Keonjhar the land of rich…

The word rich might be sounding too big for miniature town like Keonjhar, by rich I mean the land of natural resources enriched with greeneries, natural streams, green hills & its traditional protectors-the Juangs, who posses tremendous indigenous knowledge.

The rain was not willing to stop that day when we reached the Kendujhargarh station at 1:30pm; I was horrified of flood situation in Keonjhar from people talking about it in the group at the station. But soon we reached the place I was happy to see the town safe & sound, people seems to be having a normal day going to the daily market, having lunch at the local hotels, kids clinging to their parent for shopping etc. The next day we went to the Kadalibadi village of Gonasika GP. Journey to Kadlibadi remained a memorable one, on the way I could hear the flow of streams, birds chirping, branches swinging in the air showing us the direction to the village. The meeting was organized at Kadalibadi village where many researchers had already been visited in the past. I was more or less aware of the issues related to land alienation due to  compensatory afforestation plantation.

Reaching Kadalibadi

The village appears to be silent, kids popping from the broken widow of their houses, women folk whispering among them & men folk waiting for the announcement for the meeting. As the villagers assembled at the dormitory called ‘Dhangdi ghar’ by the Juangs, a Dhangdi ghar is a large room where young boys take rest during the festive time or sometime used as guest room for the visitors, provided by the JDA in the village centre. The village has set of people who play key roles in various occasions such as ‘Padhan’ Srikant Juang who take responsibility in resolving village level conflicts. ‘Dakua’ Subarana Juang who takes responsibility in passing the information to the villagers in case a meeting is called in the village or block level. ‘Boieta’ Srabania Juang who offers prayer to the village deities, ‘Nayak’ who organize any event in the village, such kind of social hierarchy is practice in all Juang villages in Juang Pidha.

A sign of silent remark was seen on the villager’s faces those who assembled for the meeting. There were 7-8 men between the age group of 20-50 years who came for the meeting; women were showing hesitation to come to the meeting. After having little interaction with the women group it was realized that the women were not shy to approach to the outsiders, it is the recognition they need from the outsiders & the men folk to participate in the meeting.
Kadalibadi village is the typical Juang dominated tribal habitat situated in Gonasika GP of Banspal block, Keonjhar, consisted of 44 household, 244 total populations (2001 census). The village is believed to be more than 100 years old settled in Gonasika GP. The Kadalibadi villagers migrated from Katakada area before settling in the Kadalibadi, in last few years time there has been 4 Guada families immigrated to the village. Total 689.22 ac village areas land available in Kadalibadi.