The tale of a tribe: A peek into India's fascinating Baiga tribe.

 In concrete jungles entwined in fiber optic vines and content in our own niches, as a generation most, if not all of us might have lost touch with earth or directly depend on it for our sustenance and day-to-day survival as is understandable. Living separate lives with diverse identities, genders, social statuses, and whatnot, the one commonality that bridges all the gaps fuelled by diversity and connects us organically, is us all sharing one planet. While looking at the evolution of modern man, our very own ancestors depended exclusively on nature and their surroundings for survival. While nature nurtured us across the geological time scale into beings not entirely dependent on forests, rivers and ecosystems, there still exist pockets of communities in the world and in our country, strictly dependent on the earth for their sustenance, spiritual satiation and identity; communities of Homo sapiens existing far from the grasps of an urban sprawl.  

India has an abundantly rich and diverse tribal history— knowledge that remains walled between certain sections of people or otherwise remains buried and filed away in government archives, adding on to more obscurities than factual truth. The recent decade however, has generated more awareness about these communities of indigenous people classified as “scheduled tribes”, ebbing away the air of mystery or obliviousness previously surrounding it. With the launch of Ministry of Tourism’s “Incredible India” brand and campaign in 2002, various tribal and indigenous groups have been recognized, appreciated and economically benefitted.

Having had traveled to many well-known places in the country courtesy of my family’s shared love for traveling, my trip to the Kanha Tiger Reserve remains a memory and an experience that I cherish to this very date. Peeking between the wispy rain clouds with its beautiful barren hillocks interspersed with thick patches of forest and the winding Narmada, I noticed the astounding beauty of the riverine city of Jabalpur. A decorated metropolis with immense historical and ecological richness, Jabalpur stands out as one of the largest urban agglomerations in Central India and as a city of significance attracting a myriad of tourists, naturalist and wildlife conservationists due to its proximity to the Kanha Tiger Reserve, home to one of India’s primary feline flagship species, Panthera tigris tigris commonly known as the Bengal tiger and the backdrop of Rudyard Kipling’s, ‘The Jungle Book’.

As a fellow travel enthusiast, a drive from Jabalpur to the Tiger Reserve was an essential on my to-do list. The tranquil beauty of the scenic roads lined by Sal trees (Shorea robusta), the rustic and pastoral cottages and huts along the way with the rich smell of petrichor is an absolute treat for your senses and soul, although one of the most engaging and new experiences that I had on my trip was to interact and admire the rich tribal beauty and folklore of central India.  Home to various well-known tribes, namely the Baigas, and the Gonds, a row of quaint cottages and huts homogenously painted in a shade of blue and white, colours comparable to the hues of Santorini, distinctly standing out amidst the lush green fields highlight the minimalistic beauty of the Baiga tribe, residents of which reside amidst nature, far away from the monotony of our fast-paced city lives. Their unique set of traditions and lifestyle defining their role as guardians of the forests and soil, acting with empathy towards nature. Intriguing beliefs such as not plowing the soil as scratching the surface of the earth is considered a sin so as constantly harvesting produce from the same patch of land without any consequent gaps in time are some of the frequently practiced traditions within the Baiga tribe.

My interactions with a very welcoming local, Shri Shiv Kumar, a tea stall owner living in the outskirts of the tiger reserve excitedly showed me around his home and kitchen garden and even allowed me to snap a few photographs of his house. My conversation with him gave me a very succinct and enriching view about the lives of people living in this region, coexisting with nature and one of India’s famous feral cats. He talked about the small hamlets of his tribe with the architecturally unique clay-roofed houses —some with even intricate designs on their walls with limestone, painted such to serve many purposes such as maintaining a lower room temperature and often easily locating many common snake species, namely Indian Krait and Common rat snake, etc. against the bright white walls that seek refuge in the cooler, shaded area of the huts. Common rat snake etc. against the bright white walls which seek refuge in the cooler, shaded area of the huts.

Living parallel lives enriched with simplicity and minimalism, is often something us city slickers majorly lack. Not to draw away from the strife and struggles the people of such marginalized communities face on a daily basis— from being economically backward, to lack of proper healthcare and high illiteracy rates; there is a certain romanticism to being true custodians and nurturing it as much as it does us. In the light of recent environmental crises with a general lack of social awareness, we should perhaps take a page out of the lives of these people living for protecting their land and its animistic essence and take out the time to understand the repercussions of our reckless actions instead of just burying them as perfunctory bureaucracy under the pretense of caring.  

- Swagatama Mukherjee

An artwork of mine depicting a traditional house of the Baiga tribe in Mandla, Madhya Pradesh.