J. Env. Bio-Sci., 2014: Vol.

28 (2): 311-314 ISSN 0973-6913 (Print), ISSN 0976-3384 (On Line)

SOCIO-ECONOMIC RELEVANCE OF HOMEGARDENS IN THE FRINGE VILLAGES OF

CLOUDED LEOPARD NATIONAL PARK, TRIPURA
P. Roy1 and A. Arunachalam2
1
Tripura Forest Service, Sadar Forest Division, Agartala 799004, Tripura
2
Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi - 110001

Received: 30-09-2014 Accepted: 05-11-2014

Traditional agroforests are known for its biodiversity values vis-à-vis its livelihood attributes. This can provide and balance
both tangible (viz., improved production of fuel, fodder and other products) and intangible (viz., C-sequestration, hydrological
balance, soil fertility recovery and slope stability) benefits of the ecosystem. This paper describes the significance of homegardens
as an example in the socio-economy of the people living in the fringe villages of Clouded Leopard National Park in Tripura.

Protected areas in the north-east India are not free from human
settlements, atleast in the fringe areas, who are exclusively
dependent on the forest resources for their normal subsistence.
They have immediate access to collect NTFPs including
fuelwood, fodder, vegetables, medicinal plants from the adjacent
forest areas. Evidently, the socio-economy of the fringe villages
is dependent on the natural resource availability and
accessibility1 . Further, the recent "scheduled caste and other
traditional forest dwellers act, 2006" has blessed them with
the land ownership right, which they were deprived of before.
Interestingly, the traditional societies do grow agroforests and/
or homegardens that act as a source of meeting all day-to-
day livelihoods requirements of food, fodder and fuel2. Such a
system also reduces pressure on the forests to a larger extent
and do contribute to the net carbon sink in the area. This
paper deals with the socio-economic relevance of traditional
homegardens in the fringe villages of Cloded Leopard National
Park (CLNP), Tripura.
Socio-economic relevance : The Clouded Leopard National
Park in Tripura is not an exception to the phenomenon of human
aggression. The livelihood pattern of the villagers the study
area is primarily dependent on various combinations of
agriculture, forest and labour. Livestock is an integral
component of the farming systems. It is evident that both male
and female members are equally co-operative in boosting up
their household economy. It is witnessed that the government
agencies seek to promote socio-economic status in the fringe
villages of Clouded Leopard National Park, by securing full
participation of the local communities and capacity building,
in order to secure culturally appropriate means of livelihood
with a goal of achieving sustainable development. Considerable
employment opportunities are also generated in the national
park which includes work at nursery operations, plantations
and other park management activities, especially, when
alternative labour opportunities are needed during off-seasons.
It is also worth-mentioning that the Joint Forest Management
and Village Self Help Groups are in operation in the fringe
villages, for last few years.
Livelihoods : The traditional livelihood system in the study
area consisted of slash-and-burn agriculture, settled
agriculture, homegardens and gathering of forest products.
Lack of accessibility to market, indulge them to sell agricultural
products on arbitrary prices. There is no fixed pricing
mechanism among the producers. The prices of the products
vary from time to time, supply and availability. Such market
limitations have encouraged the people to exclusively depend
on agroforestry and/or homegarden system and they believe
in growing almost everything, they need. For instance, rice is
the staple food in all the fringe villages (Table-1); have potato,
wheat, jute and vegetables do contribute to the production.
The relative pricing of the agricultural production in local market
has been given in (Table-2). Average livelihood holding in the
study villages revealed that the cow and goat are generally
preferred by all communities; but piggery was maintained only
by the setters of Marak basti. An average household had 2-5
cattle, and a few poultry (Table-3). Presence of our water bodies
attributes to rearing of duck in the Gulaghati village, which is a
low-lying area. Income generation in respect of cow is related
to the sale of milk only and contributes major percentage of
total income through livelihood in the study villages.
 Socio-economic Relevance of Homegardens in the Fringe (312)

Table-1. Agricultural yield (quintals) in the villages of CLNP

Table-2. Relative pricing of agricultural products of homegardens (Rs/kg)

Table-3. Income generation through Livestock (its villages per month)

* unit price
(313) Roy and Arunachalam

Table-4. Economic Relevance: An overview

IA rapid survey with farmers yielded quite interesting results
(Table- 4). For instance, the farmer opined that about 40% of
timber requirements can be met from homegardens; similarly
44% fodder and 58% opined homegardens as biofencing. About
40% opined them as shelter belts and mind breaks. Over 64%
called it as a homestead plantation. While 84% farmers gave
preference to vegetables in the homegarden, about 56% of the
people opined that homegarden can act as a good source of
cultivable medicinal plants. Depending on the size of the
homegarden, about 56% if farmer opined that fruit crops can
be potentially grown in homegardens. While responding to the
question pertaining to livestock, slightly over 40% farmers were
of the opinion to integrate the livestock with trading
homegarden. Interestingly, poultry was mostly preferred meat
in the study village. For example, about 75% of the farmer
opined that they wish to integrate poultry with traditional
homegarden. Further, they preferred poultry for eggs only.
Developmental efforts seem to have not made as impact on
the socio-economic scenario of the forest dwelling
communities mainly due to lack of communication and low
level of educational among people. Hence, there is a need to
explore the possibilities of developing suitable policies and
strategies to link the socio-economic and cultural potentials
of the region with the natural resource management to ensure
community development, particularly in and around the
protected areas3 .
 Socio-economic Relevance of Homegardens in the Fringe
Over all, the present study indicates that the traditional
homegardens and their supporting units are able to provide
economic opportunities and fulfil basic necessities of the
people. More significantly, these traditional systems harbour
rich biodiversity and play a key role in environmental
amelioration4.The farmers of the study villages viewed traditional
agroforests as the major source of vegetables including
medicinal plants. Integrating bamboo and timber species have
been in tradition to act as a shelter crop and/or for biofence.
Further, the cognite association of trees, agricultural crops,
livestock, reflect the age-old rich reserve of traditional knowledge
linking ecology, economy and ethics. Traditional agroforestry
practices, therefore, should be looked upon as a promising
means for uplifting economy of the rural commons, in the light
of livelihoods and environmental restoration5 . Moreover this
could be an adaptive strategy in enduring the anticipated
impacts of "ban on timber felling, 1996" and strategies measure
of carbon sequestration to mitigate the impact of climate
change6.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors express their deepest thankfulness to the Forest
Department, Govt. of Tripura and the Clouded Leopard National
(314)
Park Authority for their cooperation and logistic support. Thanks
are due to the villagers for sharing information.
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