Dandakaranya Diaries

It’s a small ditch of muddy water,barricaded with logs to prevent cattle from drinking from it. With no other water source around,people from nearby villages come here to collect water. This afternoon,children and women of Bire Gangeler,a village two km away,have come here after walking through the forest for an hour. They wash clothes,utensils and ferry this water for drinking. Close by,a dead snake lies rotting. The villagers ignore the stench that comes from it. After long,a woman gestures to a few boys around and Maadvi Deva and Gujjodma lift the snake with a stick and throw it away.

Podiyami Irre fell from a tree. The nearest health centre was over 20 km away in Dornapal with a forest and two streams in between. Relatives of the teenaged girl managed to get a cycle to take her there but she could not survive the distance.

“We try to take a critically ill person to Dornapal,but they often don’t make it alive,” says Balram,Irre’s neighbour.

Many tribals of Sukma die on their way to health centres,mostly located along NH-43. Irre’s village Jagawaram was not in the “interior”—the district headquarters was only 58 km away. But in the case of villages that are about 100 km away from the district headquarters,villagers have to walk for a day before they reach a road. Many don’t survive the journey and many don’t get a burial near their homes. “No point bringing them back so far,so we bury them somewhere in between,” says Balram.

Nearly 10 km from Jagawaram,further deep into the forest,is Bodaras village,where Kawasi Madka’s 35-year-old son died last month of a snake bite. He now looks after his five grandchildren. A night is too short for the old man to recount his son’s death. He returns to the basket he is knitting.

Spread across several states,a major portion of Dandakaranya forest in Chhattisgarh lies in Sukma and Dantewada—two tribal-dominated districts that Maoists fleeing from Andhra Pradesh made their home in the ’90s

The violence intensified when the Raman Singh government formed the Salwa Judum in 2006 and armed villagers in the fight against Maoists. In the years that followed,the iron ore-rich region also saw a number of protests by tribals after corporates such as Tata and Essar came looking for a place to set up their steel plants.

Konta,the biggest among the three blocks of Sukma,has seen much bloodshed,whether it was Taadmetla of April 2010,when Maoists killed 76 CRPF men,the 2006 killing of 33 people at a relief camp in Errabore,or endless atrocities of SPOs on tribals,including burning down of villages in March 2011.

Some of its problems can be attributed to its formidable terrain. Sukma is among the most forested districts of the country,and Konta perhaps the most forested block—over 2,100 sq km of thick,hilly forests lie in this block alone. Of the 109 forest villages in Sukma,106 are in Konta,besides 12 ‘deserted villages’,an official nomenclature for villages evacuated at the height of the Salwa Judum campaign.

It was from Konta’s Manjipara village that Maoists abducted collector Alex Paul Menon last month while he was holding a meeting under the Gram Suraj Abhiyan,a programme in which the state “reaches every village”.

Vijay Madkam,secretary of the Dakshin Bastar Divisional Committee of the CPI (Maoist),dismisses the programme as an attempt by the government to cover up its failure to provide a dignified life to the tribals. “The government goes inside only to get residents evicted for proposed projects of Essar and Tata,” he says.

Travel through the forest in Konta,an area bigger than Delhi and Mumbai put together,and you get the feeling that the state has abandoned it. None of the welfare schemes such as MNREGA,Rajiv Gandhi Vidyutikaran Yojana,Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana,Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyala is functioning here.

In Dandakaranya,many villagers struggle to remember the last time they saw a government official. Many villages lie deserted. The Salwa Judum evicted its residents who are still living in relief camps.

The result? No poll campaign,voting,electricity,phone,roads,PDS shops or any sign of the state. Raman Singh’s Gram Suraj,it seems,never went deep enough. His “power-surplus” state that takes pride in signing over 50 MoUs which will make Chhattisgarh the power hub of the nation,is yet to even lay cables in these villages.

Dantewada collector OP Chaudhary says,“Many government services are yet to reach these villages. As the conflict intensified after 2006,the system collapsed. Maoists demolished all government structures and we are yet to rebuild those.” Sukma was carved out of Dantewada as a separate district in January 2012.

Manjipara,the village Sukma collector Menon had “managed to reach and adopt”,was just 1.5 km off NH-43. Menon,who took over as Sukma’s first collector this January,was reaching out to villagers but he was yet to venture into the deep and dark forests of Sukma,where the only economic activity is tendu patta collection,where the only toys children have are dead birds and where 11 years after Chhattisgarh was formed,its people still think they are living in Madhya Pradesh.

75 villages,1 PDS shop

Kawasi Madka knits a basket to collect tendu patta. He will sell these to traders from Andhra Pradesh at government-determined prices. Tendu patta collection is the only “economic activity” here,besides selling of mahua,the country wine. Government officers and teachers never visit these villages citing Naxal threat but patta buyers turn up regularly. This year,the going rate is Rs 110 for 100 packs of leaves. The season lasts just a fortnight. The government projects the “monitored sale of tendu patta” as its achievement,claiming it has prevented the exploitation of farmers by traders.

This year,the forest department has projected a sales target of 77,900 sacks in Sukma. One sack contains 1,000 packs and the projected sale is worth Rs 8.57 crore. Big money,the government says,as this will bring prosperity to farmers. It ignores that Sukma has around 57,000 patta sangrahak (tendu collectors) families—each will get a mere Rs 1,503.

No MNREGA,no commercial farming,only subsistence agriculture of rice and potato,no other source of income.

And food?

Chhattisgarh’s PDS scheme—computerised,all villages connected,no leakage—has won praises from many quarters. Chief Minister Raman Singh recently said,“During Gram Suraj Abhiyan this year,there was no PDS-related complaint. There was foodgrain everywhere and everyone was well-fed.”

Not in Dandakaranya. Except for PDS shops on NH-43 and the Dornapal-Jagargunda road,no PDS shop exists through most parts of this 2,100 sq km of forest.

Sukma SDM SP Vaidya says,“It’s not possible to run PDS shops due to Maoist presence so we centralised the system—one shop for many villages.” So while each gram panchayat is meant to have a fair price shop,here a shop like that in Chintalnar is for 75 villages spread across 300 sq km.

Villagers are hardly likely to travel this distance just to buy rice since other items such as kerosene,chana and sugar that are available in PDS shops along the highway hardly ever reach the shops in the interiors of the region. Vaidya admits “some leakage is possible”.

Dantewada collector Chaudhary is clear that the administration cannot abdicate its responsibility. “Unless we build roads and connect villages,ration,power and other supplies cannot be provided and the condition of villages cannot improve. It’s our failure.”

A “Siachen-like thana”

In a region with few concrete structures,imposing memorials of ‘martyrs’ dot the landscape. No health centre or school has come up in the interior villages in recent years but there are several statues of policemen killed in Maoist attacks.

The Maoists have their own memorials—tall,red structures—in villages. During special operations,the police raze them and Maoists build new ones.

Like a lost island,Bhejji is the most inaccessible police station in Chhattisgarh. Located in absolute wilderness,surrounded by dense forests and hills,it has no population in a radius of over 10-15 km. Personnel,ration and other supplies reach here by air once a month. According to the police,forest paths up to several kilometres are dotted with landmines. In the absence of people,there is no policing here,no cases are registered. Two CRPF companies are posted here just “to hold the Siachen-like thana”,says the man in charge of the thana that has over 200 men.

Among all the Naxal-affected states,Chhattisgarh has the maximum number of CRPF battalions—17 regular and two CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action).

Despite the presence of security forces,there has been little development here. The national highway hasn’t been repaired in the last five-six years. It takes about four hours to cover 78 km on this highway. But once you cross Konta and step into Andhra Pradesh,there are roads,power and phone signals.

Dantewada collector Chaudhary says,“It’s our fault that we are unable to build even the highway and usher in development. Chhattisgarh has enough CRPF personnel to deploy for constructing roads and giving protection to contractors.”

Last year,Canada-based Mir Ali,who won a contract to build a portion of NH-43,could not even begin work. His bank guarantees were forfeited and his men were forced to leave the state after he alleged that Chhattisgarh PWD Minister Brijmohan Agarwal had demanded a bribe of a few million dollars in lieu of awarding the contract.

Chaudhary says change is required at the policy level. “Tender rules are the same in Konta and Raipur,why will contractors come here? The Centre has sanctioned a road fund for LWE-affected (left-wing extremism) areas but it is not being properly utilised. We need to break the monopoly of big contractors and give preference to local ones since they know the terrain well.”

“Do you love me?”

Maadvi Arujun of Jagawaram has a pre-wedding reception at night. His bride,his aunt’s daughter,will arrive the next day after a day-long walk from a village 50 km away. “Kya tum mujhse pyar karti ho—angrezi mein kaise kahengey (how will you say ‘do you love me’ in English),” he asks. “Angrezi mein poochoonga toh ussey VIP feel hoga (if I ask her in English,she will feel like a VIP).”

You can hear the aspiration in his voice when he mouths the words “angrezi” and “VIP”.

But between the aspiration and its realisation,falls a shadow. For people in these remote villages where there is no sign of the administration,Chhattisgarh does not exist,their memories of government invoke Madhya Pradesh—a state Chhattisgarh was part of 11 years ago. Clearly,they have not come across any state representative since then. Many of them visit distant Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh to buy their ration. “The quality of ration in MP is very poor,” says Kako Kanna,a resident of Bire Gangeler.

Despite the hardships,the villagers do not complain and are full of compassion. On a scorching summer afternoon,Kanna is trying to pull his famished cow out of the ditch it has fallen into. Children and women who have come to fetch water help him,but the cow is heavy. After an hour of toil,they finally pull the cow out and break into a wild jig.

Endless night

AT night,a village deep in the Dandakaranya forest hosts a wedding reception. A few Maoists are staying the night in the village. The villagers drink taadi and mahua and dance. There is celebration all around. “Do they look intimidated?” asks a Maoist commander. “We are here only to protect natural resources,” says another commander, Akash. He is said to have led the team that abducted Menon.

Narainpur SP Mayank Srivastava,in whose district Abujhmad is located,finds fault with the government’s policies for tribals. “British anthropologist Verrier Elwin,who worked in Central India,wanted national park-like structures for tribals. Successive governments followed it,leading to their isolation. It’s time to rethink our attitude towards them,” he says.

There have been rising instances of disputes between tribals and corporates. Chhattisgarh ministers have admitted in the Assembly that there have been various illegalities associated with Essar’s plant in Bailadila,ranging from encroachment of over 32 sq km of forest land to overdrawing 28.5 lakh cubic metres of water without permission from Shabri river and spending CSR money on frivolous accounts such as “bills” of government departments.

On Tata’s land acquisition,the government has admitted that over Rs 27 crore of compensation was yet to reach villagers. The public hearing for land acquisition was held several km off the spot. The affected villagers could not turn up but the administration allegedly went ahead and gave away the land.

Bastar commissioner K Srinivasulu recently cancelled 73 cases of sale of tribal land to non-tribals in the region and ordered an inquiry against the officials involved. “It’s a grand loot. Tribals are being cheated,deprived of their land and rights by the mighty and the powerful,” he says.

In many cases where their land has been taken,tribals have been compensated but many of them don’t know what to spend it on. A story goes that a minister went to Bastar and asked tribals about their demands. They kept quiet,till a man untied his lungi and fished out two hundred-rupee notes. “Last year when you came,your men gave me these. I am yet to learn how to spend these.”