ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the setting for the research, the southwestern region of West Bengal and southern Bihar, a new province, Jharkhand. It aims to locate both the States in their sociopolitical setup. The chapter discusses the forestry infrastructure in the contemporary polity and bureaucratic structure of Jharkhand and West Bengal. It analyzes the nature of participation in the Arabari Socio-Economic Project (ASEP), arguably, the progenitor of Joint Forest Management (JFM). It describes the responsibilities that have been ‘prescribed’ to Forest Protection Committees in the JFM system and the roles that have been taken by other ecological institutions. Since the coming of JFM, there has been a constant debate to formalize the ASEP under JFM and place it back in the Midnapore East Forest Division. In 1971, a radical attempt at participatory forest management was made on the initiative of a Division Forest Officer, Ajit Bannerjee, in Arabari villages in the Midnapore Forest Division of southwest Bengal.
