Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272

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Trees, Forests and People

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Analyzing the effectiveness of the ‘Malki Practice’ for conserving the Dang
forest in Gujarat, India along with improving the socio-economic standards
of the land holders
Dinesh Dasa a, *, Shobhalata Udapudi a, Anurag Kandya b
a
Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382426, India
b
Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382426, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Looking to the present environmental crisis and the global trend of alarming deforestation, it is very important to
Dang forest study various forest management strategies to understand their effectiveness and advantages along with the
Malki practice bottlenecks and limitations. It is indeed very important to conserve the forests but the economic sustainability of
Forest conservation
the people directly linked with the forests cannot be ignored. Due to very limited availability of the socio-
NDVI
MODIS
economic data of the people directly dependent on forests (especially in the developing countries) and the
Mann-Kendall trend test lack of an inter-disciplinary approach interfacing the socio-economic data with the scientifically estimated forest
GIS area and its green cover density, not many studies could comprehensively bring out the effectiveness of a
particular forest management approach. The present study is one of the first few studies which connects these
two independent datasets and fetches the usefulness of the ‘Malki Practice’ driven forest management approach
in the Dang forest of Gujarat, India. It uses the remotely sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
to estimate the green cover density in the Dang forest, a statistical approach for assessing the type of trend in the
NDVI (increasing / decreasing at different significance levels) and the socio-economic data generated by the state
Forest Department regarding the earnings made through the sale of logs and the house-hold surveys. The
‘environmental success’ of the Malki Practice can be seen from the fact that 74% of the Dang forest witnessed an
increasing trend in the green cover density which backs the fact that around one million plantations would have
been done in the forest in-lieu of the 200,000 trees which were cut during 1994–2019 while the ‘economic
success’ of the Malki Practice can be attributed to the fact that 19,936 land holders earned 39.4 million US
Dollars through the sale of logs. Juxtaposing the ‘environmental success’ with the ‘economic success’ it can be
inferred that the ‘Malki Practice’ of forest conservation adopted in the state of Gujarat, India is worth considering
for being drawn upon or replicated in other parts of the world.

1. Introduction
Forests are critical to sustainable development (Oldekop et al., 2019;
UNFCCC, 2016; United Nations, 2015) as they regulate climate,
sequester carbon, harbor biodiversity and contribute to national in­
comes and local livelihoods (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005).
Close to 1.6 billion people directly rely on forest resources for their
livelihoods and most of them use trees on farms to generate food and
cash (FAO, 2015). Thus it is very important to protect, conserve and
enrich the forest resources. The very fact that the world has lost 178
million hectares of forests since 1990 (GFRA, 2020) and that the net
reduction continues till date is an alarming situation and there is an
urgent need for evolving various forest management strategies to miti­
gate the current trend of deforestation.
Community based forest management (CFM) is in many cases a
suitable approach for managing forest resources, especially in the
developing countries (Gautam et al., 2004; Johnson and Durst, 1997)
and over the past four decades, governments and international organi­
zations have promoted decentralized CFM to achieve sustainable forest
use and reduce rural poverty (Gilmour, 2016). Around 13% of the
world’s forests are now legally managed by the local communities under
the aegis of CFM (Oldekop et al., 2019) however the debate continues
whether CFM truly reduces forest loss and alleviates poverty (Hajjar
et al., 2016; Bowler et al., 2012). There are case studies from Latin

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dineshdasa@ymail.com (D. Dasa).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tfp.2022.100272
Received 4 July 2021; Received in revised form 3 May 2022; Accepted 4 May 2022
Available online 6 May 2022
2666-7193/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
D. Dasa et al. Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272

Fig 1. (a) Map of India, Gujarat and Dang Distrcit.

(b) Map of Dang District.

Table 1 Table 2
Salient features of the Malki Practice during 1984–2009. Statistical classification of the Green cover based on the changing NDVI.
Year Plantation Guidelines Economic Gain to the land holder Range of Interpretation of the Type of Trend Code for Mapping
ZMK NDVI Trend (in changing Green
1984 To plant 05 times the trees The land holder was allowed to
terms of ZMK range) cover density
which are to be cut. No cutting of keep the wood for burning for his
trees would be allowed unless the own usage from such cut trees and > 2.576 Increasing Trend Densifying
age of the newly planted trees is the remaining timber and other significant at 99% Green cover
minimum 01 year and that 80% wood would be disposed through confidence level
of such trees should be in good auction by the forest department > 1.96 & Increasing Trend
health. and after having deducted the ≤ significant at 95%
expenses of the same, 20% of such 2.576 confidence level
cost would be paid to the land > 1.654 Increasing Trend Emerging Green
holder. &≤ significant at 90% cover
1991- To plant 03 times the trees The amount payable to the land 1.96 confidence level
1992 which are to be cut subject to the holder was increased from the >0&≤ Increasing Trend not Consistent
condition that permission of previous limit of 20% to 50%. 1.654 significant Green cover
cutting would be given for 50% of However the payment would be 0 No Trend
the existing trees or number of made in 2 installments. 60% of the ≥ -1.654 Decreasing Trend
trees demanded for cutting, amount payable to the land holder &<0 not significant
whichever is lower, with a would be paid only when the new ≥ -1.96 Decreasing Trend Degrading
maximum limit up to 10 trees. trees attain the age of 01 year and &< significant at 90% Green cover
The age of the newly planted trees remaining 40% would be paid only -1.654 confidence level
should be minimum 03 years and after such trees attain the age of 03 ≥ 2.576 Decreasing Trend Diminishing
that 80% of such trees should be years. &< significant at 95% Green cover
in good health -1.96 confidence level
1997 – The percentage of payable amount < -2.576 Decreasing Trend
to the land holders from selling of significant at 99%
the five reserve trees (Sandalwood, confidence level
Blackwood, Teak, Mahuva and
Khair) increased from the existing
50 to 100% after having deducted America, Africa and South Asia which depict that some CFM initiatives
the expenses.
have improved forest and livelihood outcomes (Persha et al., 2011;
2005 In addition to the previous –
guidelines of plantations, it was
Chhatre and Agrawal, 2009) but that others have not achieved the
decided that there should be a gap intended objectives (Gilmour, 2016, Edmunds and Wollenberg, 2003).
of minimum 05 years between Thus it is very important to explore the other unique strategies adopted
the two permissions issued to the in the different parts of the world and interpret their effectiveness which
land holder for the Malki cutting.
will finally add to the pool of information for conserving and enriching
2007- – Few provisions were included for
2009 prioritizing the Forest produce the forest along with providing livelihood.
sale based on the condition of the The Dang forest is the densest forest of the state of the Gujarat, India
land holder like the need of medical having 822 km2 under the Protected Forest category while another 866
treatment, pursuing higher km2 under the Reserved Forest category which in all constitutes around
education and primary teachers
certificate studies
95.6% area of the Dang district (GoG, 2022; CEE, 2010). The meaning of
‘Dang’ in local dialect is a hilly land with heavy bamboo growth. Owing
to its topography and geography, Dang forest remained isolated and
inaccessible from the rest of the world till the beginning of the 20th

2
D. Dasa et al.
Table 3
Symbology for mapping the different types of green cover.
NDVI of the ZMK (Trend of the Annually averaged NDVI for a period of 18 years)
year 2018 Densifying Green Cover Emerging Green Consistent
Cover Green Cover
Increasing Trend Increasing Trend Increasing Trend Increasing
(at 99% (at 95% (at 90% Trend
Significance Significance Significance (Not
Level) Level) Level) Significant)
> 2.576 > 1.960 & ≤ > 1.645 & ≤ >0&≤
2.576 1.960 1.645
0.0-0.2
0.2-0.4
0.4-0.6
0.6-0.8
>0.8
century. The remoteness and isolation were the main reasons of the
backwardness and underdevelopment of the entire area. The area
largely has tribal population and the major source of livelihood was the
sale of non-timber forest products (NTFP). The movement and transit of
forest produce is regulated by the Indian Forest Act of 1927, the coun­
try’s guiding forestry legislation, which preserve areas with forest cover
in the notified forest land (Reserved Forest, Protected Forest and Village
Forest). In addition to this, after the enactment of the Saurashtra Pre­
vention of Felling of Trees (Infliction of Punishment) Act, 1951 which
was applicable to trees grown in outside the notified Forest land both on
public as well as privately held land, the restrictions on the cutting of
trees in the entire erstwhile state of Saurashtra became very stringent
and with the formation of Gujarat as a state in 1960, the said Act got
implemented in entire Gujarat (which includes the Dang forest). The Act
states that “no person can fell any tree or any portion thereof without the
written permission of the Collector or any other officer duly empowered
in this behalf by the Government”. Punitive measures were introduced
for the illegal felling of trees and a provision of levying a fine upto 13 US
$ (and not less than 0.6 US $ until and unless specified) on a person for
felling or damaging a tree was enacted (Bare Acts Live, 2020). As a result
of these two Acts which prohibited the cutting of trees, a big question
emerged regarding the livelihood of the forest dwellers of Dang forest
who were solely depending on the sale of the forest produce. There was
indeed a specific need to help them by providing extra source of income
based on agriculture. It is with this focus, 587.58 km2 land from the
Protected Forest was released w.e.f. 01st January, 1970 and placed at the
disposal of the Revenue Department for conferring the occupancy rights
to the forest dwellers thereby making them ‘legal land holders’ with the
condition that the trees on this land shall continue to vest in the Gov­
ernment but the land holders were entitled to lop them for the purpose of
agriculture (GoG, 1970). However, even after granting the occupancy
rights to the forest dwellers in the Protected Forest, satisfactory results in
terms of ‘forest conservation and livelihood’ were not observed by the
Government of Gujarat and this led to the evolution of the ‘Malki
Practice’ in the year 1984. The Malki Practice was architected by
evoking the provisions of ‘The Saurashtra Felling of Trees (Infliction of
Punishment), Act 1951’ under which the land holders were permitted to
cut the trees for economic gains but at the same time it was ensured that
the permission was given only after ensuring the requisite plantation
was initiated.
With this background of understanding the conflicts over the forests
land and its products, and what can be the impact of legislation along
with the community participation for sustainable forest management,
the present study was undertaken for the Dang forest of Gujarat, India
wherein the focus was to investigate the effectiveness of the ‘Malki
Practice’ to conserve the Dang forest along with improving the socio-
3
Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272
Degrading Green Diminishing
Cover Green Cover
Decreasing Decreasing Trend Decreasing Trend Decreasing Trend
Trend (at 90% (at 95% (at 99%
(Not Significance Significance Significance
Significant) Level) Level) Level)
<0&≥ < -1.645 & ≥ < -1.960 & ≥ < -2.576
-1.645 -1.960 -2.576
economic standards of the land holders. Very often the methodology
of assessment of forest condition is also questioned and emphasis is
made on using the satellite data for the spatial documentation of the
forest transition which should be used for evaluating the effectiveness of
the respective forest management strategy. The present study not only
uses the satellite data in terms of the remotely sensed NDVI that is used
estimate the density of green cover on an area of land but innovates in
the spatial display of the trend analysis of the NDVI which makes the
respective assessment more robust thereby leading to decisive conclu­
sions. The findings of the study along with the novel methodology
adopted for assessing the changing forest land would definitely add to
the pool of information for evolving sustainable forest management
strategies.
2. Study area
Fig 1 (a, b) displays the Dang district of Gujarat, India (GoG, 2022;
CEE, 2010).
The Dang district, which is situated in the western part of India in the
Sahyadri foothills in the state of Gujarat, is a highly hilly region mostly
dominated by the tribal population. It spreads over an area of 1766 km2
and has the highest forest density in the state. As per Census 2011, the
population of Dang district is 0.228 million which is 0.37% of the state
population. Out of the total population, around 79% of the population is
below poverty level category (CEE, 2010). The main occupation in the
district is related to agriculture or forest based activities. Woodcutting,
bamboo plantation, grazing of livestock and collection and sale of NTFP
are few of the forests based activities allowed by the Forest Department.
The Dang district is one of the 117 districts of India which has been
identified as an ‘Aspirational District’ by NITI Ayog - the public policy
think tank of the Government of India, owing to its social, economical,
educational and health (nutritional), financial inclusion, agriculture and
water resources and skill development parameters. The Aspirational
Districts Programme is a step towards the development and growth of
some of the country’s most ignored populations. It directs and focuses
resources and action towards the districts identified as the most disad­
vantaged (Niti Aayog, 2018).
3. ‘Malki Practice’ – the unique initiative for forest conservation
and providing livelihood to the land holders
The word ‘Malki infers ‘Ownership’ and in the year 1984 Govern­
ment of Gujarat introduced the unique ‘Malki Practice’ wherein the land
holders were permitted to cut the trees for economic gains provided that
they had initiated the plantation of the requisite number of trees against
the trees to be cut. The provisions contained in the practice gradually
D. Dasa et al. Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272

Satellite Product used: 16 days averaged NDVI from Terra Amount of money paid
MODIS (MOD13A2) for a period of 18 years (2001-18) by the Government of
Gujarat to the
beneficiaries of the
Malki Pracce for
Preparing an annually averaged NDVI database for the study selling the forest
area (each data set contained 2146 points) produce on a yearly
basis for a period of 25
years (1994-2019)

Execung Mann-Kendall
Annual NDVI Mapping for Trend Test on all the data Socio-economic
assessing the variation in points at different details of the
the Green cover density significance levels (90%, top 10 annual
95% and 99%) for a Malki
beneficiaries
from North and
South Dang
Interfacing the Annual averaged NDVI for the year 2018 with
forest during
the Mann-Kendall trend test result for all the data points
2000-2019
were generated
through house-
Mapping the stascally Consistent, Emerging, Densifying, hold survey
Degrading and Diminishing Green cover

Overall interfacing of the different types of green cover with the cumulave economic gains
earned by the land holders

Assessing the effecveness of the Malki Pracce for conserving the Dang forest and
improving the socio - economic status of its land holders

Fig. 2. Flowchart of the methodology.

evolved during the 25 years (1984-2009) and Table 1 contains the
salient features (GoG, 1984; GoG, 1991; GoG, 1992; GoG, 1997; GoG,
2005; GoG, 2007; GoG, 2009).
4. Data used
To investigate the effectiveness of the ‘Malki Practice’ to conserve
and enrich the Dang forest along with improving the socio-economic
standards of the land holders the following data were used in this study:
(i) Economic data: It contains the annual number of beneficiaries and
the amount paid to them on sale of logs for a period of 25 years
(1994–2019). This data was provided by the Forest Department,
Government of Gujarat. In addition to this, a household survey
was done to study the economic status of the top 10 annual
beneficiaries of the ‘Malki Practice’ from both North and South
division of the Dang forest from the year 2000 to 2019 and thus
400 Malki beneficiaries were studied. The respective benefi­
ciaries were personally approached with a detailed questionnaire
having questions pertaining to personal and family details, for e.
g. the annual income, type of house they are residing, owning of
agriculture land and the awareness regarding the Malki tree
cutting provisions.

4
D. Dasa et al.
Fig. 3. Land Holder’s economic gain through Malki cutting during 1994–2019.
Fig. 4. Utilization of the money earned through ‘Malki Practice’.
(ii) Remotely sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
data: To understand the change in the forest cover over years,
remotely sensed NDVI, which represents the density of green
cover on an area of land, was used. So far, numerous Vegetation
Indices have been proposed and applied to map the spatial extent
of vegetation cover and vegetation abundance, however, NDVI is
probably the most popular one, which can be estimated by
computing the spectral reflectance of wavelengths at red and near
infrared from remotely acquired images (Igamberdiev et al.,
2012; Defries and Townshend, 1994). The NDVI can range from
-1.0 to +1.0. Negative values of NDVI (values approaching -1)
correspond to water, values close to zero (-0.1 to 0.1) generally
5
Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272
represent barren areas of rock, sand, or snow, low values (0.2 to
0.4) represent shrub and grassland, while high values (0.5 to 1.0)
indicate temperate and tropical rainforests. The density of green
cover of an area is directly proportional to the NDVI values.
Various studies have successfully adopted the use of NDVI for
assessing the changing forest cover (Islam et al., 2021; Cho and
Ramoelo, 2019). In this study, Moderate-Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI datasets were downloaded and
processed for a period of 18 years (2001-2018) from NASA’s
EARTHDATA web portal (NASA, 2020). Satellite data product
‘MOD13A2’ of MODIS Terra was used which was available at a
temporal resolution of every 16 days and spatial resolution of 1
km × 1 km. Each data set for the study area contained 2146 data
points.
5. Methodology
The study investigated the changing conditions of the Dang forest
and the land holder socio economics. For assessing the condition of the
Dang forest, the study uses the remotely sensed NDVI which gives the
quantitative aspect of the green cover density. The annually averaged
NDVI values were not only mapped to see the spatial variation across the
Dang forest during 2001–18 but trend analysis, in terms of the Mann-
Kendall trend test at different significance levels, was also carried out
at all the 2146 data points for the respective time period and the outputs
were spatially plotted which gives a complete picture regarding the
changing green cover density. Based on the Mann-Kendall Trend test
results (ZMK), the respective location was classified as outlined in
Table 2.
5.1. Mann-Kendall trend test
The Mann–Kendall nonparametric test (Mann, 1945; Kendall 1975)
has been suggested by the World Meteorological Organization to assess
the trend in environmental time series data (Kandya et al., 2021; Silva
et al., 2010; Yu et al., 2002). This test consists of comparing each data
point of a time series with the remaining data in a sequential order. The
D. Dasa et al. Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272

Fig. 5. (a) Annually averaged NDVI map of Dang forest for the year 2001.
(b) Annually averaged NDVI map of Dang forest for the year 2018.

6
D. Dasa et al. Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272

Fig. 6. Area (%) of Dang forest under different NDVI ranges along with the average NDVI for the years 2001–18.

Fig. 7. Trend Map of the changing NDVI of Dang Forest for the years 2001–18.

number of times that the remaining terms are greater than that under series, and sign (xi − xj ) is -1 for (xi − xj ) < 0, 0 for (xi − xj ) = 0 and 1 for
analysis is counted. This test is based on the statistic S which is defined (xi − xj ) > 0. The mean E [S] and variance V[S] of the statistic S is given
as below: as below:
E[S] = 0
∑
n ∑
i− 1
( )
S= sign xi − xj ∑q ( )( )
n(n − 1)(2n + 5) − p=1 tp tp − 1 2tp + 5
i=2 j=1 Var[S] =
18
Here xj are the sequential data values, n is the length of the time
Here tp is the number of ties for the pth value and q is the number of

7
D. Dasa et al. Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272

Fig. 8. (a) Statistically consistent green cover of dang forest for the years 2001–18.
(b) Statistically Emerging and Densifying Green cover of Dang Forest for the years 2001–18.
(c) Statistically Degrading and Diminishing Green cover of Dang Forest for the years 2001–18.

tied values. The second term represents an adjustment for tied and The presence of a statistically significant trend is evaluated using the
censored data. The standardized test statistic ZMK ZMK value. The statistic is used to test the null hypothesis that no trend
exists. A positive ZMK value indicates an increasing trend, while a
S− 1
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ if S > 0 negative one indicates a decreasing trend. To test for either increasing or
Var(S)
decreasing monotonic trend a p significance level, the null hypothesis is
ZMK = { 0 if S = 0 rejected if the absolute value of ZMK is great than Z1− p/2 which is ob­
S+1 tained from the standard normal cumulative distribution table (Mod­
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ if S < 0
Var(S) arres and Silva, 2007). In the present study, the significance levels of p =
0.10, 0.05 and 0.01 were applied.

8
D. Dasa et al.
Fig. 8. (continued).
To simultaneously depict the historic trend of the NDVI and its
present status at all the 2146 data points, the respective trend test result
of the NDVI was interfaced with the corresponding NDVI value of the
last year (i.e. 2018 in the present case) and was plotted with a unique
symbology as depicted in Table 3
For analyzing the socio-economic changes in the Dang forest, the
total earnings made by the Malki beneficiaries during 1994–2019 were
calculated. A yearly cumulative data of the earnings made was also
generated. In addition to this, the responses of the 400 Malki
9
Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272
beneficiaries were also aggregated and analyzed. The green cover den­
sity change results of the Dang forest and the socio-economic change
results of the land holders were juxtaposed for drawing inferences
regarding the effectiveness of the ‘Malki Practice’ to conserve the Dang
forest along with improving the socio-economic standards of the land
holders. Fig. 2 displays the flowchart of the methodology adopted in the
present study.
D. Dasa et al.
Fig. 8. (continued).
6. Results and discussion
Fig. 3 shows the amount of money paid by the Forest Department of
Government of Gujarat to the respective beneficiaries of the ‘Malki
Practice’ for selling the logs. A total of 39.4 million US dollars was paid
to the 19,936 beneficiaries during the period of 25 years (1994–2019).
This economic gain would have definitely improved the quality of
life of the beneficiaries and their families. The one-to-one interaction
10
Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272
with the 400 beneficiaries of the ‘Malki Practice’ revealed that around
81% of them who were earlier economically dependent on others
become self-reliant. 59% had the annual income in the range of $
260–550, followed by 15, 8 and 3% who annually earned in the range of
$ 550–1000, $ 1000–1300 and more than $ 1300 while only 15% had
the annual income less than $260. This is noteworthy because the people
annually earning less than $ 157 come under ‘below poverty line’. 94%
of the beneficiaries had a house of their own though only 19% of them
D. Dasa et al.
Use of Satellite data
and / or Drone
Survey for Forest
Mapping
Incorporaon of
Social Security
Scheme
Ranking of the Land
holders based on the
health of their trees
Annual Sustainable
Development Map
Fig. 9. Framework for strengthening Malki Practice for forest conservation.
had house with proper walls and roof of concrete while the remaining
81% of them had the house built with mud, grass and thatch. Fig. 4
displays how the money earned through the ‘Malki Practice’ was largely
utilized in different activities like agriculture, health care, building
house and education. These facts clearly indicate that the ‘Malki Prac­
tice’ indeed improved the socio-economic conditions of the land holders
thereby positively impacting their quality of life.
With an upper limit of cutting 10 trees by a Malki beneficiary along
with the strict guidelines of plantation (as per the Malki cutting guide­
lines, it is necessary to have a plantation of minimum of 3 times the
number of trees which they propose to cut while our field survey reveals
that the Malki beneficiaries planted around 5 times the number of trees
they propose to cut), it is anticipated that around one million new
saplings would have been planted during 1994–2019 and a significant
fraction of this would be reaching to the full maturity by 2019. In
addition to this, even the Forest Department undertakes massive affor­
estation every year. All these plantations would have definitely
increased the green cover density of the Dang forest. It was this aspect
which was evaluated using the remotely sensed vegetation data in terms
of NDVI which was statistically analyzed using the Mann-Kendall trend
test. Fig. 5 (a, b) shows the annually averaged NDVI for the year 2001
and 2018, Fig. 6 shows the area (%) of Dang forest under the different
NDVI ranges during 2001-18 along with the NDVI averaged for the
entire study area, Fig. 7 shows the trend of NDVI across the Dang forest
during 2001–18 while Fig. 8 (a–c) shows the statistically Consistent,
Emerging & Densifying, Degrading and Diminishing green cover of Dang
forest.
From the Figs. 5 and 6 it can be seen that the annually averaged NDVI
of a large part of Dang forest (around 58–93%) was in the range of
0.4–0.6. This range of annually averaged NDVI indicates a good density
11
Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272
Digital database of
Land Holdings
GPS locaons of
Malki led Tree-
plantaon and Tree-
cung
of green cover having healthy trees and thus it can be inferred that the
Dang forest was in ‘good’ condition. From Fig. 7, it can be seen that 74%
of the Dang forest witnessed a statistically increasing trend in the NDVI.
The increasing trend in 61% area was statistically ‘not significant’ while
in the remaining 13% area, the NDVI was increasing at different sig­
nificance level. The map statistics reveal that the NDVI in 5, 6 and 2%
area increased at 90, 95 and 99% significance level respectively. 26%
area of the Dang forest witnessed a ‘decreasing trend’ in the NDVI which
was however statistically ‘not significant’. There was no patch in the
Dang forest which registered a statistically significant decreasing trend
in the NDVI. Aggregating these observations of the ‘increasing and
decreasing trend in the NDVI’ it can be stated that there is an overall
increase in the green cover density in the Dang forest during 2001–2018
and thus the forest management strategy adopted must be duly credited
for this. It is in this context it can be categorically stated that ‘Malki
Practice’ effectively conserved the Dang forest and improved the socio-
economic status of the land holders.
6.1. Suggestive framework for strengthening the Malki Practice for forest
conservation
Though the study infers that the Malki Practice is quite effective in
conserving the Dang forest along with improving the socio-economic
standards of the land holders and definitely deserves high apprecia­
tion, however there is a big scope for improvement. Following are the
few measures, as shown in Fig. 9, which can be readily incorporated in
the Malki Practice for increasing its effectiveness for forest conservation:
i Use of satellite data and / or drone survey for forest mapping: The Forest
Department should extensively use high resolution satellite data and
D. Dasa et al.
also conduct drone survey for mapping the forest cover. This tree
cover database should be periodically updated (at least once in a
season – winter, summer and monsoon). Efforts should be made to
incorporate attributes like tree type, age of the tree, etc.
ii Digital database of land holdings: A GIS based digital database of the
land belonging to the land holders should be prepared and this
database should be regularly updated.
iii GPS locations of Malki led tree-plantation and tree-cutting: To bring
more transparency and accountability in the Malki led tree-
plantation and tree-cutting, the Forest Department should make it
mandatory to the land holders for submitting the GPS locations of
both – the new plantations done and the trees which are proposed to
be cut. Both these patches of ‘Tree-plantation’ and ‘Tree-cutting’ can
be digitally earmarked in the Geographic Information System (GIS)
platform and should be linked to the specific land holder
iv Annual sustainable development map: The Forest Department should
have a GIS database of Malki led planting and cutting of trees which
should be updated as per the proceedings and an ‘Annual Sustainable
Development Map’ should be prepared every year showing respec­
tive areas.
v Ranking of the Land holders based on the health of their trees: The Forest
Department should evolve a framework for ranking the land holders
on the basis of the health of the trees which they had planted while
availing the permission for the Malki cutting. This ranking should be
one of the criteria in deciding the permission for the subsequent
Malki cutting. This would incentivize the efforts of the land holders
for taking good care of their trees (green cover).
vi Incorporation of Social Security Schemes: Around 20–30% of the
earnings made through Malki cutting should be deposited in social
security schemes like the National Pension Scheme launched by the
Central Government so that the land holders can have an old age
financial security.
7. Conclusions
There is indeed a global urgency to evolve mechanisms, strategies,
frameworks and legislations to preserve, conserve and improve the
forest covers which would facilitate the eternal existence and infinite
functioning of various ecosystems in general and humanity in particular.
Having said that, it is also necessary that adequate economic gain pro­
visions are also linked with the forest conservation. It is this combination
of environmental protection and economical gains which is the essence
of the ‘Sustainable Development’. The present study over the Dang forest
of Gujarat reveals that the ‘Malki Practice’ has not only increased the
green cover density of the forest but has also significantly improved the
socio-economic status of the land holders. By the convergence of the two
standalone conclusions i.e. ‘the increase in the green cover density of the
Dang forest as observed by statistically analyzing the unbiased remotely
sensed NDVI data for a period of 18 years (2001–18) over Dang Forest’
and ‘economic prosperity of 19,936 habitants who earned a revenue of
around 39.4 million US dollars during 1994–2019’, it can be decisively
said that ‘Malki Practice’ is a classic case of sustainable develop­
ment exhibiting that a sound-incentivized policy along with wide public
awareness can create wonders. In addition to this, by incorporating
measures like using satellite data and / or drone survey for forest
mapping, creating digital database of land holdings, collecting the GPS
locations of Malki led afforestation-deforestation and preparing the
annual sustainable development map, ranking of the land holders based
on the health of their trees, incorporation of the social security schemes;
the effectiveness of the Malki Practice for forest conservation can be
significantly increased. Taking clues from the present study along with
the measures for improving the effectiveness, Malki Practice can be
considered as an alternative to, for example, Shifting cultivation or
Jhum cultivation or Swidden agriculture (a technique of rotational
farming in which land is cleared for cultivation (normally by fire) and
then left to regenerate for few years) which is practiced in some parts of
12
Trees, Forests and People 8 (2022) 100272
the North East region of India, Bangladesh, Latin America and Central
Africa and indigenous people may be encouraged to derive livelihood
from the wood based products subject to compensatory afforestation
(around 3–5 times). The present study would be of great help for not
only revamping and / or fine-tuning the forest management strategies
being implemented across the world but also for evaluating the effec­
tiveness of a particular forest management strategy.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Forest Department, Government of
Gujarat for giving the requisite data needed for the study. The first
author duly acknowledges the support extended by the Forest Depart­
ment officials during the field survey done by him. The support extended
by Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar and Pandit Deendayal
Energy University, Gandhinagar at various stages of the study is also
acknowledged. The data support received from the MODIS data pro­
cessing team is also thankfully acknowledged.
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