From February 2019 to January 2022, IFS officer Abhishek Kumar, a 2016-batch Indian Forest Service officer of the Bihar cadre, served as Divisional Forest Officer of the Gaya Forest Division, covering Gaya and Jehanabad districts. During his tenure, the Forest Department pursued a conservation model that linked protection of forests with economic opportunities for communities living around them. The approach emerged amid pressure on Gaya’s dry deciduous forests, where many families had limited sources of income and some depended on fuelwood or illicit poppy cultivation.
At its peak, poppy cultivation in Gaya covered more than 1,300 hectares, including around 300 hectares inside the Gautam Buddha Wildlife Sanctuary. Rather than relying only on enforcement, the administration promoted alternatives including moringa cultivation, beekeeping, forest-based products, women-led enterprises and community ecotourism.
Moringa became a central part of this effort, with more than two lakh seedlings eventually provided to communities and a value-added product, ‘Aranyak’, developed from dried moringa leaves. The initiative also connected community production to government programmes, including the supplementary nutrition programme at around 2,000 Anganwadi centres in Gaya and Jehanabad. Abhishek Kumar is currently Director of the Directorate of Horticulture, Department of Agriculture, Government of Bihar, Patna.
From Poppy To Livelihoods
Gaya’s forest landscape presented a complex conservation challenge because environmental protection and the economic needs of surrounding communities were closely connected. Bihar has only about 7.27 per cent of its geographical area under notified forests, while Gaya’s forests include dry deciduous landscapes around Barabar, Dungeshwari, Barachatti and the Gautam Buddha Wildlife Sanctuary. Many forest-fringe families had no stable source of cash income, increasing their dependence on forest resources. In parts of Gaya, illicit poppy cultivation had also become an issue. Raids and enforcement could remove illegal crops, but the underlying economic pressures remained. In 2019, women from eight villages involved in poppy cultivation approached the Forest Administration seeking alternatives.
Abhishek Kumar subsequently pushed for an approach that would make conservation directly beneficial to communities. “A forest officer can destroy an illegal crop in a day. Only a better alternative can stop it from returning the next season,” he said. Moringa, locally known as sahjan, emerged as one such alternative because it was already familiar to communities but had limited commercial value in the area.
The Forest Department began developing a wider value chain covering plantation, nurseries, leaf collection, processing, branding and markets. In 2020, moringa plantations were launched through seedlings distributed to members of Eco-Development Committees. For the 2021 season, around one lakh saplings were raised at the Barabar nursery and another two lakh in other forest nurseries.
More than two lakh seedlings were eventually supplied to communities for planting on their own land through different programmes. Moringa was planted in backyards, on field bunds, fallow land and other suitable areas, allowing the crop to become part of existing rural livelihoods rather than treating it only as a forest plantation.
Building A Community Enterprise
The conservation strategy went beyond planting trees. At the Barabar Hills forest nursery, the Forest Department facilitated land, a building and a shed for a moringa value-addition centre. With technical support from Forest-PLUS 2.0 and field partner PRERANA, a solar dryer capable of handling 300 kg of leaves a day was installed. A pulveriser was then used to turn dried leaves into powder. The Bhainkh Eco-Development Committee became involved in the process, from plucking leaves to packing the finished product, while another processing centre was later taken up at Gehlaur village. The product was branded ‘Aranyak’, meaning “of the forest”, and commercially launched in January 2021 at Kalrav, Bihar’s first state bird festival.
When government’s objective become people’s slogan !! Triumph of goodness over evil. हम सबने यह ठाना है। अफीम नही उगाना है।। Another baby step towards healthier and safe jungles and eco-village. https://t.co/reqOmVurfO
— Gaya Forest Division (@GayaForest) July 27, 2021
Moringa powder was sold at about ₹400 per kg and reached outlets including Patna Zoo, Aranya Bhawan and Bihar Khadi Mall. The Forest Department also worked to establish a more dependable market by connecting the product with the Integrated Child Development Services programme.
In September 2021, a decision was taken to introduce moringa powder at around 2,000 selected Anganwadi centres in Gaya and Jehanabad, where children aged three to six years were to receive 2.5 grams twice a week mixed with nutritious food. By March 2022, the product had been introduced into the supplementary nutrition programme. Kumar highlighted the importance of market access, saying, “A community enterprise rarely dies for want of machines. It dies for want of a buyer.
ICDS gave Gaya’s forest communities their first big buyer.” The initiative also attracted private-sector support. ₹14 lakh was mobilised from Axis Bank for moringa plantation, while ICICI Foundation partnered on a five-year programme aimed at planting five lakh moringa trees across about 500 acres and benefiting around 5,000 households in 100 villages.
Women were central to several of these activities. They were trained in beekeeping, sewing, moringa, lemongrass and mahua-based products, while village-level processing units were established for lemongrass oil, honey, moringa powder and mahua tilkut. At Dungeshwari, 26 women began making incense sticks using flowers collected from temples, with the Forest Department facilitating land and infrastructure. Two JEEViKA-linked women also managed moringa nurseries, raising 40,000 plants and becoming suppliers within the value chain.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
The Gaya experience highlights an important principle in conservation: protecting forests cannot always be separated from improving the lives of people who depend on them. When families have few economic choices, simply asking them to stop using forest resources may not address the reasons behind that dependence.
Abhishek Kumar’s approach attempted to shift the relationship from enforcement alone to participation, by connecting communities with plantations, processing, markets, government schemes, CSR support and ecotourism. The model also extended to beekeeping in Barachatti, wild-ber pickle, temple-flower products and Sabai grass, while community-based ecotourism was introduced at Barabar and Dungeshwari Hills. During his tenure, more than 6,500 hectares of degraded forest land were brought under community-based watershed and restoration work through 138 forest committees.
The broader lesson is that conservation can become more durable when local people are treated as partners rather than merely as beneficiaries or sources of pressure on natural resources. As Abhishek Kumar put it, “The forest must earn from what it renews, leaves, flowers, honey, a visitor’s curiosity, never from what it loses.” His tenure in Gaya offers a case study in how environmental protection and livelihoods can be pursued together, without treating communities and forests as competing interests.
Can conservation become more sustainable when protecting nature also creates dignified economic opportunities for the people who live alongside it?
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