Sidheshwar Sardar, Mohan Sabar and Jawahar Lal Sardar
3rd October 2021 – Hitbasa
On the 3rd of October 2021 a community consultation was facilitated with the Sabar community at the primary school in Hitbasa Bada Basti. The consultation focussed on the importance of wild and uncultivated food, the current status of wild food, the areas where different wild foods are still found, the wild foods that have declined and steps to be taken to promote the protection and revival of uncultivated and wild food trees and plants and the forests as a whole. The community pledged to work together to promote the planting of wild food trees and plants and work for the protection and improvement of soil quality in their areas. The meeting was attended by 4 women and 13 men.
20th and 22nd October 2021 – Hitbasa, Nutandi Sabar Tola; Otejhari Jharnakocha
On the 20th and 22nd of October Madhu Ramnath and a team from Keystone Foundation Kotagiri visited the Sabar project areas in East Singhbum district. Madhu Ramnath visited community fellow Mohan Sabar’s village Hitbasa, Nutandi Sabar Tola on 20 and Snehlata Nath and Rohan visited on the 22nd of October. Sidheshwar Sardar and Mohan accompanied Madhu, Snehlata and Rohan on their visits. Snehlata’s observations from the visit were as follows “Our intervention here is work with kitchen gardens and wild food. We saw two species of Diascorea, sweet potato, beans, gourds in his home garden. Discussions revolved around skill building with date palm crafts and we showed them samples of the products brought from Bengal. Here again the Sabar form a small hamlet in a big village and mainly depend on agriculture labour, NTFP collection and selling firewood. We discussed about cutting trees and selling wood and how the forest will degrade with this constant use. Siddheswar and Mohan felt that they were not the cause for forest degradation, but it was the big projects and mining that were cutting forests & ruining their land.”
On the 22nd of October 2021 Bhavya and Gokul from Keystone, Kotagiri visited Jharnakocha and Otejhari accompanied by Jagbandhu and Jawahar Lal Sardar. Bhavya and Gokul’s observations on their visit are as follows:
“Jharnakocha – The village had no road access, the vehicle had to reach the village through a kacha road. We saw a leaky Jal Minaar at the entrance of the village. There were around 14 houses and a population of 70. Mortality rate among elderly was high, so there were 3 to 4 children in each family now explains a young man. He has completed ___ level of education with support from — scheme. Domination from Santhal community, alienation and discrimination was discussed. The dominant community engaged them in labour, grabbed their lands and blocked welfare schemes from reaching their village. The village was remote and looked very poor compared to the other villages we visited earlier. The communities could hardly communicate their needs or concerns. No wild food collection is done, monkeys eat them all. Forests are used only for firewood collection and sale. We started distributing Amal candy’s and one of the elderly asked if it was cure for Corona virus. The vaccination and awareness have still not reached these villages even after 2 years. We could not discuss much on Water, but it will be important to collect data to further understand the issues. Sanitation is very poor, needs immediate intervention. Children and women look very weak and malnourished.
Village Ottejhari – We walked 2 more kms to reach another Shabar village deep inside the forest. Small huts, a lot of firewood were collected and stacked for their own use and for sale to outsiders. No electricity, people were sitting out around the fire for light to have their dinner and keep warm. This village was very remote, no basic amenities provided, communities were shy. One young person was ready to interact, he mentioned there were no issues of water, and they did not collect any wild food from the forest as monkeys take them all. We could not visit any water sources as it got dark and we had to leave the village with minimum interaction. On our way back we met 2 men walking back to the village after visiting the market. It was interesting to see them pushing a cycle, there was no road until they reached the muddy kacha road. They were very vocal and explained that the villagers experienced acute water shortage during summer, we could not discuss much.”
31st October 2021 – Dhengam
On the 31st of October 2021 a meeting on kitchen gardens was conducted at Dhengam primary school. The purpose of the meeting was to enable preparation for kitchen garden cultivation. In the course of the meetings a variety of vegetable seeds and 20 foot nets for kitchen gardens were distributed to Sabar villagers. The seeds distributed included sarso, muli, chowlai saag, karela, beem, lauki. The recipients included 3 families from Nagarsai, 4 families from Tangrain, 2 families from Dhangamkocha, 3 families from Chirugoda Sabar Tola and 1 family from Saharjudi.
