Kanive, Nov. 4: Plastic protection for drinking water tanks, plastic covering for sleeping mats, waking up with trembling when it rains in the middle of the night, prevention of night defecation due to the threat of wild elephants.....
This is the daily hellish life of the tribal residents of Banavara Kadu Hadi under Gonimaroor Gram Panchayat of Somwarpet taluk. There are 11 families in this hadi. There are about 60 people living in just 11 huts.
Most of them go to work in the coffee and ginger plantations around.
Hadi's only graduate:
In this hadi, only two children are enrolled in Anganwadi, while five children go to school. Three girls are studying school. PU and degree education are a mirage for the children of this hadi. The son of this Hadiya Chandri, Siddesh, has completed his graduation. But he is going to work as a wage laborer for a living.
The children of Hadiya, who have studied PU and graduation, have no idea about the policies and procedures of the government to face competitive exams. The Tribal Welfare Department, 4A Social Welfare Departments are just names. There is a lack of honest and humane officials who should make the children of the families of the lowest community in the society aware of the government facilities and job opportunities.
There are no plastic tarpaulins either:
The department or the district administration is not even buying or giving free plastic tarpaulins to cover the huts where these innocent forest dwellers live.
So, to get protection from the rain and sun, the people here have brought plastic covers with the little money they have earned and put them in their huts.
Meanwhile, when the strong wind and rain poured, the residents of Hadiya, Chandri, Rukmini, Seetu, etc., who lament that the plastic sheets installed by these people were blown away by the wind and rain, ask if donors or organizations that help people in towns and cities can come to us and help us, seeing the problems we face firsthand.
Forest toilet:
These people, especially girls and women, who suffer without toilets, have a hellish life where they have to wait for the day to come out of the open for fear of wild elephants.
No electricity - no solar:
The tribals living in this Hadiya have not yet had the opportunity to have electricity.
These people live under the light of the sun during the day and the moonlight at night.
The tribal department or the district administration could at least provide solar lighting to these people. But even that has not been possible so far.
Still, even if there is no toilet at home, everyone here has a mobile phone.
Mobile phone charging at the owner who pays the wages:
Since there is no electricity connection in the hut of these people, it is the misfortune of these innocent people to resort to the houses of their daily wage earners to charge their mobile phones.
Wild elephant rips off the cover of water tank:
A wild elephant, exhausted by thirst, ripped off the concrete cover of the drinking water storage tank built on the side of the highway in Banavar for the use of the residents of this village with its trunk and unleashed its fury.
It also broke the taps while turning them on. But till now the local gram panchayat administration has not made the slightest attempt to clean the tank or put back the lid that was torn off by the wild elephant. So, to prevent water leakage, the people here are wrapping plastic around the leaking tank tap. Overall, the Kodagu district administration should treat the tribals living in the forest as human beings and should provide them with all the facilities available from the government without fail.
-K.S. Murthy
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