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By Ranjan K Panda The closure of the Simlipal Wildlife Sanctuary every monsoon compounds the problems of marginalised tribal communities living within the sanctuary. Cut off from the outside world, they are denied even the most basic facilities, especially healthcare. In one month, 13 children of a single village died of malnutrition-related causes
The monsoon seals the fate of thousands of tribals living inside the Simlipal Wildlife Sanctuary in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district. With the closure of the sanctuary from June 16 to October 31 -- to protect wildlife and bio-diversity -- the already marginalised tribals living within are cut off from the mainstream. Deprived of even basic amenities, they are now further from facilities that could be accessed earlier by travelling long distances. "They have to walk a minimum of 27 km for an ounce of salt," says Kumara Singh, a local activist who brought this region into the limelight recently for a rather infamous reason. In June, when Singh was in the region he heard about the death of a child in the village of Kumaribill in Gudgudia panchayat, situated 36 km from the nearest town, Jashipur. Singh's curiosity opened a Pandora's box. The village had been witnessing mass deaths every alternate year, or once in three years. Children were the first victims. A Working Group on Protected Areas, set up by local CSOs and activists, swung into action and began investigating the matter. It found that in this village alone 13 children had succumbed to malnutrition-related disorders within a month. Twenty more were suffering from other ailments. "The local media started to report the incidents and this forced the otherwise apathetic administration to act," says Singh. "We reacted promptly, and as soon as we learnt that some children had died we sent a mobile health unit to the village to find out why. When we found more suffering children we took them to the district hospital in Baripada," says Dr N Rout, additional district medical officer of Mayurbhanj district. "These children have since been treated and have returned to their village," he adds. "They have actually returned to the graveyard," alleges a member of the working group. "This is only treatment of the symptoms, not the causes." Rout, however, maintains that a medical camp was conducted in June with help from voluntary organisations. The district collector too visited the camp. A mobile health team was put in place and doctors were instructed to stay at the camp in Gudgudia on rotation only after Orissa's tribal affairs minister visited the area along with top-ranking administrative officers from the district, including the district collector. Director of the Simlipal Wildlife Sanctuary, Debabrata Swain, agrees that the health situation of people trapped inside the sanctuary is precarious. He says: "We are doing whatever little is possible from our own funds. Medical facilities should be provided by the administration. There is a health centre in Gudgudia, but doctors are never available there." Located inside the boundary (buffer zone) of the Simlipal Wildlife Sanctuary, the village has no roads and, during the rains, remains cut off from the outside world for over four months. Starvation and malnutrition-related deaths are common both in the buffer zone as well as the core zone, says a member of the working group. In their short span of operation, the team of doctors found 49 villagers suffering from malaria; 35 were admitted to the Jashipur primary health centre. This is only a small part of the problem, says Sweta Mishra, a member of the working group. Locked inside the forests without any basic amenities, all 65 villages in Simlipal suffer a similar fate. Seventeen people in Kumaribill village alone died between April and June, including 14 children. Except for the health camp, now shut for lack of funds, not much is being done to remedy the situation. People cannot travel long distances in order to avail of government facilities, and doctors don't venture inside the forests. According to the working group, there is one anganwadi for every 1,000 people and immunisation programmes are not being carried out properly. A child must be immunised with measles vaccination within nine months. But none of the children in Kumaribill have been immunised against measles. Children and women are not given medicines for malaria at the anganwadi. Other immunisations (DPT, pulse polio) too have not been carried out properly by the anganwadi workers. "The villagers, mostly tribals, are thus forced to resort to traditional medicinal practices and, in some cases, witchcraft," says the report. Dr Rout blames the food and work habits of the tribals. "People go to work leaving infants in the custody of elder children. A little rice is left behind for the children at home, and we have heard of domestic animals sharing this food from the bowls meant for children. This spreads several kinds of infection," he says. Biswajit Mohanty of the Wildlife Society of Orissa, which works for wildlife conservation, maintains that the people are so poor they cannot take care of their health. And that the administration has failed to provide even the most basic healthcare to the people. He alleges that doctors posted in the region never visit the health centre at Gudgudia. Meanwhile as the blame game continues, so does the suffering of poor tribals living inside the protected Simlipal Wildlife Sanctuary. (Ranjan K Panda is an Orissa-based journalist and development worker )
InfoChange News & Features, October 2006
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