Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction The forest resources are increasingly recognized by the people across the world due to their role in economic, social and environmental benefts. Forests are an important and integral source of food, fber and fuel for the indigenous population. 1 They form an integral component of the biosphere, helping to stabilize the natural systems and contribute to biological diversity and help to maintain the quality of natural resources. The forests sequester Carbon-di-Oxide from the atmosphere by acting as carbon sinks, thus reducing the greenhouse efect. They also play a predominant role in aesthetic and recreational opportunities. 2 These forests were managed traditionally based on the sustained yield concept and the forest constitute an important future of India’s natural wealth. 3 Forest management and development activities face many challenges due to continued and increasing deforestation in the country. It is estimated that the deforestation rate in the country was at 1.5 million ha per annum till the recent past. The human activities play an active role in modifying the natural systems through the activities of agricultural expansion in the form of shifting cultivation, grazing, commercial logging and implementation of several developmental projects. These factors are driven by population explosion, rural poverty, market and policy failures, urbanization and industrialization. These forces have reduced the forest area in the country to about 23.64 per cent of total geographical area which is lower against the requirement of 33 per cent of the forest cover. The productive capacity of India’s forest is 0.5 cubic meter to 0.7 cubic meter per ha per annum which is much lower against the global average of 2.1 cubic meter per ha per annum. 4 This low forest cover coupled with poor productivity and continued loss of forest cover necessitated the enunciation of National Forest Policy, 1988 by the policy makers in order to shift the forest management from traditional to participatory forest management, mainly to conserve the forests and limit forest degradation through participation of the local people. 5 An institutional mechanism which could forge synergy at village level Joint Forest Management Institutions with higher level institutions and formal state institutions for maximizing investment and production in the vast stretches of hitherto degraded forest and adjoining lands. Under such circumstances, the National Aforestation Program was formulated by merger of four ninth plan centrally sponsored aforestation schemes by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. National Aforestation Program (NAP) was formulated with the short term objectives of regeneration and development of degraded forests, augmenting the availability of peoples’ need, promotion of agroforestry and development of common property resources, conservation and improvement of Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), development of coastal shelter belts, water harvesting program, rehabilitation of problem soils and efective technology development and transfer program and the long term objective of Conservation of natural resources, ecological restoration and environmental conservation coupled with quality life improvement of people through capacity and skill development. The NAP was implemented through two tier set up viz., the Forest Development Agencies (FDAs) and Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs). This decentralized institutional structure would allow greater participation of the community right from planning and implementation of appropriate aforestation program. This study is the one which is aimed at testing whether the participation of tribes in planning and implementation of program is at a greater level or not and what are the factors which are infuencing their participation becomes an important question. To address the same, this paper was written. Methodology The current investigation was carried out in Coimbatore Forest Circle which consists of three Forest Development Agencies (FDAs) viz. FDA Coimbatore, FDA Pollachi and FDA Nilgiris which are respectively established in their forest division manned by District Hort Int J Med. 2021;5(5):202‒209. 202 ©2021 Durairasu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Factors infuencing participation of tribes in the activities of forest development agencies in Tamil Nadu Volume 5 Issue 5 - 2021 P Durairasu, C Sekhar, A Vidhyavathi Department of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural College and Research Institute, India Correspondence: C Sekhar, Department of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural College And Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore – 641 003, India, Tel 95007 99007, 96009 56009, Email Received: August 02, 2021 | Published: December 16, 2021 Abstract In Tamil Nadu, there were 32 Forest Development Agencies were functioning in 12 Forest Circles. Coimbatore forest circle is the one in which three FDAs were established and this formed the study area. The study was carried out in Coimbatore Forest Circle following a Multi Stage Random Sampling technique by selecting three hundred tribal households. FDAs were implementing several activities with the participation of tribes to avert man- animal conficts and to improve the socio economic status of tribes. This study was focusing on documenting the activities and the participation of tribes in those activities. Among the activities, erection of Elephant trenches, plantation development and the Project Elephant schemes implemented by both Forest and Line Department ofcials have imparted some impacts in reducing the Man-Animal Conficts by promoting higher employment generation. Because of higher employment opportunities, the participation of tribes were much infuenced in FDA activities which are statistically signifcant at one per cent level. Besides, impact of FDA implementation, Plantation development activities and wild life protection measures are also discussed. Keywords: factors infuencing participation, man-animal conficts, forest development agencies, joint forest management Horticulture International Journal Research Article Open Access