Apparently, the grant provided to community forests from the revenue collected from the extraction and sale of black khoto (natural paint made by cooking the bark of saal tree) or tree saplings were halted citing misuse of the grant. Each community forest had been receiving anywhere between Rs 100,000 to one million as grant from the DFO.

According to District Forest Officer, Surya Kanta Mishra, forests cover a total of 189,959 hectares of land in Jajarkot, and 32,683 hectares of that has been separated into 236 community forests.

Meanwhile, four turpentine Industries from Nepalgunj and Surkhet have been granted the permission to collect tree saplings from 76 community forests. The industries collect 192,800 kgs of tree saplings and pay approximately Rs 13 million in revenue to the DFO annually. Excluding the revenue collected, the DFO had been distributing Rs 934,000 to the District Development Committee and Rs 10.9 million in revenue to the 76 CFUGs in the district.

However, the DFO had decided to stop providing the annual grant following written complaints that the members of CFUGs were using the DFO funds haphazardly while also failing to maintain transparency, maintain annual audit and renew their licenses, said Assistant Forest officer Lal Babu Jha.

According to legal provision regulating community forests, 25 percent of the amount collected from forest products sales has to be allocated for the conservation of the forests, while 40 percent can be used for investment in community development.

It has also been found that the industries in collusion with community forest user groups, officials, and range posts have been extracting the sapling twice the amount permitted by the law.

“Due to the tendency of cutting the saplings rampantly and use of acid for the purpose, the saal forests in Dhime and Karkigaun are on the verge of being turned into barren lands,” said Dirgha Bahadur Singh, a local teacher from Dhime Khurpa.

Meanwhile, the DFO has announced that it has collected approximately Rs 160,000 in revenue from various firms extracting herbs from the forests over the current fiscal year. Concurently, the district forest area coordination committee has rewarded four CFUGs, with cash prizes and a certificate, in recognition for their commendable work over the fiscal year, on Sunday.