TAMS Tribal Green Fuels — Lantana-to-Briquette Enterprise for Tribal Livelihoods (Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, India)

TAMS Tribal Green Fuels Private Limited was incorporated in April 2023 as a tribal-led enterprise in the buffer villages of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, and received a Rs 25 lakh grant in May 2023 under the Tamil Nadu government's SC/ST Startup Fund to manufacture biomass briquettes from Lantana camara, a dense invasive shrub that forms thickets blocking sunlight and altering soil chemistry, suppressing the native grasses and shrubs that form the reserve's wildlife forage base.
Since beginning briquette operations in May 2024, the company — owned by 30 tribal shareholders — has sold 808 tonnes of Lantana briquettes with a calorific value above 4,800 kcal/kg to industrial buyers as a wood-fuel substitute, cleared nearly 150 acres within the reserve's core area, and supported around 350 tribal members with regular livelihood income across 47 villages, on top of Rs 1.5 crore in separate equity funding raised through Startup Tamil Nadu.
The model directly addresses a documented tension in the reserve: since its 2013 designation as a tiger reserve, Soliga, Irula, Kurumba and Ooralis communities have lost access to traditional forest products and controlled-burning practices once used to suppress Lantana naturally, making a paid clearance-and-processing enterprise a rare income source compatible with the reserve's restrictions.
Evidence is still limited: unlike a comparable Lantana-removal programme at Kanha Tiger Reserve which has an independent multi-year study of crop-depredation outcomes, no independent ecological monitoring of native vegetation or wildlife recovery from TAMS's clearance has been published, and the 150-acre cleared area is a small fraction of the reserve's total Lantana infestation after only about one year of commercial operation.

Read the full analysis: https://thebetterindia.com/changemakers/tams-tribal-green-fuels-lantana-sathyamangalam-tiger-reserve-tamil-nadu-conservation-11806214