By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo
It was a dew-drenched December morning. The winter was at its peak. The picturesque Rayagada town on the borders of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa was wearing a beautiful bridal look. Alluring greenery on the hills nearby, hordes of buffaloes and sheep feasting on the long-grown grass presented a picture perfect for a nature artist to capture it on the canvas.
All this had no meaning for Sukru Himrika. He had no longer any hope to live in this pretty place where he was born 23 years ago. He decided to leave his home to feed his family.
The local forest officials had stopped Sukru and his villagers from entering the nearby jungles to collect firewood and sell them in markets for sustenance.
With his dhangidi (young wife), the frail and tribal youth Sukru was waiting at Rayagada railway station to catch his train to Surat (Gujarat) to work in a cloth factory. Not sure of the nature of work there, he had just made up his mind to leave his maa mati (motherland) for Surat to eke out a living.
"I don’t know whether I will fit into any job there or not. Nor do I know anything more other than collecting firewood and non-timber forest produces," says Sukru. "Satakatha babu. Aamar aau kichhi chara nahin. Aame kemiti banchibu se nei aamar chinta. (What Sukru says is true. We do not have other means of sustenance. We are worried over our future)," said Kalu Himrika, another tribal youth who, along with his two children and aged father, was waiting to board his train to Surat, nearly 2000 km away from his home.
Sukru and Kalu are among hundreds of tribals who depend mainly on the forests for their survival. But, as they allege, they are no more allowed by the authorities to enter forests, and if at all they do, they are harassed and tortured.
"The forest officials are harassing us for no reason. Whenever they find us in forests, they seize our axes and other traditional weapons that we use to cut and lift branches of dead wood which get rotted and wasted without any use. They ask us for bribes and threaten to send us to jail if we do not comply with their demands," Kalu said, adding that many of his fellow villagers had in the past been sent to jail for their inability to offer bribes.
The government statistics itself says that more than 10 million tribals in Orissa, mostly in southern and western Orissa districts, directly depend upon forests as a source of non-timber forest produce (NTFP) for sustenance. The tribals collect numerous items including sal leaves, sal seed, tubers kendu leaves and various medicinal fruits and seeds like amla, harida, bahada, patalgaruda, chireita, honey and mohua.
The NTFP trade in Orissa is valued at over Rs 3,000 crores annually with the benefits directly flowing to the tribal population. Since land holdings are absent or negligible, this extra income is critical to their survival. However, harassment by the forest officials and recent restrictions imposed by the government on the movement tribal people in forests have made their life miserable.
According to Food Security Atlas published by the UN World Food Programme, the regional patterns of development in Orissa reveals that development has not spread and there have been pockets of underdevelopment. The South-West Orissa region constituts of three districts: Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi (KBK). This KBK region has been divided into eight districts since early 1990s. The districts are Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Bolangir, Sonepur, Kalahandi and Nuapara.
The region accounts for around 31 per cent of the total area of the state and 20 per cent of population because of its rugged and hilly topography. Low levels of land development in the KBK region have resulted in poor performance on the agricultural front. There is very small area that can be cultivated twice in an agricultural year. This has resulted in a very low cropping intensity. As the area lacks industrial activities and other business activities, hundreds of Sukrus migrate to far-off places, leaving their wives, parents and children to their fate at home.
It was a dew-drenched December morning. The winter was at its peak. The picturesque Rayagada town on the borders of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa was wearing a beautiful bridal look. Alluring greenery on the hills nearby, hordes of buffaloes and sheep feasting on the long-grown grass presented a picture perfect for a nature artist to capture it on the canvas.
All this had no meaning for Sukru Himrika. He had no longer any hope to live in this pretty place where he was born 23 years ago. He decided to leave his home to feed his family.
The local forest officials had stopped Sukru and his villagers from entering the nearby jungles to collect firewood and sell them in markets for sustenance.
With his dhangidi (young wife), the frail and tribal youth Sukru was waiting at Rayagada railway station to catch his train to Surat (Gujarat) to work in a cloth factory. Not sure of the nature of work there, he had just made up his mind to leave his maa mati (motherland) for Surat to eke out a living.
"I don’t know whether I will fit into any job there or not. Nor do I know anything more other than collecting firewood and non-timber forest produces," says Sukru. "Satakatha babu. Aamar aau kichhi chara nahin. Aame kemiti banchibu se nei aamar chinta. (What Sukru says is true. We do not have other means of sustenance. We are worried over our future)," said Kalu Himrika, another tribal youth who, along with his two children and aged father, was waiting to board his train to Surat, nearly 2000 km away from his home.
Sukru and Kalu are among hundreds of tribals who depend mainly on the forests for their survival. But, as they allege, they are no more allowed by the authorities to enter forests, and if at all they do, they are harassed and tortured.
"The forest officials are harassing us for no reason. Whenever they find us in forests, they seize our axes and other traditional weapons that we use to cut and lift branches of dead wood which get rotted and wasted without any use. They ask us for bribes and threaten to send us to jail if we do not comply with their demands," Kalu said, adding that many of his fellow villagers had in the past been sent to jail for their inability to offer bribes.
The government statistics itself says that more than 10 million tribals in Orissa, mostly in southern and western Orissa districts, directly depend upon forests as a source of non-timber forest produce (NTFP) for sustenance. The tribals collect numerous items including sal leaves, sal seed, tubers kendu leaves and various medicinal fruits and seeds like amla, harida, bahada, patalgaruda, chireita, honey and mohua.
The NTFP trade in Orissa is valued at over Rs 3,000 crores annually with the benefits directly flowing to the tribal population. Since land holdings are absent or negligible, this extra income is critical to their survival. However, harassment by the forest officials and recent restrictions imposed by the government on the movement tribal people in forests have made their life miserable.
According to Food Security Atlas published by the UN World Food Programme, the regional patterns of development in Orissa reveals that development has not spread and there have been pockets of underdevelopment. The South-West Orissa region constituts of three districts: Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi (KBK). This KBK region has been divided into eight districts since early 1990s. The districts are Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Bolangir, Sonepur, Kalahandi and Nuapara.
The region accounts for around 31 per cent of the total area of the state and 20 per cent of population because of its rugged and hilly topography. Low levels of land development in the KBK region have resulted in poor performance on the agricultural front. There is very small area that can be cultivated twice in an agricultural year. This has resulted in a very low cropping intensity. As the area lacks industrial activities and other business activities, hundreds of Sukrus migrate to far-off places, leaving their wives, parents and children to their fate at home.
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