Detailed Report by Venkatesh Iyer
On August 11th, the day of the last total solar eclipse of this millenium,Ravi and I made a trip to the Academy of Development Science (ADS) near Karjat. I had been in touch with Rajeev Khedkar of ADS about this trip for several weeks. Ravi had first met Rajeev about a year ago at an NGO exhibition organized by Concern India Foundation in Mumbai. Rajeev, as we learnt later, was a chemical engineer (from UDCT) by training and had been with ADS since 1987.
Karjat, a taluk in Raigad district, lies about 120 kms south-east of Mumbai on the Mumbai-Pune rail route. There are several local trains plying between Mumbai and Karjat everyday. I boarded the 8:42a.m Karjat fast local from Dadar and Ravi boarded this train from Kurla. Aravinda had also planned on making this trip, but had to drop out as she had been unwell since returning from the Narmada valley a couple of days earlier. Our train reached Karjat at around 10:45 a.m. We had been told that the ADS campus was about 18 kms by road from the Karjat railway station. Rajeev had made arrangements for the ADS jeep to meet us near the railway station. We found the jeep without much trouble and the jeep's driver, Mr. Wag, a little while later. The small semi-urban area adjoining the Karjat railway station was soon behind us. With the monsoon still underway, the countyside beyond was totally green. We passed several kms of paddy fields and a few small hamlets (or "wadis"). At some distance we could see the hills and mountains of the Sahyadri ranges. Surprisingly, the road was in pretty good shape and it took only about 20 minutes to get to the ADS campus.
The "Academy", as it is referred to by the locals in Karjat, is situated on about 40 acres of land in the Karjat Tribal Block. A small seasonal river, Chilar, skirts one boundary of the academy. The ADS office, which is also the residence of Rajeev Khedkar, is a small house situated close to this boundary. We were received here by Rajeev. We were led into a comfortable room with a long table in the middle and book cases along the walls. This room serves as the meeting room for ADS. Tall glasses of water were followed by equally tall glasses of tea. With our batteries fully recharged, Ravi and I quized Rajeev about ADS, the local vegetation, the people etc.
Rajeev cautioned us against getting too impressed with the greenery around. According to him, only a small fraction of the visible greenery on the hillsides was due to trees. The rest, he said, were bushes, epiphytes and grass, most of which would dry up (or be eaten by grazing cattle)within a few months after the end of the monsoon. Apparently, a large number of trees, particularly the prized teak trees, had been felled over the years by timber contractors. The unemployed youth among the tribals were often recruited by the timber contractors for these logging operations. ADS had tried to encourage the tribals to plant various trees on the hillsides; but, as the idea of planting trees was completely alien to the local culture, these efforts had not been very successful. Consequently, ADS had adopted the strategy of educating the tribal children about the importance of trees, biodiversity etc. and the various steps that have to be taken in order to protect them. The children were taught to identify various kinds of trees and plants from their leaves, bark etc. We also saw some very neat sketches of the leaves from different trees found in the area, different kinds of fishes found in the nearby river, etc. drawn by an ADS worker. These sketches were used as teaching aids in the school run by ADS. We also learnt that there were about 50 villages (80 to 100 families) and about 100 hamlets (less than 50 families) in the Karjat tribal block.
After this initial chat, Rajeev then took us around the ADS campus. I have described most of the things we saw in an earlier e-mail. The propossal submitted by ADS also contains a good description of their activities. Hence, I will only add a few observations here:
1) We saw some samples of the various ingenious fishtraps that were used traditionally by the tribals. These are typically made of cane or bamboo strips. We were simply amazed by the wonderful geometry of these traps. I am certain that any book on topology would be delighted to have sketches of these devices in it. They are designed such that the curious fish will be able to get into the trap, but would be too confused by the internal geometry to find its way out! Apparently, only a few old tribals retained the skills to make these traps. The younger generation had not imbibed these skills.
2) The ADS campus and many of the surrounding villages/hamlets now receive electricity, but power outages are very common and often prolonged. Several activities at ADS, such as the food processing unit (which has an electrical dryer), pumping water for filling an overhead tank, and the timber workshop are dependent on electric power. Rajeev said that the villagers often receive inflated electricty bills. The villagers have to then run around the local taluk offices and pay bribes to get the bills rectified.
3) In spite of receiving very high rainfall during the monsoon, only one crop per year is grown in the region! Further, the region apparently suffers from an acute scarcity of drinking water in the summer months. I have learnt later that ADS in cooperation with another NGO (with whom I am in touch) had tried to build several small earthen dams in the Karjat taluk. We did not visit any of these structures. Rajeev did not seem very optimistic about any watershed development projects in the area. I am not sure about the reasons for this pessimism. I will try to visit some of the earthen dams during my next visit to ADS.
4) We were told that poisonous snakes were commonly encountered in the region. In fact, even during our visit, we saw some children from the school run by ADS gathered around a dead cobra. Apparently, a villager had found a cobra in his house and had killed it. We were not convinced that the traditional tribal medicines were effective against snake bites. ADS does not store anti-venom serum within its premises. There is a government hospital about two kms. away (at Kashele village), but Rajeev said that the doctor there was highly irresponsible and often missing from work.
5) We met Peter Bakos. He is an Australian who has been living at the ADS campus since June. Peter had been down with fever for the past two days and looked a little tired when we met him. However, his spirits were still very high. Rajeev informed us that Peter was very skilled with his hands and had made various handicrafts. Peter told us that he was prepared to stay at ADS for another year in order to get the income-generation program for women and handicapped going. I also learnt that Peter had earlier spent about six months as a teacher at a school in Auroville (Pondicherry). I was also amazed to learn that Peter had travelled all around the world in his small sailboat! He seemed completely comfortable at ADS. In fact, when we met him he was dressed in a t-shirt and lungi!
6) Lunch at ADS was delicious. It was served on plantain leaves and included thick rotis made of unpolished rice, and a tasty dish made from locally grown cauliflowers, onions and potatoes.
7) Ravi and I spent some time listening to the flowing Chilar river. We both agreed that it sounded very much like vehicles on a busy expressway in the U.S. I thought it sounded just like the steady drone of vehicles on Rt. 322, which could be heard from outside my apartment (38-D) at Heritage Oaks.
We started on our way back around 4:30 p.m. The ADS jeep dropped us off at the Karjat railway station. Within a few minutes we caught a fast local train to Mumbai. The total solar eclipse (not totally total near Mumbai)was supposed to occur between 5:30 p.m and 7:00 p.m IST. There were a bunch of school kids in the train, and one of them had one of these specially made spectacles for viewing the eclipse. So, all of us in the compartment got a good view of the last total solar eclipse of the millenium. Our trip to ADS had definitely been productive in more ways than one.
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Last modified: Sept 15, 1999 by Shailabh Nagar (nagar@cse.psu.edu)