Vacation in forest changed her life

Helping tribal people to earn decent living

She has provided an alternative source of income to tribal people

Young Divya Srivastava, who is a corporate dietitian by profession, had never imagined that her holiday in a wildlife reserve would change her life forever. She had  planned a vacation in Ranthambore in 2008 and today it’s her second home. She gave up her corporate life for two reasons--to marry Dharmendra Khandal, a young biologist  working with NGO Tiger Watch and set up a  social enterprise in rural Rajasthan to find an alternative source of living for tribal people who are into poaching.

During her visit to Ranthambore, she came to know that families of Mogiya tribe had lost their livelihood after men, who were into poaching, were arrested. After she settled down in Ranthambore, she thought of working for the tribal people and planned to create an alternative earning source for them.

“I visited Ranthambore as a tourist but after falling in love with Dharmendra I decided to stay back and  married him in 2009. He is a conservationist biologist at Tiger Watch. Initially, I worked in the same NGO. Over a period, I had better understanding of  the culture of tribes, decided to save the forest by providing an alternative source of income to women and girls and that is how 'Dhonk’ was born.”

Dhonk, which is situated 3 km from the main reserve entrance, functions as the business arm of  Tiger Watch and its purpose is to provide a sustainable livelihood option to reformed poachers from the Mogiya tribe who live around Ranthambore National Park.

 Dhonk (Anogeissus pendula) is the name of a tree endemic to the dry, deciduous forest of Rajasthan, and it is also one of the oldest trees to be found in the Aravalli Hills.

The organisation was born to support the communities by promoting local craft and generating employment avenues for the “tiger’s neighbours”. Using the skills of the people to make an array of products like shirts, bags, purses, mobile phone purses and mittens, it promotes raw talent and brings out the colours of Rajasthan for the consumer.

Ajanta, 45-year-old resident of Ram Singh Pura village, is able to provide education to her three children because of her association with Dhonk. She belongs to Mali community whose primary source of income was wood cutting and cattle grazing.

Usually women in Mogiya tribe do not work. They refrain from sending their daughters to school and most of them marry off their children at a very young age. The married girls hardly get to live a normal life and soon become mothers at a young age.

Mahaveer Mogiya, a school dropout,  has established his own setup after he learnt handblock printing at Dhonk. Gopal Nama is the instructor associated with Dhonk who teaches there every year.

Divya explains, “There are no vocational training institutes and industrial training institutes for those dropping out of schools and colleges. They are needed. In our workshop, 200 women and young students have been trained till now and they can easily earn over Rs 6,000 per month. We hired three good tailors to train them. I initially focused on women from Mogiya tribe and later expanded to the boys from Kewat, a fisherman tribe,  near the Chambal river.”

With the help of Tiger Watch, she has been able to provide admission and hostel facility to 40 students and train the dropouts who otherwise would have taken to fishing or poaching. But vocational training at Dhonk has made a difference in their lives.  Some have started their businesses. Many have moved to cities such as Jaipur, Ajmer and Kota after learning the technique of block printing and colour making at Dhonk.

Dharmendra  says  that his wife has a great motivational strength and that is how this venture has become a  success. “She has a great knack of gaining trust and motivating people. She has not only convinced them but also gave them an opportunity to move ahead and explore a new field. In Dhonk, we give micro loans to our workers for immediate needs such as education of their children and health check-up. The worker has to return it in time and it’s interest free.”

Dharmendra, in association with Dhonk, also organises awareness programmes for tourists who visit the jungle. While sharing the future vision of Dhonk, he said, "the government is doing a lot to conserve wildlife. Relocation is taking place every year but at the same time it’s our duty to rehabilitate these people who find it hard to adjust after being thrown out of the core region of the reserve.”

In 2012, People of Mor Dungri, who had protested for 40 years, were peacefully relocated to a new model village. This peaceful relocation of 200 families was due to sincere and untiring efforts of the then district collector Giriraj Singh Kushwaha. Grateful villagers have named the village after him as Girirajpura.

Kushwaha, who believes that the Mogiya community is into hunting and not poaching, told Deccan Herald, “Earlier jungles were full of wild animals and tribals were few in number. Now, the situation has changed. Hunting was a traditional way of living, but now it is no more accepted as a profession. Of late, they have been exploited by outside poachers who give them money for killing animals. It becomes the responsibility of the government and conservationists to relocate them. While doing so steps should be taken for their rehabilitation and finding them a sustainable job."

When the government and the administration are working hard to keep  tigers safe, people like Divya Khandal have been helping in rehabilitation. Divya has named her one-year-old son Rantham, an ode to the place that turned her life around.