Conflict Workshop

We started early in the morning to the village. Te route was through the forest as the villages were right in the middle of the forest. After getting out of the tourism areas, we entered the restricted areas which are open only for the villagers and forest personnel. While there are rules in the forest and tourists cannot get out of the jeeps and walk in the forest, villagers living in the core and buffer areas are allowed to walk, cycle and even use their bullock carts. The restricted areas revealed kilometers of forest that had been cleared for agriculture, numerous settlements, some permanent structures (obviously illegal) all in the reserved forest zones. Tadoba covers 800 sq kms of forest and is home to nearly 50 tigers and tonnes of other kinds of animals including 22 leopard. Each tiger can have territories of 25 sq kms and drive out other males from their territories. The male that loses becomes transient and roams outside the core forest area looking for food in the villages. That's only the beginning of the problem.

It took us more than an hour to reach the village that the Chief conservator had assigned us to. We had been warned that the villagers of this particular village are already very angry. They had not cooperated for our request to have a TV and DVD player to show a film which would be the ice breaker. We decided to show the movie on a laptop. It would not be as effective as having good speakers but it would do. We gathered in the small classroom in the village school. People came in slowly. The children first. Everyone showed apprehension. It would not be easy to break the ice. We had our notepads and pens ready to take notes.

The movie was played. It did not have as much an impact due to the audio being low but people got the message. We weer sitting on the floor with them though they tried bringing us chairs. I could smell the country liquor the men had had the previous night as they were still smelling of it. We paused at a point and got talking. Slowly one by one they started speaking up. Some silent observers, others more vocal and loud. They had all the arguments ready to anything we wanted to say. We listened on quietly throwing questions at an opportunity. We had to break the perception of 'what do people from the city know?'. The situation was fine with them telling us stories of incidents, of compensation unpaid, of not having enough money to implement an idea, or the infeasibility of something we suggested, of what they do in the situation. Time and again this one guy came back to the same points. He wouldn't lose out on his points and fall for us. The rest watched on. We got someone who had implemented a similar scheme in a nearby village to talk about his experience as it was first hand. The villagers refused to believe it will work. They argued and questioned everything. Ultimately it was only this one guy talking and the rest listening. He was convinced a bit but wouldn't give in. The sarpanch of this village was a lady. She looked smart and was educated. She seemed to have enough money to be constructing a double storeyed house. We were later told the sarpanches many time run after money. I was unsure in her case but she was wary too.

She didn't believe what she was told and went back to another team member if we were trying to relocate them out of the jungle. At the concluding end of the discussion we tried to finally convince the vocal guy who was arguing that there are solutions that can be implemented but people of the village have to com forward. He emphasized that no one would do it for free. Finally we tried asking him to come for the first aid training we were going to give next. He wasn't interested to come forward but had argued all through. We gave them a couple of solar torches that they could use when they go to their fields in the night. They had to go and sit on the machans all night to protect their crops from the herbivores.

We went off to the forest office and conducted the first aid training for situations in the villagers close to forests like snake bites, insect bites, bit about fractures etc. That went well. We were treated to some freshly made poha. i am not a fan of poha but it was good to eat something simple and good. We talked to the guys working in the team that helps out other villages in implementing a model of protecting the villages from animals and also do work in the forest. Their experience was first hand and it was very interesting to know the facts. A lot of learning happened. The villagers who were trained on first aid were very happy as they had learned something new. The first step was smooth and they didn't beat us up as we had been joking about after being told they were very angry and aggressive.

This was a start. We had got them talking but its a long way to go.