and win, legal rights over their community forest.
Form and train village forest committees, who plan how to use and protect the forest.
Set up village biodiversity committees and record local plants and animals in 32 Gram Panchayats (2014 to 2017).
Teach villagers to map their own land, water and forest, so every plan comes from the village itself.
Help youth, farmer and women's groups get the benefit of government schemes.

For CSR teams: fits Schedule VII (iv) environment and (x) rural development of the Companies Act, 2013.

Training for village forest committee members at NETRAVAN.

On the ground

9,385 haof forest held by 40 villages under community forest rightsFY 2024-25
3,368families in 45 villages (about 40,000 people) take partFY 2023-24
18villages now run rural job scheme (MGNREGS) work themselvesFY 2023-24
₹16.73 lakhearned by 228 people from collecting tendu leavesFY 2024-25

Figures from NiViM's annual activity reports. See the reports.

From the field

**Fig. 2**Gram Sabha members on their community forest land at Undari village.

**Fig. 3**Tendu leaves collected by the Gram Sabhas of Umred and Kuhi.

**Fig. 4**Tendu leaves laid out to dry, collected by the village Gram Sabhas.

**Fig. 5**Bundles of tendu leaves drying in rows.

**Fig. 6**Women at a village forest committee meeting.

Fund forest rights & governance work around Umred.

Donate Partner through CSR Volunteer