JOIN USHardship is a way of life in Bhimagad's villages
There is no life here,” says Madhav Lakshman Gaonkar, standing inside the Bhimgad Wildlife Sanctuary in Belagavi, where the sunlight struggles to reach the forest floor. Madhav is a resident of Krishnapur, one of the 13 villages inside the sanctuary that is also home to tigers, leopards, sloth bears, and 184 species of birds.
“Life is full of uncertainty here,” Madhav continues, as he expresses doubt over whether his family would continue living in their village. “We cannot cultivate our food here. Heavy rains damage our paddy crops most times. There is also the threat of wild animals grazing on the crops. And thanks to the non-motorable roads we cannot even take our produce to market,” he says and adds the strict rules enforced by the forest department officials are only making their lives harder.
Satheri Parashuram Dabale (70) of Hemmadaga, another core area village in the sanctuary, says that at least two villages here face shortage of drinking water during summer.
Bhimgad forest region is among the highest rainfall receiving areas in the state. On an average the region receives 8000 mm of rainfall and is also the origin of the headwaters of Mahadayi, Malaprabha, Tillari, Bandura rivers and countless other streams and rivulets.
“During the four months of monsoon, the overflowing rivers and streams naturally ‘lockdown’ the core villages by cutting off the road connectivity. Getting even health emergency service becomes difficult during monsoon. Yet, in summer we face water scarcity,” he says.
Old-age homes
This uncertainty has pushed the majority of youth here to move to Goa and Maharashtra to work as daily wage labourers, inadvertently turning these tiny villages into old-age homes.
Deepak Gavalkar, a 24-year-old Gram Panchayat member from Jamgaon, is one of the few youths residing in his village. “Nearly 60% of the working age people have migrated to neighbouring states as they do not see a future in the village,” he says.
The locals here leave the villages even for their education. While a majority of the 13 villages have primary schools, the students have to depend on their relatives’ house in Khanapur and elsewhere for high school and higher education. Priyanka Balakrishna Gaonkar, an MSc Agriculture student of University of Agriculture Science, Dharwad and resident of Jamgaon says she used to walk 11 km through the forest road to catch a government bus to reach her PU College in Khanapur.
“I did my graduation and post-graduation while staying at my relatives’ house,” she says.
Education
Not all girls in the villages get to complete their education. Most of the girls who drop out of schools after primary education are married off at a young age and migrate along with their husbands to neighbouring states, leaving behind their children with grandparents. A majority of these women work in cashew plantations, the construction industry or as maids.
These villages spring back to life only during Holi and Ganesh festivals as the youths come back to their native to celebrate the festival with the aged parents and children.
Vishnu Vithoba Patil, a resident of Talewadi, one of the villages which refused to move out, says the forest department and governments which give approval for widening of National Highway 4A (that cuts through the sanctuary) by allowing to cut more than 20,000 trees deny villagers permission to asphalt an already existing mud road.
“The officials show us the rule book and deny permission for a road, the money for which has been sanctioned under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Are the rules applicable only for the poor?” he asks.