1.0 Introduction
At the Sristi Summer Innovative School, we were guided by Professor Anil Gupta and we have started working on the problems which are faced by the tribal people living in the Udaipur North Forest Area.
With the guidance of Om P. Sharma (very decorated officer of Rajasthan Forest Department). His very intellectual and initiative team, in case of bringing the backward class people or for the people who are still living in Tribes. As following there guidance we are going make a low cost machine due to which high employment rates can be provided to the people living in remote place or in Tribes.
To solve the problems related to the Tribal people who are living in the forests, we have gone in between the Tribal people in their area and we had spent time with them and notice difficulties which are faced by them and some of their difficulties are also experienced by our group. To properly study the difficulties we have gone to three sites and meet the people at their livelihoods. Where we were assisted by Forest Ranger Shree Bhupendrasingh Bhanawat and Shree RF Rajesh Goswami for understanding the problems of tribal people.
The students interacted with Tribal People to understand the difficulties faced by them in everyday life and observe the impact of VFPMC (Village Forest Protection and Management Committee, Rajasthan). Three locations in Dewla district were visited. Total 50000 hectares of forest region is included in the Udaipur North Forest Region. Whereas 11000 hectares of forest area is under the observation and guidance of Forest Ranger Shree Bhupendrasingh Bhanawat.
2.0 Problem Statement
As always this Sristi Summer School problem statement is also related to upliftment of community. The community in focus are the tribal people living in Devla District of Rajasthan. These people remain isolated and live a life full of hardships. There are about 45,000 households of tribal people adding up to a population of over 3 lakhs. Thus, any small effort made for improving their life will have a huge impact.
The challenge which is placed in front of us is to develop a manual cold press oil extracting machine to extract oil from various seeds available in the forest range which can lead to value addition of the natural resources and to income of tribal people
3.0 Prior Art Search
The already existing solution is heavy weight high cost electrified oil extraction machine. the cost of basic type of this machine starts from 1.55 lakhs which cannot be afforded by common people.
4.0 Mind Map
4.1 Oil extraction
Low cost manual oil extraction of oil bearing seeds
4.1.1 Material Input
Figure 1 Mahua
Figure 2 Jyotishmati
Figure 3 Neem leaves and seeds
Figure 4 Nagod
Figure 5 Karanj
Figure 6 Chirmi
Figure 7 Sinduri
Figure 8 Ratanjyot
Figure 9 Katkaranj Seeds
Note:- All the above images are taken from google
4.1.2 Stake holders
Poor villagers
Tribals
Forest department
Consumers
4.1.3 Current Method
4.1.3.1 Traditional Ghani
Low output
Time consuming
Cattle driven
Heavy weight
Oil absorbtion
Post process
4.1.3.2 Centralized Electrified Ghani
DANGEROUS FOR OPERATOR
INITIAL COST OF THE MACHINE IS HIGH
4.1.3.3 Centralized electrified Oil press
4.1.3.3.1 Advantage:
Mass production
4.1.3.3.2 Disadvantage:
Over-heating resulting in destruction of nutrient contents (temperature must be under 70 degree Celsius)
Heavy weight and therefore not portable
Costly in terms of machine cost and operating cost
Shaft failure due to uneven loading
4.1.4 Use
4.1.4.1 Oil/herbal extract
Home use
Medicinal use
Small scale business
Figure 10 Information Mind-Map
5.0 Field Visit
As officers who are not just doing their jobs,Om P. Sharma, the officer of Rajasthan Forest Department and his team working under his enthusiastic environment has helped to provide employment to the Tribal people by manufacturing the herbal products, allowing the people to collect specified oil seeds and herbal plants and to grow new trees as per the requirement of the forest.
There is an association formed by the forest department officers and the tribal people, in which there is the committee of 200 persons where 15 of themare representative of the tribes and there is special provision for the women’s representation as the rate of women’s which are employed is nearly 100%.
As we observed that the houses of the tribal people are very far from each other and mostly on the top of the hill. And in case of emergency they signal each other by playing drums. They also select to live on the hill to guard their farms and to be safe from wild animals.
70-80% of the tribal people are dependent on the forest and the forest produce. Most of the men from the village go for the labour work to the nearby areas, which include road construction, forest cultivation, digging pits for rain harvesting (which is seasonal from Feb-March).
We also found that at least one person from every house goes for the seed collection, so from this we get a clear idea that seeds are available to each and every household.
Whereas by collecting the oil seeds and selling it to the middle men or to the traders, proper valve of the seeds are not paid to the people and due to that the sufficient need of the people is not satisfied in some cases. The work process in which the local women collect seedsfrom the forest produce. Therottenseeds are removed and best ones are collected and sold to the middle man and to the mandis (marketing yards operated by Forest Department). The price which is paid to the tribal people for the oil seeds are:-
Item Price per Kg (INR)
Mahua 30
Malkangni 150-200
Ratanjyot 22
When the season for the above mentioned work and labour is not suitable, the villagers go for cattle farming which usually include goats only. The villages are involved in the plantation of the forest where they have to dig pits 45Cm * 45Cm which they think is the toughest job for them as a soil in the area where they work is tightly packed and contains a lot of rocks so they can only dig 15 pits per day.
They usual family income of most tribal is upto rupees five month per month. While returning from the site we saw many children selling forest fruits on the highway.
6.0 Recommended solution
To increase the employment, the Forest Department requested us to prototype a manually operating oil extraction machine which they will centralize.
Because of the centralization of the Forest Department the villagers will not be travelling to the electrified machine holders which are very far from the village and pay money for oil extraction.
For certain problems like Wild Fire, Unemployment and electricity, we came over the solution that a bio-gas plant should be installed in the village which will supply the bio-gas to the nearby villages.
Wind energy can also be utilized in this area for the production of electricity as the average wind speed is above 3.5 m/s. which is more than enough to run a wind turbine.
There is also a scope of solar power in the area as they already have a lot of information about solar power.
To overcome the problem of aloe-vera machine we have to make it compact and manual if possible.
7.0 Advantages of the recommended solutions
7.1 Oil Extraction Machine
The machine that will be working on, will be purely manual and will not require electricity for any process.
The machine will be very compact.
It will be as low cost as possible.
No professional operator required.
Low maintenance.
This machine can be used for most of the Oil containing seeds.
7.2 Centralizing the Machine
Centralizing the machine at the forest processing unit will cut-off the travelling cost of the villagers.
The villagers don’t have to pay for the oil extraction and the value addition of the seeds can be done just at the expense of human effort.
By centralizing the machine at the forest processing unit the villagers will not be humiliated any more in terms of payment.
7.3 Installation of Bio-Gas Plant (BGP)
The installation of the BGP will result in a lot of employment for the villagers and the tribal people.
The material for the BGP will be the Bio-Mass lying on the ground of the forest and when this material is collected the chances of Wild Fire gets minimized as this is the main fuel for the fire.
The gas produced in the BGP will be sold and the profit will go the forest department.
The organic manure produced as by product of Bio-Gas, which has to be removed from the plant will create additional labour jobs.
The organic manure can be sold in the market or can be used by the forest department for their new cultivations.
By consuming the Bio-Gas in the Diesel Generator sets (DG set) we can also produce electricity.
The freezers used for freezing of custard apple can also be run by the Bio-Gas.
Bio-Gas can also be used as a heating agent for the fractional distillation process at the extraction of Aloe-Vera essential oil.
This method of producing energy by this way is totally eco-friendly.
7.4 Wind Turbine
This method will be operating at most of the times as there is abundance of wind energy in the area.
This can be coupled directly to the machines to be operated and can also be used to generate electricity.
We can also set a large scale wind turbine In the area as well.
7.5 Solar Power
This is the cleanest form of energy known to the man till known.
For establishment of solar panels we don’t need any solid foundation as we need for the other ones.
Efficiency of solar panels is appreciably high.
Energy can be stored in batteries and can be used later.
8.0 Conclusion
Villagers were aware that extracted oil has much higher value than unprocessed seeds sold, which wasquite a surprise for us as we didn’t expected this awareness from ‘tribals’,which was possible due to dedication and hard-work of forest department.
Out of all the problems discussed with DFO Mr. O.P. Sharma and forest Ranger Bhupendrasingh Bhanawat, we are taking up the problem of low cost manual method for oil extraction which according to them is something approachable and almost all the tribals are associated with seed collection which will be served as value addition to their labour and raise their income and thereby improving their life-style.
Forest department is very persuading us to prototype a machine for oil extraction which will in-turn help and benefit the tribal people.
9.0 Gallery
