Chhattisgarh Tendu Leaf Pluckers Caught Between Corruption and Cartelisation

Neeta Kodma, 40, returned happy to her village after receiving Rs 300 as bonus for selling bundles of tendu leaves to the federation. After reaching home, she, along with her husband, Kishor Kodma, both forest dwellers from Michiguda village in Naxal-infested Dantewada in south Bastar, calculated their profit and found that the bonus they received from the tendu leaves federation did not add to it. Instead, the couple found themselves at a loss of Rs 160 after deducting the amount they spent on travel. Tendu leaves are used to make bidis.

Ajit Kunjam, Sonu Sinha and many other forest dwellers from the same forest village had a similar story to tell.

Tendu leaf pluckers of Chhattisgarh are unhappy with the government because corruption in this trade has forced several forest dwellers to switch from dealing with minor forest produce products to doing labour jobs in urban areas.

Kishor Kodma, 43, told Newsclick that it is better to work as a labourer in the fields of others or in the city as it gives them guarantee of the wages.

“Even after working for five hours, we will get at least Rs 180-200 as wages. A full day’s work will give us close to Rs 300. It is better that plucking tendu leaves and begging for our hard-earned money in front of the contractors,” he says.

Since the past six months, Kishor has been working as a labourer with a road construction agency in different districts of Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-infested Bastar division. Newsclick met him in Jagdalpur while he and other workers were preparing to go back to their village on two-day leave during the polling.

“We have to give levy taxes to dada log (Naxals) on the basis of the number of bunches of tendu leaves. On top of this, payment from the government comes so late. There is no guarantee of timely payment. Also bonus is especially for federation employees, not for the pluckers,” some labourers said.

On checking the records with the local federation in Bastar, Newsclick found that a sum of Rs 9,84,301 was released by the government as bonus for the villagers of Michiguda. But, the villagers claim that the highest amount of bonus received is not more than Rs 700.

“No family has received bonus more than Rs 700. The rest of the money has been taken by government officials, workers of the federation and forest department officials,” alleges Kishor.

According to the Chhattisgarh State Minor Forest Produce Co-operative Federation Limited, the production of tendu leaves in the state is approximately 16.44 lakh standard bags annually, which is nearly 20% of the total tendu leaves’ production in the country.

One standard bag of tendu leaves comprises 1,000 bundles of 50 leaves each. The collection season starts from the third week of April to last week of May.

Gangaram Paikra, a forest rights activist based in Surguja, says tendu leaves pluckers, mostly tribals, are subjected to a lot of corruption.

 “You (government) fool them in the name of bonus. You fool them in the name of forest rights. You fool them in everything. These tendu leaves collectors suffer the most as they face the problem of under-counting and late payments very often,” he says.

Sudeip Srivastava, the advocate who fought the case of tendu leaf collectors in Bilaspur High Court, says tribals who pluck tendu leaves suffer a lot and are victims of corruption.

“If you go through the rates, you will find a pattern. The rates of tendu leaves decrease in an election year, an many cartels are behind this,” he says.

Srivastava said they filed a petition in March last in the Bilaspur High Court alleging cartelisation by traders and corruption by state government agencies in this year’s tendu leaf auctions. The average bidding price for one standard bag of leaves last year was Rs 7,952, but this year it came down to Rs 5,716.

The court, however, found nothing wrong in the auction process. The state government has maintained throughout that the fall in the sale price of tendu leaves every fifth year is due to “market and climate conditions” in the state.

According to the Forest Rights Act of 2006, non-timber forest produce — such as tendu leaves — belong to tribals and other forest dwellers who have traditional rights over such resources. Governments can merely act as agents in their trade, but profit has to be given back to forest dwellers.

Mudit Kumar Singh, managing director of the Chhattisgarh Minor Forest Produce Federation, was not available for comment. Several phone calls to him went unanswered

Collection and sale of tendu leaves from 2001 to 2015