How an unarmed green sena of women has protected a tiger reserve for years

The currently 54-strong women of the sena refuse remuneration from the government.

news Protecting Environment

It may take many years for India to have a Green Party, but if the labour of love of a bunch of 50-odd women in Kerala is anything to go by, it’s not entirely impossible.

For the last 13 years, a group of women have banded together to form the Vasantha Sena, a green army, to protect the forests of Idukki district, and have refused to take any remuneration for this work.

In 2002, a group of women from villages on the edges of the Periyar Tiger Reserve approached the forest department and offered to carry out day-time patrolling. The forest department readily agreed and roped in 101 women as the Vasantha Sena (Green Army) under the World Bank’s India Eco Development Project, which had begun in 1996.

Member of Kumily panchayat and chairperson of the Vasanthasena Gracykutty VV says: "The forest department patrols the forests at night, but during the day (we had noticed) strangers visiting the forest. We thought it was necessary to guard our resources during the day as well. Eventually, because of our campaign, 101 women from eight villages joined us in the beginning. When we approached the department with the idea, they agreed."

Mostly daily wage workers, despite losing two work days a month to patrol, the currently 54-strong women of the sena refuse remuneration from the government.

One of the reasons for the decline in the sena’s numbers is that precarious financial conditions forced many tribal women to drop out as they could not lose two or three days wages in order to come and patrol.

"Although they don’t come for patrolling, they support us how they can and they attend our committee meetings even now," Gracykutty says, adding that some have married and gone away, others migrated for work and a few had died.

Most of the women in the green army are now in 50s and 60s.

"When we started out everyone scoffed at us and said that we would give up soon. But it’s our 13th year and we are not tired. We have got recognition and many awards for our service," Gracykutty adds.

The women are divided into 13 groups of four or five members each, and are assigned duties by the executive committee comprising 13 members. This ensures that each woman is allotted patrolling duties twice a month, Gracykutty says.

Their day begins from 10 am and ends at 5 pm. But those seven hours are filled with hard work and are fraught with danger for these women who are only armed with patrolling accessories, raincoats and sturdy shoes provided by the forest department.

In the forests, the women do a variety of work that involves keen observation, especially keeping track of forest areas where sandalwood trees grow. As they know the forests like the back of their hand, they notice minute changes. They also pick up waste or plastics that may have been left behind by tourists.

"We have often come across wild elephants, seen or felt the presence of leopards nearby," Gracykutty says, adding that they also tried to look out for sick animals.

Her colleague Lailamma Nainan adds, "We have recovered the carcasses of many small animals killed by leopards and have also seen them eating the prey live."

Their constant presence in the forest makes it difficult for poachers and smugglers to roam around freely.

"Smugglers usually scout the forests in daylight to decide on the trees to be stolen, and come at night to cut them and smuggle them out. Since we do patrolling during the day the rate of tree-felling has decreased considerably," Lailamma says.

Awards apart, individuals inspired by their work have actually given them cash rewards. "A foreign woman who visited the forest was surprised to learn about us and gifted us Rs 50,000. We have also received more than Rs 2 lakhs from the government through various awards," Gracykutty said.

Despite results and recognition, there is still skepticism about them as they are women. Lailamma says "For last 13 years we have an appreciable job being women. We risk our lives because we want our children and grandchildren to see the rich forests," she says, adding that this was proof enough.