Through forests, across river, home is a 2-day walk

The boat is full, carrying a dozen-odd villagers, each with some load — from packets of PDS rice to motorcycles. Khara said she couldn’t have waited for the next boat. “I would probably have not reached home before evening,” she says. Only two-three boats operate on the river a day, and the service halts after 5 pm.

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Twenty minutes later, Khara is at the “cut-off” area — a cluster of 150-odd villagers, spread over 900 sq km, that is literally cut off from the rest of the Malkangiri district to which it belongs.

Villagers like Khara have to walk through dense forests and rocky paths to reach the nearest town, Chitrakonda, 20 km away from Gurupriya river. On the other side of the river, which can take anywhere between 20 minutes and five hours to cross depending on its width at different points, they have to trek again to reach their villages. Khara’s Aranbara village is a two-hour walk away. Some have to walk for as long as a day to get home.

In three years, Khara might get some relief. Gurupriya is finally getting a bridge, 40 years after a dam was built on it to provide water for the Balimela hydroelectric project. Construction of the 918-metre-long bridge, over the narrowest width of the 68-km-long river, began early this year. A pillar is already up, and engineers and labourers of the Kolkata-based Royal Infra Construction are at work.

Once the bridge comes up, it is expected to open up the possibilities of laying down roads on each side of the river. A road is already being laid from Gurupriya’s east bank to Chitrakonda.

Development has eluded the “cut-off” villages since the late 1970s. While the topography — hills, raging rivers and dense forests — played a part, the biggest hurdle has been the Maoist presence in the area, with insurgents from bordering Andhra Pradesh establishing a safe haven here. CPI (Maoist) leader Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna had made this his base. There are many “memorials” to dead Maoists.

In 2011, Maoists had abducted then Malkangiri district collector R Vineel Krishna along with a junior engineer for nine days when they had visited Jantapai, a village deep inside the cut-off area. Even one of the biggest-ever Maoist ambushes, in which 37 jawans of the elite anti-Maoist Greyhound force of Andhra Pradesh, had been killed had happened on the Gurupriya river, in 2008. In 2012, a BSF commandant had been killed in a landmine blast here.

However, rather than the Maoist threat, villagers complain about the Balimela project. “The reservoir may have provided electricity to Odisha, but it has ensured that we remain a pariah. Most of our lives are spent travelling across the river,”says Hanumant Rao Intirgi, a ward member of one of the six gram panchayats in the cut-off area. “Everyday I just dream of a bridge crossing the river,” he adds.

In last 23 years, the government floated bids 10 times for construction of the bridge, but each time the Maoists scared the contractors away. Slowly expanding its control — the first BSF camp came up inside last year — the state government early this year floated a tender for construction of the bridge, to be built at a cost of Rs 172 crore, a steep escalation from Rs 7 crore when the tender was first floated in 1982. “We are working non-stop. Though we have built bridges in Maoist areas of Jharkhand before, my labourers are scared here,” says Niranjan Kumar, project manager.

Even last week, three BSF jawans were killed in a landmine blast on the river banks, leading to a temporary halt in construction work. The jawans on speedboats were about to anchor off near Palankrai village, 5 km off the bridge, when Maoists triggered the IED.

Since then BSF jawans armed with landmine sensors have increased patrolling in the area. “I have been in Lalgarh in West Bengal. But I feel more vulnerable here. The topography works to the advantage of Maoists,” says a jawan of 104 battalion of the BSF at the Badapada camp, located inside the cut-off area.

Again villagers say that rather than the Maoists, what worries them more is the prevalence of diseases such as malaria and jaundice. “Once a bridge is constructed, at least ambulances can travel deep inside,” says Ranjan Sarangi, a doctor who mans the only primary health centre in the area.

Finally relaxing at her home in Arnabhata after her long walk, Khara recounts how her daughter-in-law died giving birth to her grandson. “Had there been a bridge, I could have taken her to a hospital in Malkangiri in an ambulance,” she says.

* CPI (Maoist) leader Ramakrishna made this “cut-off” area his base
* In 2011, then Maoist district collector and a junior engineer were abducted by Maoists from here while on a visit
* One of the biggest-ever Maoist ambushes, involving the Greyhound force of Andhra, happened on Gurupriya river