Ah, the Chipko movement was true people's power—hugging trees to protect them from felling. But this Joint Forest Management they started later? In my village, the 'committee' became just the forest officer and a few powerful men deciding everything, the real gatherers of *sal* leaves were shut out. My own pension gives me voice, but the *aau* women collecting firewood still get fined under these same JFM rules—it looks like sharing, but the forest is less shared now, I feel.
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