How long can Bangladesh’s indigenous Khasis sustain their forest-based ways of life?

Bangladesh's northeastern corner, as shown on Google Maps, features irregular green patches: pale green swaths and smaller deep green pockets.

In or around each deep green area lies a Khasi village, or punjee, with tin-roofed cottages on hillocks, indicating homes to one of Bangladesh's Indigenous communities.

The Khasis live on betel leaf-based agroforestry, now strained by drought and erratic rainfall. To sustain, they seek incentives as they protect carbon-absorbing forests.

Gidison Pradhan Suchiang, president of Khasi Social Council – representing myntris or heads of 65 Khasi punjees in Sylhet region, tells Mongabay, “If we fail to continue with our livelihood, we will no longer protect the forests.”

How do the Khasis conserve these forests? Let's step inside.

A vast canopy of an evergreen forest towers overhead, with native timbers rising high. Three to six meters (10 feet-20 feet) below lies a lush green carpet of herbs and shrubs, cut through by at least one live stream (chhara).

Birds like the emerald dove (Chalcophaps indica) and the oriental dwarf kingfisher (Ceyx erithaca) dart through branches, while butterflies hover. Troops of hoolock gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) or capped langurs (Trachypithecus pileatus) are seen occasionally.

And there are vibrant betel vines (Piper betle), twining upward from the bases of the woody mother trees.

Among them, Khasi men move with bamboo baskets strapped to their backs. They prune the excess foliage to allow sunlight to the vines, harvest mature betel leaves and by day, return from the paan jhum – betel leaf cultivation called Bri in Khasi language – laden with harvests. Khasi women then process the leaves for trade.

Aliachhara Punjee, sprawled across 239 hectares (590 acres) of evergreen forest in Bahubal subdistrict of Habiganj, follows the same pattern.

At one home, 60-year-old Teresa Lakachiang sorts fresh leaves into bundles. In this matrilineal society, she manages a Bri, assisted by her daughter Rose Merry Lakachiang. By evening or the next morning, merchants arrive and buy the bundles, and the cycle repeats.

“Betel leaf agroforestry is our only livelihood that thrives on the mature trees of a forest. That's why we conserve trees. We live with the forest,” Rose Merry says.

For centuries, Bangladeshi Khasis, who share the same ethnic roots with the Khasis in India's Meghalaya, have cultivated betel leaf on native plants.

Their agroforestry develops by pruning foliage of support trees, clearing understory and piling the cuttings as mulch around tree bases, where betel vines are planted. At least one support tree is kept every three cubits.

Spiritually tied to Mother Nature, the Khasis maintain this practice without harming the ecosystem, checking unnecessary logging, burning and disturbance to wild animals.

A 2013 study recorded 86 species of support trees in Bri agroforestry. The most important trees are chapalish (Artocarpus chama), supari (Areca catechu), bonsimul (Bombax insigne), kadam (Anthocephalus chinensis), dumur (Ficus spp.), putijam (Syzygium fruticosum) and kanthal (Artocarpus heterophyllus).

Bri agroforests are richer in vegetation and diversity than monocultures and secondary forests, according to a 2016 study.

Culturally, the Khasi community is reclusive. They maintain limited contact with outsiders to keep nature pristine. They don't welcome tourism and artificial infrastructural development.

Tian Tongper, 75, myntri of Aliachhara Punjee, says, “External interference harms forests and wildlife.”

He recalls a virus outbreak in 2017 that affected Bri across the Sylhet region.

Despite their conservation efforts, they face climate change.

A 2016 study found that rain-dependent Indigenous farmers suffer from weather shifts.

Monsoons, which once arrived in June, now set in April or May. Winter starts in December instead of November, while irregular rainfall shortens the cultivation season to two-four months. The study also reveals that extreme weather events affect betel leaf cultivation.

A recent study shows the Sylhet region's weather changes yearly, with temperatures rising 0.0124° Celsius. In recent years, betel leaves have grown smaller due to drought or less rainfall.

In 2024, Tian says, Khasi farmers had three harvests between April and July. “But this year, we could harvest only once in this period.”

One of the farmers, Ronald Tongper, adds, “July-August is usually the time for new planting. Lack of rain has caused many saplings to die.”

The Khasis together say they have been experiencing income loss due to reduced production.

Professor Narayan Saha, a forestry and environmental science teacher at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, recommends immediate analysis of the impacts of climate change on the Khasi farmers who are protecting nature.

To enrich the floral diversity and utilize the degraded agroforest parts, some Khasis plant lemon (Citrus limon), malta (Citrus sinensis), aata (Annona squamosa), banana (Musa paradisiaca), coconut (Cocos nucifera) and agar (Aquilaria malaccensis).

Earlier, they tried turmeric (Curcuma longa), ginger (Zingiber officinale) and pineapple (Ananas comosus) but abandoned them to avoid ploughing hill slopes.

Gidison, also the myntri of Magurchaara Punijee in Moulvibazar district, says, “Khasis believe that ploughing harms the forest bed and its ecosystem.”

Adapting to their income loss, some Khasis are now piloting coffee (Coffea arabica), maintaining agroforestry.

Community platform Mariang campaigns for coffee cultivation as a tool for community development, employment and the education and health of Khasi children.

Mariang's executive director, Antony Mukim, says, “Contrary to monoculture, simply planting a sapling in a small hole in a barren space of the forest will allow the coffee plant to grow. We are integrating coffee plants into the gaps between our betel vines without cutting down a single tree.”

However, the campaigners are concerned about the negative consequences of the coffee monoculture in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts.

To prevent monoculture amid decreasing betel leaf production, the Khasis seek incentives for forest conservation.

As a community leader, Gidison says Khasis should be paid for carbon offsetting.

“Together, we protect more than [2,020 hectares] 5,000 acres of Sylhet's natural forest. Why don't we get paid by the carbon emitters?” he questions.

Sylhet divisional forest officer Humayun Kabir and Sylhet divisional wildlife management and nature conservation officer Jahangir Alam say they have no records of how much forestland, out of 50,000 hectares (123,514 acres) under their jurisdictions, is protected by the Khasis. However, they acknowledge that Khasis assist them in forest conservation.

Backing his point, Gidison cites the example of India's Meghalaya, where the Khasi Hills Community REDD+ Project supports local communities in forest conservation.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change-facilitate REDD+ aims to check and reverse the loss of community forests, offering technical and financial support for conservation and restoration.

REDD+ channels funds from international bodies, like the Green Climate Fund, to eligible recipients.

The REDD+ project in Meghalaya, since 2011, has paid more than $472,000 to approximately 8,000 families and invested nearly $299,000 in forest conservation through 2022.

In India, Ka Synjuk Ki Hima Arliang Wah Umiam Mawphlang Welfare Society coordinates the project, involving government, donors, local and International NGOs in bottom-up planning and implementation.

The project also creates strategic partnerships with private companies that invest in carbon offset credits.

Founding chairman of the society, Tambor Lyngdoh, writes in an email, “This co-finance aids communities' climate adaptation.”

Bangladesh has been a UN-REDD partner since 2010 but is still ineligible for REDD+ finance.

To qualify for REDD+ finance, a country needs a national strategy to cut deforestation, a reference level to track progress, safeguards to protect communities and biodiversity and a monitoring system to measure and verify forest cover change and carbon stocks.

So far, Bangladesh's reference level has been assessed, while the three other components are not yet reported.

The Forest Department's deputy chief conservator of forest and the former focal person for UN-REDD in Bangladesh, Rakibul Hasan Mukul, recommends, “The government should take necessary steps to make the country eligible for the REDD+ finance.”

This article was first published on Mongabay.

Source: Scroll
Related Posts: A 6.9 magnitude earthquake causes small tsunami waves off northeastern Japan Google Maps Offers Gemini-Powered AI Features And Road Alerts For Users In India 8 bookshelf picks to add charm and character to every corner of your home Karnataka all set to corner data centre projects worth Rs 1 Messi’s India tour turns a corner as Hyderabad gets it right after Kolkata chaos RJD, Congress have soft corner for ‘infiltrators’, dislike for Lord Ram because of vote bank, alleges PM Modi Monsoon round the corner How can football's lawmakers fix Premier League corner chaos Interpol issues Blue Corner notice for Luthra brothers amid probe into Arpora nightclub fire Google Maps integrates Gemini for hands-free routing