Life in a Jungle

Life in a Lion Forest

There is no health care for them. No education. A one-room school where the teacher comes once in a blue moon to collect proxy attendance. They have no play ground, they roam the jungle bare foot, unprotected from the leopards that hide in large trees. They can barely speak a mix of tribal Gujarati language. This is the future generation of Gujarat growing in the Sasan Gir Lion Sanctuary, unaware of the fact that this country achieved independence over 60 years ago. Their future is restricted to this jungle where they are born living at the mercy of forest authorities.

Lakha bhai, 30, has two kids. His mother is ailing, needs immediate medical attention. Lakha is one of the residents of about 54 ‘nests’ (small villages in the Gir sanctuary) who earn their living by selling milk from their cattle. He has lived in the hutment for past 15 years with the families of his two brothers. The forest department has not made any effort to rehabilitate him outside the forest. In this small ‘nest’ he keeps about 200 buffaloes which are protected by bushy fencing. When one of his buffalo is killed by a lion or leopard, he is paid a paltry compensation of 1000 to 1500 rupees by the forest officials. He has been issued an identity card by the forest department to remain in the forest. He may not have any other human facility from the government, but they have given him a voter identity card. After all it is the love for votes and not humans that the politicians live on. There is no electricity in these hutments. Life is isolated from the rest of the world. No communication altogether! Which century are we living in? Certainly not the stone age, but ‘vote age’.

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