Evolution of Forest Policies in India and the emergence of Village Forest Councils as rural institutions: A case study on Kerala in India

In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion on the working of village forest institutions (VFI) in developing countries with a view to understanding their role as rural institutions. In a tropical country like India, the success of any community based forest management effort largely depends on the emergence as well as role played by the institutions at local village level, which in turn is shaped and refined by the addition and omissions during the policy evolution process. The ‘Village Forest Council’ (VFC) functioning as part of the critically acclaimed joint forest management (JFM) has emerged as rural institutions potentially capable for sustainable forest management in India. Hence, based on the primary data from the field, along with historical evidences and secondary literature, this paper makes an attempt to understand the evolution of forest management policies in India, and also the emergence of VFCs as rural institutions in forestry through a case study on Kerala in India.