At 6 am, in the cold winters of around 10 degrees Celsius, we reach the gates of Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary to chat with the forest guards on duty. Rudresh Gaonkar is on duty with just another guard with the gates locked. He permits us to make an entry into the sanctuary despite the stipulated time of 8am to 5pm after paying an entry fee for ourselves and the car though we hoodwinked of not owning a camera. He lets us in despite knowing that phones on an individual doubles up as cameras which would mean an additional fee but he’s not bothered.
“Netravali though a part of the proposal but is the farthest of the Tiger reserve area. To get to the tiger reserve you will have to drive on really bad stretches through the sanctuary and get to Salginim which is 18 km into the reserve and then trek some 8 km towards Anshi in Karnataka via Khotigao’s Bhutpal, the road to Karwar would be better since it’s not safe to abandon your car at the Karnataka border through Netravali,” warns the forest security guard while issuing us our tickets.
Rudresh and his accomplice who guard the gates on the night shift are two hours away from finishing their duty hours. They explain to us how the forest has settled down from Mhadei to Khotigao including Netravali since the mining ban and all the mining inside the sanctuary has come to a halt.
UP THE HILLS TOWARDS TUDOU – 9kms into the Sanctuary…
We proceed straight towards Tudou the nearest of the villages in the sanctuary which has the hills heading to the tiger reserve. A hamlet of just about 100 people and 17 homes which is a ward of Netravali Panchayat is located in the only winding road along the Netravali Sanctuary. On the way we are blocked by the only kadamba bus that makes three trips through the hamlets of Tudou, Verlem and Salginim. Once in the morning to bring the sanctuary resident to Netravali who then proceed to Sanguem, Sanvordem, Canacona to work in people’s properties or do odds jobs on days that they don’t have to tend to their own fields or don’t have cashew juice extraction for making Urak. Though the season for Urak and Feni is only in May. The rest of the time, the villagers depend on their banana, pumpkin, chilli, coconut, and bettlenut and paddy crops.
“People here are very poor and to make matters worse we don’t even have ownership of our lands though we’re the Gaonkars and Velips from here. Our lands are in court as a huge mine owner is claiming possession of our land and blocks any development or roads through the sanctuary. We don’t have water connections in our homes, the nullahs that would hold water are destroyed in mining, and even the only primary school here has half its property washed off because the mining then,” explains Satish Gaonkar, a resident of Tudou who is also the chairman of the PTA Committee of the only primary school there.
At the school he introduces us to the only five kids who come to study and the teacher Balchandra who’s from around 20 km away and hence stays at a relatives place to be at the school. The school is delayed for the day since the teacher is fixing the tank as there’s no drinking water.
“Very few kids come here actually. I have one in the first standard, two in the second standard and two in Class III and no students for the 4th standard. I teach them all in one room and the only thing I can offer them is a new poster of a former Prime Minister or President if I get some funding from the education department. The kids from here don’t want to come to school since its run down and also unsafe. Now, I have built a makeshift fee of sticks to protect the boundary of the school,” explains Balchandra who walks us to his school since no vehicle has access to the tiny two room school.
The panch is not available to meet as he has taken a relative to Bambolim which is a long drive away. The relative suffered an accident two days back but the health center was closed and to go the distance there was no means. As the leg swelling worsened, he has been rushed on a goods carrier Tata Sumo.
Anand Gaonkar tells us how the hamlet didn’t have roads for the last 30 years with so many objects by a mine owner who claims to own the lands. But it’s only recently that the roads are slowly coming but irrigation is still a problem with water scarcity and the people are forced to abandon their homes and move to Sanvordem-Curchorem but there also there no jobs since mining is shut and the people are stranded, jobless as they scavenge in the forests.
VERLEM.. Where finding work is rare
Another 5 kms back towards the sanctuary gates and then 9 kms in the other direction is the second hamlet of Verlem. Verlem is the nearest to Tiger Reserve on the Karnataka Border, just a mere 40 kms walk. Once a mining hamlet and now to be declared part of the tiger reserve, verlem has a small population of just 10 homes, a balwadi and a primary school.
The once run down primary school has recently got a fresh coat of paint, floor tiles and a new tin roof besides some chess boards. The 13 present kids out of the actual attendance of 26, are allowed to use the new toilets to wash their feet. With lack of teachers and support staff, the kids are made to clear the weeds and wash the school premises on the weekend.
“ I have a teacher less in this school. Actually Balchandra is my co-teacher and got deputed to Tudou after the teacher there expired. Ten years in the Verlem primary school and I struggle without a teacher and have to teach these kids alone. The government refuses to give another teacher or support staff,” explains Ratnakar Velip the headmaster and lone teacher at this school.
Besides Ratnakar, the village elder Ramnath Gaonkar and his wife roam the entire village with their sickle hoping to scavenge some wild fruits to make good for lunch. There is no food here and the crop was bad. The lack of water the Self Help Group’s no access to seed has made the situation worst.
“There’s nothing here, just to make petty money from our Urak and Feni business and cashews in May and survive the entire year on our paddy. We’ll find some hay for the fire or for our roof and some wild berries to meet today’s needs besides climbing the coconut trees. At least the younger boys go work in Canacona or Palolem and Sanvordem but for the old, we have no employment. We don’t get permission to clear fresh land for agriculture and neither do the politicians help us, we have laterite stone but not allowed to build our houses. The tiger reserve may even displace us and we don’t know our future. Once mining conducted here has ruined our village,” explains Ramnath.
The tussle at Verla between the forest officials and the fear of the leopard and other wildcats don’t allow them to venture too deep into the forest. Also the presence of Gurudas Timblo’s, Timblo Private Limited and the legal for their land, has kept the Velips of Verlem deep in fear.
SALGINIM… 18 kms and a squeeze between rocks
The most difficult hamlet to pass through in Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary is Salginim. Deep in the forests on Salginim that join Khotigao’s Endrem and Bhutpal village and which the footway towards the Mhadei Sanctuary, salginim, roads are washed out completely by waterfalls in the monsoons. The only access to the village is a wedge scrapped out between the rocks and slippery road through which kadambas and other vehicles have to drive through. Cold and noisy with water falls, we get to Salginim and helped through the village by Biku Gaonkar.
Biku and his friends have no work for the day and missed the Kadamba that comes as early as 6,30 am. The winter cold kept him sleeping. His done making the water ways in his terraced farming fields and hopes the paddy seeds arrive in the next few days.
Biku takes us to the primary school he studies Marathi almost 50 years ago and tells us that the school was an initiative by the first Chief Minister Baushaheb Bandodkar and post that the governments have not done much for his people.
“Salginim to Khotigao has a walking beaten road through the forest. The wild animals trouble our cattle here. Also we have very weak and skinny local cattle since we don’t have the means to bring us any feed for our livestock. We live by the day and on our produce,” explain Biku.
While Rohidas introduces us to the students who are sitting in the dark as there is no power and a working tube light in the shala. The kids are kept to do nothing since its dark. The lone five kids are aimlessly scribbling on the slates.
“I actually live in Sanvordem and this is a huge inconvenience for me. The teacher from this primary school is unwell and I have no clued what to do with these students. I am deputed to be with them for a few days,” explains Devidas Rohidas.
Rohidas explains to us that the lack of interest of the parents to send their kids to school has left the school in a dilapidated condition and slowly the school may closedown.
This is our ground report of the so-called areas declared as tiger reserves. We now trek 10 hours and bring to you soon the situation at Endrem and Bhutpal in Khotigao before we travel further north to check on the real tiger reserve areas of Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.
