Not A Minor Lapse

- Jitendra & Ishan Kukreti

INDIA'S BIGGEST tendu leaf producing state is witnessing a kind of upheaval. On June 26, when anti-corruption ombudsman of the state, the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta, registered a case against the State Minor Forest Produce (MFP) Cooperative Federation Ltd, responsible for trading and developing MFPS in the state, it puzzled many. At the same time, it has reignited an age-old debate: why should the government not withdraw from the trade of tendu leaves and hand it over to forest dwellers? After all, the leaves, primarily used to wrap beedis, provide the largest seasonal income and employment to the 7.5 million forest dwelling people in 12 states.

Going by the case filed by the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta, the state’s MFP federation stashed away some ₹365 crore in its coffers for over 16 years till 2014. The money is just 30 per cent of what it had earned during the period by selling MFPS like tendu leaves, sal seeds and kullu gum, with tendu generating 99 per cent of the revenue. The mfp federation should have spent the money on development projects for forest-dwelling communities who collect the produce. But it did not. The irregularity came to light in April when Irfan Jafri, an activist associated with Bhopal-based non-profit, Kisan Jagriti Sangathan, blew the whistle. Jafri says the amount would cross ₹500 crore, if one considers the revenue earned by the state’s MFP federation in the past three years.

Experts say such irregularities have become the norm since the nationalisation of tendu leaves. “This is unfortunate,” says Manas Ranjan Mishra of Vasundhara, a non-profit that works on sustainable livelihood in Odisha. In the 1960s, when the state governments realised the commercial value of tendu leaves and began nationalising its trade, their objective was to protect the pluckers from exploitation by