Thursday, March 3, 2011

As the stones, sand and soil of the hill get pulverized, the economic and Socio-Cultural spine of the Community also breaks.

When a hill is broken, then it is not only the rock that crumbles, the Social organization of the Adivasi Community are also disintegrates.
As the stones, sand and soil of the hill get pulverized, the economic and Socio-Cultural spine of the Community also breaks. Which the razing of the hills, their language and collective strength also shatters. Along with this, their natural way of live breathes its last. As the broken pieces of the rocks get relegated to the dump as trash, along with them go the existence and identity of the Adaivasi.
This is the sad tale of woe told by the centuries-old sasandiri under the tamarind tree, and the broken pieces of walls and bits of roof tiles of the Adivasi homes bulldozed to make space for the open cast mines for Uranium in the Bbanduhurag Hills if the Dhalbhoomgadh region of the Singhbhoom district in the eastern region of the Jharkhand state. The undulating hills of Banduhurang region have nurtured the Ho adivasi for centuries in their lap. In these hill ranges, calves, kids and lambs used to romp about to the melodies from the flutes of the cowherds tending the sheep and goats. The communities settled on the slopes of these hills used to be roused from their sweet slumber by crowing of roosters. Now all that is heard is the thunder of explosions and drills of the open cast mines.
The villages of the Ho adivasis settled on the slopes of the Banduhurang hills have been completely destroyed. First, the sixteen families were displaced by the Company. Then the houses of six families were bulldozed. The people were forcibly pushed o to trucks. The people who were outdoors in their yards were not allowed to enter their houses. Their household articles were thrown haphazardly into trucks by the police constables and people sent by the Company. The people were pushed onto vehicles and shunted off to a residential building in the Turamdih Resettlement area. But their cows and bulls, goats, poultry and chengna were left behind.(3 August 05). Later the people went back and claimed their cows, bulls, goats hens and chengna. The human beings were accommodated in houses in the colony, but as there was no provision to house their animal-wealth-their cattle , goats and hens, the animals got scattered and wandered all over the area, some even were lost
The Social, economic, and cultural identity of the nature based Adivasi society bloossoms and evolves only in the milieu of shrubs and hers, grass and hay, trees and plants, diverse life forms, rivers and canals, streams, jungles and hills, and fields and barns. The produce from the fields and gardens of Adivasi is sufficient to provide food for six months. Nature provides food for another six months in the form of leaves, foliage roots and tubers, flowers and fruits. The roots and tubers, grass and hay, trees and vines are the ‘health shield’ of the Adivasi society. In today’s era of economic liberalization, where the Adivasi peasants cannot afford the anti-malarial tablets, they pluck bhuineem from the jangles and scrub and treat the victims of malaria. The Adivasi Society takes a lot from nature, but it returns tow ice that what it takes. That is the reason that wherever there is Adivasi Society, only there one finds jugles and trees, and gurgling rivers and streams. Surrounding the fields of crop swing the white kaansi flowers in the month of Kunwar-bhado.(September-October) In the fields of goda Dhan( paddy Field) Smile the yellow flowers of Sunai and Arhar . Taalsa hill and Nannndoop hill that lie ahead of Banduhurang give the feeling the glory of Jharkhand. The Banduhurang hill range is 2.5 kilometers in length and one kilometer wide. The main stream of this region flows from the western edge of Banduhurang hill, traveling a distance of the three kilometers before joining the Kharkaai River. According to the EIEA-E MP report of UCIL, the region to be mined is 287.153 hectares (687.330 acres) of which 48.874 hectares fall under Talsa Village, 89.165 hectares fall under Banduhurang village, and 140.115 hectares fall under Kerwa Dungri Village. The mining belt includes 145.155 hectares of arable land, 66.106 hectares of Forest land, 23.570 hectares of Grazing land and 5.235 hectares are Surface Water. The lifetime of the mine is 27 years only.

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