Temporal variation in commercial collection of NTFPs
A total of 22 plant species were collected on commercial scale and
forest dwellers visit wild areas in search of these species. Existing laws
of the State Government support free collection of NTFPs for domestic
needs, however for commercial collection a nominal fee is paid to
Forest Department. Accordingly the Forest Department issues transit
permits for collection and selling of the produce. Selected species (e.g.
medicinal plants) have high potential to be exploited for community
income generation through domestication. Selected plants have high
scope for domestication. Taxus wallichiana was an important species
fetching good revenue, however to avoid overexploitation the Forest
Department banned its extraction since 2003. Price fluctuation was
remarkably for fruits of Illicium griffithii. Contribution of NTFPs to
household income varied from 19 to 32%, which was significant. The
values found in the present work were higher than those reported for
West Midnapur district of West Bengal where 17% of rural annual
income was derived from NTFPs (Malhotra et al., 1992). For
unprocessed NTFPs the rural income may be as high as 35% of total
income in certain regions (Tewari and Campbell, 1995).
For species collected commercially, overexploitation was inevitable
as no strict law enforcement was observed in field. The Forest
Department earns significant amount of revenue by issuing licenses
(transit passes) for collection of selected species from forest areas.
However, the volumes of the produces and quantum of revenue
generated have gone down in past 14 years, which is alarming. This
decline may be attributed to high market demand of species that leads
to unsystematic collection of many species in recent past.