A voice from the woods

Prakash Amte and his wife Mandakini receive the Magsaysay award in Manila today for their work in improving the lives of tribals. Jaideep Hardikar visits Hemalkasa for a first-hand account

Little has changed over 35 years in this part of the country, except that there's a better road and mobile connectivity. Yet just a shower or two during the monsoons is enough to snap them for days, as it did earlier this month.

It was in the 1970s when Murlidhar Devidas alias Baba Amte expressed his wish to start working among the Madia Gonds in Hemalkasa and his son Dr Prakash Amte volunteered to join him with his bride Mandakini. While there's been a notable change in the way the Madias now see the outside world, there's ironically hardly any change in the way outsiders view Madias. Explains Dr Amte: "There's more awareness among the tribals about education, health and economy, but the opportunities are far less and far between."

The Amtes remain a pillar of hope and service for a tribe living centuries behind the urbane India here in the dense forests of south Gadchiroli, 350 km from Nagpur. The
Amtes never broke the simple rule that the tribals follow in the forest-ecosystem: Don't confront, but connect. Here man can co-exist with animals, but he has to be a part of the ecosystem. "This one's a banded Krait," Dr Amte tells you while lifting a yellow-coloured snake from a tank. "It's 19 times poisonous than the cobra," he informs you. "It won't harm you unless you harm it."

A couple of year's ago, Dr Amte survived a major scare: Russel's viper, a poisonous snake, bit him as he was educating the daily visitors at his animal orphanage, rescue and rehabilitation centre. By the evening, Dr Amte's blood pressure dropped alarmingly and he was gasping for breath. Next morning he was fighting for his life, in a hospital in Nagpur. It took him ten days to come out of danger. "It was my mistake; I broke the rule and troubled the snake, it was not at fault to bite me," Dr Amte says. Animals don't hurt you, if you don't hurt them; they understand the language of love, says Dr Amte, teaching his five-year-old grandson Arnav his first lesson. This is a lesson Dr Amte has learnt over the years and one that he has tried imbibing in thousands of visitors.
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