Kar, Ranjan KumarPanda, Swagat Kumar2018-11-162018-11-162018-07-01http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810083555TH 5448Shorearobustacovers about 14% of Indian forest. From time immemorial, forest dwelling people of India belonging to the states of Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, etc. rely extensively on sal trees as a substantial source of their livelihood. Collection and stitching of sal leaves is one of their traditional and indigenous vocation of the scheduled caste and schedule tribe communities of those fringe areas. The dominant role of sal leaves as trencher or eating plates (patravali/ khali) to contribute occupation of those disadvantaged classes is confronting contemporarily with threat of market insecurity and transformation of occupation. This is high time to quantify it’s livelihood dependence and trade route to revitalize this low productivity low wage natural resource sector. Keeping this in view, 10 sal leaves collectors’ villages of Sambalpur and Deogarh districts were studied to assess the quantum of livelihood dependence on sal leaves and find out the problems and limitations of their marketing.Villages were selected through purposive sampling out of 3 blocks of Sambalpur and 2 blocks of Debgarh districts. Households interview made based on random sampling with sampling intensity 20 to 30%. Primary data collection was made as per the interview schedule from the househiolds and secondary data collected from government reports. Data were subjected to statistical analysis (χ2 and descriptive statistics) for valid conclusion. Literacy rate of over all study area was observed to be 67.28% but highest illiteracy was observed with Kansar (52%). Maximum people were of landless classes (38.64%) compared to marginal, small, medium and large farming classes. From the pooled data of 10 villages majority (29.58%) had agriculture as primary occupation. Primary occupation engaged maximum percentage of households (31.68%) for 150-200 days to generate annual income 0.5 to 1.0 lakh for maximum strength of people (28.53%). secondary occupation as NTFPs covers maximum households (44.24%) and engages maximum mass of people (38.90%) for less than 100 days and maximum percentage (27.5%) to earn annually Rs.10000-15000. Major NTFPs found were mahua, leaves of sal and kendu, firewood, edible shoots (karadi) and culms of bamboo, tamarind, siali, fodder, etc. Out of the averge annual earning from NTFPs () in the study area sal leaf contributes highest (64.7 lakh) among the villages in Naulipada. Lowest was with Dantari (13.9 lakh). Total number of man- days involved in this sector was highest with Naulipada (81120) and lowest with Dantari (17440). Nine types of trade routes were observed in the disposal of sal leaves for domestic and national markets. Among domestic routes longest one (sell of 23.33%) had 7 functionaries i.eprimary collection/ processing followed by marketing agent, contractor, big trader, whole seller, retailer and finally the consumer which accounts for the total market channels. The marketing channel holding maximum percentage (24.35%) of the total market channels is comparatively short and comprises of only 3 functionaries such as Primary collector/Processing unit,weeklyhaat and Consumer. The use of mechanised pressing unit is notably low. The issues identified and solution brought may be awareness programmes by government regarding their rights and concessions, establishment of mechanical processing units, promoting sal leaf products by spreading awareness among the masses, and adoption of proper method of value addition.ennullThesis