Left to fend for themselves

Trials and Tribulations of aboriginal Tribes

Warangal: Even as rulers and administrative heads are making whirlwind tours to foreign countries, wooing offshore investors to Telangana in their ‘committed’ efforts to convert the capital into another Singapore, barely 250 kilometres away from Hyderabad, in the deep jungles of Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary, aboriginal tribesmen are living in abject misery, literally cut off from outside world and deprived of proper food, electricity, housing, water, healthcare and education.

A few kilometres walk from a tiny village called Ooratam in the Agency area of Warangal district into the wild takes you to the most deplorable, yet unbelievable world of Muria Gonds or popularly known as Guthi Koyas who were migrated from the forests of neighbouring Chhattisgarh, apparently for reasons well known to people, politicians, police and forest officials.

They live in small bamboo huts - some without walls, some with mud walls – and seem to be quite content about it. Children and women suffering from malnutrition and skin diseases are seen making their food from some rare fruits they gather from the forests. “We have to go half-a-kilometre to a small tank to collect water,” says Nirmala, a tribal woman in her 30s while her little daughters Nandini and Ganga look on with curiosity brimming in those astonishingly cute eyes.

In yet another hut, 50 something Barmaiah, with his wife and children, is busy preparing oil from Vippapoo (mahua or Madhuca longifolia) seeds, whose flowers are usually used by tribals to make alcoholic drink. “We work as coolies, and also cultivate rice and vegetables in the forest land. Once in a week, we go to Mulugu and buy provisions,” explains Barmaiah.

These tribals have been migrating to the forests of Warangal and Khammam districts for the past two decades from Dantewada, Sukuma and Bastar districts of Chhattisgarh and making their own settlements. They have settled in hamlets like Ooratam, Somaguda, ST Colony and Gondala Cheru in Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary.

These highly-skilled tribesmen are fearless and are adapted to live in deep jungles without depending on the outer world. Though there have been allegations of massive deforestation due to their unbridled migration and highly unsustainable farming methods, their lives are still glaring example of how the government machinery is not bothered about the indigenous tribes, whose lives are synonyms to misery.

According to an ITDA official, though these tribals have all the right to have employment and other facilities, providing these services to them are practically difficult as they are unwilling to move out of the forests. There are nearly 40 hamlets in Eturnagaram Reserve inhabited by Guthi Koyas. While some of them migrated to Telangana due to the fear of Salwa Judum, others have come in search of greener pastures.

According to a recent study, there are more than 1,000 children in and around 40 hamlets who are in the fourth grade of malnutrition and hundreds of others who are three years of age, yet unable to walk. They live their own lives, hoping to get the blessings from their Goddesses Sammakka and Saralamma whose abodes are believed to be in some of the hillocks that they can see from their huts and waiting eagerly for their biennial festival – the largest tribal confluence in Asia, the Medaram Jatara.

By:Payam Sudhakaran