A day in south Bastar (Dantewada)

Life in south Bastar village

For rest of India this little known tribal region full of dense jungles spread in an area of 40,000 sq kilometer, is known as Bastar division -- governed by a commissioner with four district collectors to assist him – but for locals this is Dandkaranya zone where Naxals govern through their jaatana sarkar or people’s government.

Leave district headquarters and roadside towns, where situation might look to be normal except for the presence of gun-totting security personnel of para-military forces, the country side is completely in control of Maoist who are commonly referred as Naxals.

‘One can not move according to his will in the area, he needs to send message to dada log read Naxals through their invisible informers. Journalist like us have standing instructions to move with window panes open and music on otherwise you might be misconstrued as a policewala inviting triggering of blast already laid on the roads.

To get an idea of the Bastar village I drop in at Dantewada without informing anybody as police might follow those who are writing on Naxal issues. I meet my contacts and they take me to village Andodipada.

In one month village Andodipada has lost over a half a dozen men to diseases -- most of them water borne. Andodipada, tucked inside deep jungles of south Bastar, some 30 kilometres from Dantewada district headquarter, is like any other village in this part of the country where people live under constant fear of Naxal and security forces alike.

Going towards south from Dantewada -- which is barely a town as the activities of government employees and security forces are the only source of income for the locals -- we pass through Nakulnar where a few days back armed Naxals attacked a Congress leader and killed two in a night operation led by some 250 men and women.

Some 10-12 kilometres from here driving on a tarred road with several cuts and digging marks it is clear that we are in a naxal heartland. (Road cuts and digging marks suggest a possible landmine entrenched underneath. Accompanied by a local contact we reach Garhmiri village where a heap of toilet seats meant for total sanitation programme welcomed us.

From Garhmiri we take a walk for another 4-5 kilometres passing from paddy fields and crossing rivulets and nullahas full of monsoon water to reach village Andodipada. On our way meet people with their families busy sowing paddy in the fields. The village is part of Kuakonda block.

Distrust and suspicion is spread all the roads and jungle. Villagers don’t speak to the extent that they are wary of even telling the names of their village or specifying a tree species. People rarely speak to outsiders as they do not want to be misunderstood as ‘informer’ either by Naxals or by police.

Maoist laws have the strongest and harshest punishment for leaking information about them. On being suspected of passing information the only punishment is death penalty that too by chopping off body parts. Naxals do not have any ‘’appeal or dalil’’ (appeal or argument) for such crime, says Lasman Muria the only 8^th class pass individual of Andodipada.

The only sign of government presence in the village is a dilapidated roofless school building which stands shamelessly as the villagers tell us that the teacher of this 5^th class school last visited in April this year. No body in the village remember when any senior official from district administration visited the village.

Since most of the school buildings in remote areas Bastar division are occupied by security forces the Naxals do not allow making of new school buildings as they might be used again by force instead of children studying in them. However the school building in this village neither have classes nor police.

The village does not have road, so the potable drinking water as the bore-well digging machine cannot reach here. The villagers are forced to drink water from the nearby river and a small well kind of structure which collects from the hill. ‘’People falling ill during this season is common, we lost seven of our villagers recently’’ says Hunga Khawasi.

Last when my mother fell ill we took her on a cot to nearby hospital where the health worker gave some pills. Like hospital electricity is also a dream for this village. Though Chattisgarh is a power surplus state but hundreds of villages like Andodipada does not have power as lines have not been laid.

Children do not go to school but assist their parents in sowing. Harma Muria,42, have five children who help in his daily routine. His sons have gone for paddy sowing while his daughter collect wild mushroom for lunch which is mainly rice.

He walks for over 8 kilometres every week to fetch the rice from PDS shop where he gets 35 kilograms of rice. During summer he sells tamarind collected from jungles to sell it in Nakulnar market which earns him Rs 60-70 a week. Out of the money he buys rice which comes for Rs one per kilo under government’s antyodaya scheme. During monsoon like many other villages of Bastar, Andodipada too gets cut-off from the rest of world.

Except for rice and clothes everything of need is available for the family of Harma in the jungles. The country liquor called sulfi brewed from date palm tree is available in plenty and form an essential drink for all.

Harma does not know why Naxals and police are fighting. He also does not understand the communists or red-terror but he knows the Dr Raman Singh, chief minister of Chattisgarh who gives him Rs 1 kg rice.

The village does not have the government’s NREGS as the mode of payment through banks prevent this scheme to be implemented here. There are some 25000 registered job seekers under the scheme in Dantewada and Bijapur districts. However there are just a dozen branches of nationalized banks all over as cooperative banks have seized to work.

Keeping this fact in mind, on demand of CPI (Marxist), at some places cash distribution of wages was allowed but fear of money being looted by Naxals prevents implementation of the scheme.

Linga Muria earns Rs 50-60 every week which he says is enough for him to buy rice and salt. His family rear pigs and hens for meat and have cows to get oxen for cultivation. Interestingly tribal do not milch cow as they believe that milk is for calf not human.

Pandu Koram of a nearby village says ‘’dada log (naxal) take away a portion from the rice which we buy from PDS shop while security forces threaten us with guns if they know that Naxals have come to our house’’. Naxals collect rice from whole village as a measure of levying tax.

Linga Khawasi does not have any dream in his life his only ambition is to have clothes and enough rice to feed his family. He is now even afraid of going to weekly market as once he was detained by CRPF for suspicion of supporting Naxals.

Since south Bastar is the place after Abhujmarh where Naxals are fighting fiercely to establish their supremacy and capture the region with the passing of every day some new areas are reported to have come under the red-terror. Tadmetla where 76 security personnel and Chingawaram where a passenger bus was exploded in a landmine killing 31 innocent are in Dantewada.

Suresh Mahapatra, editor of daily Bastar-Impact, says ‘’gradually Naxals are capturing new areas. As a mark of protest against killing of Comrade Azad they blocked NH 221 for the first time by felling trees at various places.

To create confidence among people, that school buildings would not be used by police, roofs of new schools were made of cement sheets instead of steel and concrete but Naxals took away the pipes of such schools for making pipe bombs.

Contractors despite huge incentives do not want to work in the area so the roads whatever were made years back are vanishing in want of repairs. Mahapatra says ‘’it is only in the town places and block headquarters that Naxal presence is not witnessed, in fact the entire jungle area which is 97 percent of Bastar has gone in control of Maoists’’.

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Deepak Tiwari/Dantewada