The Hindu Business Line : Helping tribals land jobs to preserve forests

"Aapke paas kheti bari hai kya (Do you have farm land to work on)," one asked the 27-year-old Korku tribal Oomba Chunilal Dhurve. He looked down and replied shyly, "Main paidal hoon (I am a walker)." The graphic poetry in his reply described his status as a landless farm labourer. Oomba is a Korku married to a Gond (a rare happening) and his wife agreed to the marriage as Oomba's family had 60 heads of cattle.

Today, his wife and three children live near Harisal while he works at the Community Research Centre set up by the Nature Conservation Society, Amravati (NCSA) on a 20-acre stretch of land outside the Melghat Tiger Reserve.

Oomba is a Class 10 pass and looks after the land and the mud-walled, bamboo-topped hut in which the office of the centre is located. For company he has his Korku friend, Bhura Chitra Kasdekar from Malur. Bhura is 33 years old, has passed Class 11 and has a two-acre land nearby where his wife and three children live. They need not any more walk all their lives as the centre set up by Kishor Rithe offers them permanent employment.

The centre, which opened on August 15, is named Muthawa, a god of the Korkus. This tribal community has three gods and Muthawa is the most tolerant, happy with any or no offering.

The god lives under a neem tree in Korku villages, explained Bhura. The centre is an effort by the NCSA to work on programmes enabling tribals to make a living outside the Melghat Tiger Reserve.

In the process, "the tiger and his forests can be saved," says Kishor Rithe, president, NCSA. For some time now, NCSA has been operating a medical and an education van in the tribal villages of Melghat, Tadoba, Pench (Maharashtra and M.P.) and Bori Satpuda; there is also an employment cell which tries to locate jobs for young tribals in district towns like Amravati. The centre is another facet of this experiment.

The 20-acre uneven land is a quiet place and two mornings one walked the stretch even as cowherds played on their flutes while leading their animals to graze. In the open air, the musical notes from the flute have a lambent quality; even an unmusical like this writer floated a bit in the air.

One morning, we called in young Ramji to play the wooden instrument for us. Bhura joined to play the instrument as the flute is a habit with the tribals living in this area. The bright, morning notes give way to plaintive throbs in the evenings when they drive back their cattle home. One watched in the spaciousness quietness, the sun rise and fall and late nights, sat over wood fires sharing company with the darkness of open lands.

On Amavasya nights, Oomba does not set out for his home as he believes there is a white, female ghost near a stream, a few yards away from the centre. One night he set out on his cycle and saw the ghost cross over from left to right.

He wheeled back to the centre, sweating all over. Bhura is a good carpenter (he picked it up from his friends in the village) and one afternoon he was slicing bamboos to build a gate. He does not wound the bamboo stalks; rather, the chisel skims over them. While relishing Bhura at work, Kishor and myself spotted a crested hawk eagle with a black cobra in its talons flying some 20 ft over our heads. It flew above our heads, banked and climbed into the stark blue sky. For about five minutes it soared with the cobra hanging from its talons before flying off to a resting place to have its meal. "That surely is a rare sight," remarked Kishor.

Chatting over a fire one night, Kishor talked of his plans for the centre. He wants to train tribals for new jobs and set up a research centre to study wildlife, something on the lines of the famed Smithsonian Institute in US.

Today it may seem tall talk but tomorrow it could well be a reality.

"There is always the fear that in the process of upgrading the skills of tribals to lead better lives, one may lose sight of the prime objective — conservation of forests and animals. For me, the centre is a means to preserve the pristine forests of Central India, and every day I keep reminding myself of the first job," Kishor remarked. Forest conservation is a low priority item in modern India though city dwellers pack tiger sanctuaries on holidays. The lie of the 20-acre land will be left undisturbed so that over time, birds will feel free to start breeding. On the forest floors, a young generation of tribals wants to lead city lives like this writer. They realise forests cannot be ploughed for a living and even if the Tribal Bill provides for it, they are not keen on it. Like you and me, they would like to buy the facilities thrown up by modern city civilisation. The centre has a mobile and Oomba and Bhura operate it to keep in touch with the world outside.

One evening we were at Khamda village at the northern end of the Melghat Tiger Reserve talking to middle-aged tribals.

"We want to leave the forests," they told us, as " children do not have quality schools to study. We are not bothered about ourselves. For us our children are more important."

If State Governments can buy land for corporates to set up Special Economic Zones with no taxes, there is no reason why the same cannot be done for tribals to replant them outside the forests. If forests go, the tribals will be the worst hit; and not those who scream in favour of the Tribal Bill.

Khamda village near the Tapi River (acting as the border between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh) may not even be located by Google World. The citizens of Khamda village have to trudge miles to get anything.

(Concluded)

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