Seasonal relation of NTFPs and socio-economic indicators to the household income of the forest-fringe communities of Jaldapara National Park

Abstract

For India's forest-dependent communities, Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) are a major source of income and survival. NTFPs collection and their varieties differ season to season. However, little attention has been given on the income variation according to the seasons and various socio-economic factors influencing it. The present study examined the household income of the forest dwelling communities from NTFPs and their relation to the time spent for its collection in three different seasons i.e., summer, winter and rainy. We interviewed randomly selected families of the forest-dependent communities living in the forest fringe areas of Jaldapara National Park (JNP), West Bengal state of India located in the Eastern Himalayas using a semi-structured questionnaire. The average annual household income of the communities was greatly affected by NTFPs obtained during the rainy season. The majority of the households supplemented their total annual household income through NTFPs (1–20% of total family income annually). In the rainy season, the majority of the respondents (75%) spent 1–10 days for NTFPs collection, the time spent significantly influenced their household income. Furthermore, we found that socio-economic variables such as age, education, and family size have an effect on total annual household income from NTFPs. The other variable also influenced the family income is time spent, in terms of number of days expended in NTFP collection during summer and winter seasons. The study affirms the contribution of NTFPs in family income is strongly determined by the period spent in the collection, which also varies with season and socio-economic variables of the inhabitants.