Community forest dependency: re-examining established thoughts with empirical evidence from Eastern India

The distance between forest and forest villages as a factor has specific importance in designing the interface of forest dependency. Scholars have widely adopted the forest dependency model, which, by indirectly utilising the distance decay principle, can interpret the distance impact on forest dependency. The present empirical study thus attempted to understand how, in the case of Indian forestry, community dependency altered in relation to its distance from the forest. What are the associated elements that shaped such differences, and finally, is it possible for the existing forest dependency model to explain this distance interference using the distance decay principle? In achieving these goals using multiple linear regression, the study tried to understand the impact of distance along with other factors of forest dependency in an Indian protected forest region. Further, using bivariate logistic regression, it identified the differential pattern of dependency in the forest core and fringe villages in association with their purposes and the nature of the collection. Finally, the overall findings revealed a different kind of distance and forest dependency interrelation based on the differential purposes and nature of collections that denied the acceptance of the above-mentioned model and principle in the setting of forest dependency in rural India.