What is the ‘Halma’ tradition, helping save trees in Madhya Pradesh?

The Prime Minister of India in his 88th Episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on 24th April 2022, addressed the scarcity of water in our country. And, then he talked about the historical tradition of ‘Halma’ which is practiced by the Bhil tribe of Madhya Pradesh for the conservation of water. Under this tradition, the people of the tribe gather in one place to find a solution to any social issue. In this case, it was water-related problems. The solutions received from the Halma tradition have helped in reducing the water crisis and raising the groundwater level, he said.

Achievements of the Halma tradition

According to a report called Green Files by International Centre for Environment Audit and Sustainable Development, the tribal of Jhabua and Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh has been facing a water crisis for a long period. Thus they decided to deal with the predicament by utilizing their age-old traditional practice of Halma. On Halma day excavation sites are supervised by gram engineers and watershed experts. In the past ten years, the tribes have constructed almost 3200 big ponds, in 225 villages in the Jhabua district alone. Overall in the last 11 years, this tradition has facilitated 110,000 plantations, 65 water harvesting structures, 55 water reservoirs, and 141,000 in 1,320 villages.

Since 2009, Halma has been held every year and tribal communities participated in huge numbers. The annual Halma is organized on the Hathipawa hills, one of the most significant hills in Jhabua, where community members assemble in large numbers and collaboratively construct contour trenches on the hills and dig pits for plantations.

Afforestation through Matavan

The tribal community members organize yet another Halma effort during the monsoon season to plant saplings in the community's sacred groves. Another Bhil tribal practice that promotes the preservation of the forest environment is the designation of these sacred groves as ‘Matavan’, community-protected forest reserves.

Such Matavan, with an average area of 5 acres is present in every village in Bhil. The tribal inhabitants take on the duty of caring for each tree they plant. If a sapling planted dies, the villagers replace it, increasing the survival rate, and manifolds. 120 Matavans have been revived by the tribal community-managed Halmas.

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