What do the forests bear?
Soil, water and pure air!! The slogan is an excellent and simple summarisation of the ecological importance of the mountain forests, especially in the Himalaya context. Many academic analysts, including the present author, had unhasitatingly accepted the slogan, when first informed about it. However, with the passage of time, several questions on the representative character and origin of this slogan have emerged. Notwithstanding the significant role played by the women of Henwal valley region in the protection of mountain forests, many women in the Garhwal and Kumaon region do not find the slogan as very realistic. Can the women in the mountain villages who spend several hours each day in the forests struggling to collect daily fuelwood and green fodder, even forget to include fuelwood and green fodder in the list of important forest products, they ask. The convoluted argument that firewood and green fodder can grow only when there is soil, water and pure air, and hence they are secon
