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Environmental change is an inevitable process. It brings a great deal of transformation of human environment and bears consequences for all the living creatures on earth. The changes in environment can be occurred due to natural occurrences and human interference. The natural occurrences are responsible for bringing a slow and gradual transformation on environment and changes which are inevitable. Such changes are also desirable for the evolutionary process of nature and beyond the control of any artificial arrangement. However, many of the environmental changes that got accomplished due to human interference, are avoidable and so also their adverse implications for human and other living creatures. The human interference can be visible in degradation of the environment such as deforestation, air, water and soil pollutions and increase in the numbers of endangered species. The most visible form of environmental change is shrinking forest area and desertification of forest land. Despite governmental measures to protect the green vegetation, deforestation is on rampant in India. This situation attracts our attention to the community-forest interaction and role of the immediate stakeholders in forest preservation. The concept of community forest is an attempt to distribute the responsibility of preservation to the people. Community forest is a relevant connotation for Odisha, as like any other Indian state it is facing the challenges of deforestation and environmental changes. Gifted with abundant natural resources, green vegetation and a demographic composition with a sizeable tribal communities Odisha offers valid grounds for community forestry. The Nayagarh district of Odisha have several stories of community claims over local forestry. The village communities of the district play the role of beneficiary as well as conservators of local forests. This offers a remarkable success in forest conservation and prevention of environmental change in Odisha.

This paper is based on both primary and secondary source of literature. Primary source of literature such as National Forest Policy 1988, The Orissa Forest Act 1972, Budget 2021-22 of Odisha Government have been explored to collect information and data. Similarly, secondary source of information and data have been collected from United Nations documents and Ministry of Tribal Affairs Government of India’s documents. Various newspaper articles and data from government websites have been used to substantiates the arguments. 

The Concept of Community Forestry
Community forestry is based on the argument that forests belong to the people who live there. The indigenous communities and the trial people have a civilizational linkage with the forests of their vicinity. They design their livelihood and socio-cultural identity around the forest. This brought them proximate to the forest and help them to develop an emotional bondage with the forest, naturally. This situation helps to designate them as the primary stakeholders of the forest. Any measure of forest conservation is incomplete without their active involvement and emotional acceptance.  
The concept of community forestry can be understood as “any situation that intimately involves local people in forestry activity”[1]. Thus, the concept of community forestry can include ‘a range of linkages among people, forests and the outputs of forests, from forest dwelling communities to populations who draw on nearby forests for part of their livelihood needs, and to those outside forests who manage tree stocks on farmland in order to sustain flows of forest outputs, or who engage in artisanal and other local small-scale commercial production and trade of forest products’[2].
The broader meaning of community forestry has been defined in the Sustainable Forest Management Project paper of the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations. According to the project paper “community forestry means that local women and men:
1.     are primary users of the forest, and rely on timber and non-timber forest products to support their basic livelihood needs;
2.     have valuable knowledge, skills and experience to contribute to the sustainable management of forest resources;
3.     represent a significant resource that may play a role in managing forest resources sustainably, which can be activated by establishing tenure rights and appropriate management systems;
4.     determine the objectives of forest management according to the needs of the community; delineate the forest area for community usage; design forest management plans; manage and protect the forest area; monitor forest use and management activities; resolve conflicts relating to the forest area and forest resources; use the forest area and distribute forest benefits in a sustainable and equitable way;
5.     receive social and economic benefits from effective forest management” [3].
Community forestry directly involves the indigenous people in forest management and protection. Thus, it expands the measures of forest conservation from state to people and promote decentralisation of governance.   
Community Forestry in India
The communities of people who are attached to the forests since time immemorial are often known as “Adivasis” or “Vanavasis” in India. Their life is synonymous to the forests where they live and lead their life. They were having an unchallenged access and control over their forests before colonialism in India. However, the colonial administration systematically excluded these people from their forests through various land settlement process. Formally, the forest department was created in the second half of 19^th century and forest and forest products were commercialized for the benefit of colonial metropolis[4]. The commercialization of forest marginalised the indigenous people from forest for near about two hundred years and fragmented the association of communities from forests.
During the initial years of post-independent India government’s exclusive possession over forests continued and the community forestry was neglected by the policy makers. However, this notion was changed in 1980s through the enactment of National Forest Policy in 1988 and the Central Government Guidelines for Joint Forest Management of 1990. The National Forest Policy 1988 aimed at promotion of social forestry programmes. The Policy was also pointing at “creating a massive people's movement with the involvement of women, for achieving these objectives and to minimise pressure on existing forests”[5]. Similarly, the Central Government Guidelines for Joint Forest Management of 1990 underlined the “participatory forest management” and accordingly the states came out with their respective mechanisms for joint forest management[6].
Similarly, the Forest Rights Acts 2006 underlines the “the rights of the forest dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers to forest resources”[7]. This act aims at extending forest rights of tribal people who were neglected during colonial and post-colonial period. Tribal people have an emotional connectivity with the forest and they have several indigenous ways to conserve the forests. The Act recognises the role of Gram Sabha in “conservation and protection of bio-diversity, wildlife, forests, adjoining catchment areas, water sources and other ecologically sensitive areas as well as to stop any destructive practices affecting these resources or cultural and natural heritage of the tribals”. The most significant aspect of the Act is to empowered the Gram Sabha to have a decisive role in determining the local policies and schemes impacting community forests[8].
Community Forestry in Odisha
Odisha has abundant forest area with a number of tribal domiciles. As per the 2011 Census, Odisha has been gifted with as many as 62 different tribal communities. The tribal population of Odisha stands at 22.85 percent of total population of the state[9]. As per the observation of Forest Survey of India, the “recorded Forest Area (RFA) in the State is 61,204 sq km of which 36,049 sq km is Reserved Forest, 25,133 sq km is Protected Forest and 22 sq km is Unclassed Forests”[10]. Tribal communities and their civilizational association with the forests is an age-old phenomenon in Odisha. The tribal communities play the role of consumer as well a protector to the forests in Odisha. For them forest is having a motherly or Godly status. Their lives, economy, culture and religious practices and rituals revolved around the forests. Thus, any attempt to conserve the forest is futile without the active participation of the tribal communities of Odisha.
The Odisha Forest Act 1972 extensively empowered the state to ‘make rules for regulating the management of village forests ‘. According to the provision of Section 31(1) of the Act:
The State Government may make rules for regulating the management of village forests and for prescribing the conditions under which the community or group of communities for the benefit of which any such village forest is constituted may be provided with forest produce or with pasture, and their duties in respect of the protection and improvement of such forest[11].
The Forest Right Act 2006 reiterates the legal claim of indigenous communities over forests. Like many other states of India, the Act guides the state of Odisha to implement several measures for the facilitation of communities’ rights over forests. As per the provisions of the Act local communities and Gram Sabhas can be the legal owners of community forests. Odisha is one of the leading states of India to make ways for Forest Right Act. After the notification of the Act and Rules, the Forest Rights Committee (FRCs), the Sub-District Level Committees (SDLCs) and District Level Committees (DLCs) were formed in 2008. Further, the other important step was to recognize individual rights on occupied forest. In this regard the process for community rights recognition was initiated only after 2009 and the first CR Rights titles were issued in the districts of Mayurbhanj and Kalahandi[12].
Odisha became the first state of India to have a budgetary allocation of Rs 8 crore for 168 FRA Cells in 2021-22. Similarly, “Rs.15 crore is proposed for Ama Jungle Yojana for bringing more and more forest area under Joint Forest Management”[13]. Odisha has also facilitated the functioning of forest right committees beyond the Tribal Sub-Plan Areas.  The state government has a through going plan to achieve the provisions of Forest Right Act 2006 by the end of 2024[14]. This measure will definitely boost forest conservation in Odisha at grassroots level.
The Case of Nayagarh District
Nayagarh district of Odisha is one of the Forest Division falling in the Eastern Ghats of India. This district is enriched with various species of plants and animals. People of rural and interior Nayagarh have a natural inclination towards the flora and fauna of their localities. In many villages of Nayagarh district people have voluntarily come forward to protect their forests. The people of Nayagarh district have a long history of struggle against the Britishers to retain their traditional ownership over forest. As the forest management by government agencies is not satisfactory, many village communities have participated in forest management in post-independent period. 
The forest management system by the Forest Department has created several problems for the villagers, especially for women in accessing forest resources. Common people have been prevented and fined by the Forest Department officials from entering into the forest and accessing forest goods. Such situations have aggravated peoples disbelieve in forest administration and forced them to cry for community forest management in Nayagarh district. The district is witnessing peoples’ struggle for community rights over forest since 1980s[15].
In their struggle against the administration women of Nayagarh district have played a very significant role to reestablish their traditional authority over community forest. The tribal village of Kodalpalli of Ranpur block has a history of women revolution for forest right since the 1990s. Their struggle started even much before the enactment of Forest Rights Act, 2006[16]. Like Kodalpalli, in many other villages of Nayagarh district also women have patrolled, conserved and nourished their community forests. As forests are the most essential source of livelihood for the women and their family in of the rural areas it is inevitable for them have control over forest management.
People’s long struggle for forest rights finally materialized on 2^nd November 2021 when twenty-four villages of Nayagarh district “together received 14 community rights (CR) and community forest resource rights (CFRR) titles”[17]. This was recognised under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (known as FRA), 2006 as well as the 2012 amendment. Under FRA the Gram Sabhas were authorised their “right to protect, regenerate, conserve or manage any community forest resource which they have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use”[18].  Nayagarh district consists of near about 1,695 villages and out of which 1,239 villages are deserving for CR and CFRR title. This title distribution by the state government is one of its kind in the country. It enshrines the traditional rights of tribal as well as nontribal community over protection and preservation of forests. It also revokes the traditional measures of forest management.

1. Arnold, J.E.M (2001), Twenty-Five Years Of Community Forestry, Rome: Food And Agricultural Organization Of The United Nations.

2. Ibid

3. Sustainable Forest Management Project, TA-3152-CAM, “Community Forestry Guidelines”, Rome: Food And Agricultural Organization Of The United Nations [Online web] https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/cam204405.pdf.

4. Nayak, Prateep K. (2002), “Community-Based Forest Management In India: The Issue Of Tenurial Significance”, Paper for the 9th Biennial Conference of the IASCP, 17 - 21 June 2002, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Anand: Foundation of Ecological Security.

5. Ministry of Environment and Forests, “National Forest Policy 1988”, Government of India, New Delhi [Online web] https://mpforest.gov.in/img/files/Policy_NFP.pdf

6. ENVIS RP on Forestry and Forest Related Livelihoods, “Joint Forest Management”, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun [Online web] http://frienvis.nic.in/database/joint_forest_management_1949.aspx

7. Ministry Of Tribal Affairs, Government Of India, “Forest Rights Act”,[Online web] ttps://tribal.nic.in/FRA.aspx

8. Ibid.

9. Ota, A.B.(2018),ed., Tribal Atlas of Odisha, Academy of Tribal Languages and Culture and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute, SC & ST Development Department, Government of Odisha [Online web] https://repository.tribal.gov.in /bitstream/123456789/74411 /1/SCST_2018_book _0322.pdf

10. Forest Survey of India, “Odisha”, [Online web] https://fsi.nic.in/isfr19/vol2/isfr-2019-vol-ii-odisha.pdf

11. The Odisha Gazette, “ The Orissa Forest Act 1972”, India Code [Online web] https://www.indiacode.nic.in /bitstream/ 123456789/5955/1/ the_orissa_forest_act_1972.pdf

12. Routray, Dr Sailen (2016) Promise and Performance of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, The Tenth Anniversary Report, Forest Right Act Website [Online web] https://www.fra.org.in/document /Promise%20and%20Proformance %20of%20FRA_Odisha%20Report-15.Dec.16.pdf

13. Ministry of Finance Odisha, “Budget 2021-22, Part-II, General ”, Presented By Sri Niranjan Pujari, Minister, finance, Government of Odisha, [Online web] https://finance.odisha.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021-02/04-BUDGET_SPEECH_ENGLISH-PART-2.pdf

14. Barik, Satyasundar (2022), “ Forest Rights Act : Well Begun And Now Odisha Is Ready For The Home Run”, The Hindu, Bhubaneswar, 27 July 2022.

15. Niyogi, Deepanwita Gita(2022), “Meet The Forest Worriers Of Nayagarh”, Tehelka, 1st October 2022, [Online web] http://tehelka.com/meet-the-forest-warriors-of-nayagarh/

16. Ibid

17. Sahu, Priya Ranjan(2021), “In Odisha’s Nayagarh , 24 Villages Receive Community and Forest Resource Rights”, Down To Earth, 03 November 2021, [Online web] https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/forests/in-odisha-s-nayagarh-24-villages-receive-community-forest-resource-rights-80025 18. Ibid