The first time I visited Jogidaha in Udayapur, a small village in eastern. Nepal, what stood out the most was how uniform the forest was - almost every tree was a sal tree (Shorea Robusta).
The people living there are a mix of indigenous Tharus and Rai who have migrated to Jogidaha from eastern hills of Nepal. These people depend on the forest for their daily livelihoods. The locals told me that the forest has changed a lot over the last twenty to thirty years. The monoculture started with the introduction of community forest projects. And the failed airport project has added to the degradation and loss of forest areas. Community forests were introduced in Nepal in the late 1970s to protect and grow forest cover. They were successful in some ways -the Government of Nepal claims that forest coverage has increased from 26% to 45% in the last four decades. But it has come at a big cost. In Jogidaha, community forest efforts have led to the dominance of Sal trees and many other species are in the process of being wiped out.
Jogidaha locals, Dev Narayan Chaudhary (72), Budha Kumari Rai (50), and Dillu Rai (34) shared stories of plants, trees, and birds that are now endangered or extinct. I asked them to draw what they remember seeing in their local forests. These are their drawings. Most of these plant species are now fast disappearing.
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