Local forest institution and participation of local communities: A study in bankura (south) forest division in West Bengal, India

The local institutions like forest protection committee are working with forest department to protect forest governance under Participatory forest management. The paper attempts to construct participation index in the planning, implementation and monitoring stages across ten villages of Bankura (South) forest division of West Bengal. The paper examines whether there is any impact on change in forest area last ten years across villages. The paper also attempts to estimate the factors responsible for community participation in forest management programme at local level. This paper is based on primary data collected from 228 households in the Ranibandh range under Bankura (south) forest division of West Bengal, in the month of January, 2020. A multi stage sampling technique and questionnaire method have been used for data collection. The result of the paper shows that participation index is found to be 0.47and planning, implementation and monitoring indices are 0.478, 0.589 and 0.342respectively. There is no deforestation across ten villages in Ranibandh range on account of participation of the community. The level of participation is influenced by caste, sex, age, landholdings, monitoring and occupation. The paper has an important policy implication for sustainable forest management.