22 September 2014
Pledges to Save Mahan Forest at Raksha Bandhan Festival in India © Avik Roy / Greenpeace
At the Singrauli station I saw many neem trees. It was late in the night and I could only see the silhouette of overburden and shrubs on both sides of the road. I could make out from this little brief that I am entering a place with lots of greenery around.
After reaching the guest house, the only thing running through my mind was to get ready for the next morning. Ironically, my fellow volunteer and I dosed off even without bothering to set the alarm for the next morning as we were so tired after spending two days on the train.
On the breakfast table a short brief on the current status was shared with us. Thereafter, we started from the guest house for Ameliya village. It was a short visit of mine there (for about 14 days) and few things came to me which I felt were worth sharing.
While in the vehicle on the way to the village, one of the active members of the Mahan Sangharsh Samiti (I suppose by now everyone would know MSS) calls up and asks us to meet him under a neem tree in the village. After we pick him up, proceeding further inside the village, the plan was to meet villagers who had gathered outside MSS's office.
Again the next morning we left for a field visit and Virendra ji was also joining us for a village mobilization activity. We asked him from where shall we pick you up and he said, 'outside the house, there is a small tree and I'm waiting here'. The co-ordination between the active members and the other villagers has been great. I was amazed at the conversations happening between them and they always decided to meet under a tree.
There are no sign boards, but in spite of all this nobody gets confused and they all reach the right spot. More so, sometimes the phone network doesn't work too but nobody has a problem walking down miles to attend a meeting.
I have another observation to share with you all. Many a times I see young girls and guys in cities who fail to pick the right vegetable or the fruit from the vegetable market but a kid from a village (anywhere in India or elsewhere) would know which tree will give sweet fruits and which will have sour fruits. During my stay, I have had amazing fruits which the kids offered us. These fruits were kept ready for us even before we met them. Another thing related to that is that everyone in the village is very independent. Nobody, not even an 80-year-old man or a woman is dependent on others.
For me this place is no wonderland. It is the real land. A land which is nature's gift to mankind. It's important to safeguard it from mining & it's not just their responsibility but also ours.
Zindabad!
Pooja Amritlal Tanna is a volunteer with Greenpeace India.