ODISHA, India — Thirty-nine-year-old Kamla Seth grew up in the lush forests of Odisha’s Sundargarh district collecting and marketing nontimber forest produce, or NTFP, to make ends meet.
She, along with the local tribal population in the region, acquired necessities such as wood, oil, and food from the forests, apart from the produce they picked for sale, such as gooseberry, mahua, and tendu leaves used to wrap local cigarettes.
Seth said it was the only life that she and her ancestors knew.