Recent trips to Agraa and Sawai Madhopur encouraged me to re-look at the survey we had undertaken on Moghiyas. As I recalled the amazing adventure that the assignment then presented I saw our day-long bike rides on our Rajdoot in forested Sheopur, wonderful evening meals cooked slowly over wood and sleeping on cots at roadside Dhabas! I turned the pages, bearing notes of my trips, which have since acquired a slightly yellow tinge. As I punched keys I found my revised sensibilities and awareness give an interesting flavour to the information collected. ‘Self indulgence’, I heard a soft voice say; but a louder one supported me, ‘what the heck, go ahead’!
Enthused, I checked up the online information on Moghiyas and was reminded of similar effort few years ago that had yielded limited entries, prominent about them being a farm at Hatod (bordering Madhav National Park) in Shivpuri district. Today while the search results threw up manifold items in terms of numbers the content primarily is driven by Dharmendra’s efforts in and around the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. Dharmendra has been associated with Tiger Watch and has undertaken appreciable efforts towards curbing poaching in the landscape. What left me with surprise was that while considerable dialogues have taken place on relocation of lions and cheetahs (2 of India’s more ambitious wildlife projects), cattle and other prey base, habitat for all these species and potential rehabilitation of further villages from the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary very little has been said on Moghiyas. I understand a plan for conservation of these large carnivores and their prey-base in the landscape warrants sustainable humane action with Moghiyas and as a corollary makes it imperative to develop an informed opinion on their lifestyles, socio-cultural practices and history. This could entail engaging in deliberations with members of the tribe; deliberations that focus not only poaching but their lives beyond poaching; impact not only on success of these 2 projects but on the wildlife in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary and other wildlife rich areas in the vicinity.
M K Ranjitsinh & Y V Jhala in ‘Assessing the potential for reintroducing the cheetah in India, 2010’ state of this landscape “On its south-eastern side of the boundary, Kuno forms a contiguous forest landscape with patchy connectivity to Panna Tiger Reserve through the Shivpuri forest area. On the other hand, the Ranthambhore National park and Keladevi Wildlife Sanctuary (both part of the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve) are connected with Kuno- Palpur through good forest patches towards the northwestern boundary from across the river Chambal”.
Ritesh was in a way a ‘partner’ (one of his favourite words) in the survey team with me while Raju, Dayakishen, Ramlal, Kailash and Santosh from within our base at Agraa came up with help that I could neither have planned for nor thank them enough. Discussions with Arpan, Asmita, Pankaj, Aniruddha and Nandita provided the impetus when it was most needed and more than once got us back on track. Given that long bike rides bring out the romantic in me and have me undertake mental journeys of no small magnitude the importance of this cannot be underscored enough. Countless others who shared their time and knowledge I am indebted to. Special thanks are due to those who shared meals with 2 untidy gentlemen who carried smelly sleeping-bags and roamed on a bike with pretensions of undertaking serious research. Barbara Delano Foundation funded the survey. Passage of time and our inherent limitations would have their bearings on the information garnered in the survey but I am happy and proud of the experience. Some of the information gathered, I share below, with the belief that it is a modest and honest addition to the existing set of information on Moghiyas.
Back then we began with discussions within our team and acquaintances at Agraa. Most of them were locals and as a corollary familiar with the landscape. Experience of a few discussion sessions had us ready with a table that would guide us in the initial stages. We travelled to villages where Moghiyas lived and had discussions with Moghias as also non Moghiyas. Initial trips to near-by villages led us to other villages which were distant from our base but yielded additional information. We also made attempts to get in touch with people who had worked on similar projects and tribes. Experiences on account of the project were written and discussed and lists made of Moghiyas and villages they stayed at. We were of course helped by mid-course corrections and our ability to pester friends; travels however fuelled most of the information. We visited 34 villages (most of them more than once) where Mogiyas stayed and our notes show the number of families as 334; some like Dhamni and Jangarh had in excess of 25 households while Panwada and Chapraith had single families.
S was the first Moghiya I met. He was then based at Parimal Ka Pura (about 5 kms from Agraa) and the only member of his tribe there. I recall the conversation taking place over hot milk and maize; he had then grown the later on about 1 hectare of land. He had been based at the place for 5 years and when he requested the forest department to help him register the land in his name they asked him to vacate it. Ironical, he had said, given that it was at their insistence that he had moved there in the first place. His face I recall with avid familiarity for he was the only Moghiya to turn up at our office. His daughter whom I am chatted with playfully during my visit passed away on his shoulders when he was carrying her to the government hospital at Agraa. He then moved on to Dhamni (about 12 kms from Agraa).
S had told me of a Moghiya who had stayed at Ahirwani and of whom I enquired with Kailash. Kailash then taught at our school at the village. After the village was relocated from within the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary the villagers were paid instalments at intervals. This in accordance to the scheme approved for relocation. The villagers feared dacoits and thieves would make away with this money and hired B for their protection. He stayed in the freshly relocated village till they received their instalments. Each of the 64 house-holds paid him Rs. 100/- every time they received instalment. The villagers asked him to leave once they had received their instalments. He had requested them for land to till but they did not accede.
Asmita Kabra in her ‘Conservation-induced Displacement - A Comparative Study of Two Indian Protected Areas : Conservation and Society : 2009 states “Resettlement and rehabilitation of villages from the Kuno Sanctuary were carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Beneficiary Oriented Scheme for Tribal Development, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Government of India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests.”
I visited Dhamni a couple of times. I was to later realize this village would stand out by reason of having not only a large area cornered by Moghiyas for cultivation but also one that boasted of a Moghiya sarpanch. Moghiyas here tilled over 250 bhigas of land; growing crops that the rain allowed. 40 bhigas of this was patta land (they had legal ownership of). One of them had come to Dhamni about 20 years ago and had called his brethren. This practise continued and the village then had about 40 families. Some of their relatives who had houses at villages at a distance like Anghora too tilled land here. They told me that it was difficult for hunting to stop for the demand had risen. A major factor being that the castes which in the past stayed away from wild meat too had shunned inhibitions and developed a taste for it. This reminded me of another incident that had been narrated to me (no less than 3 times) and concerned Moghiyas from Dhamni. They had sold buffalo meat to villagers from higher castes of Arrod under the guise of Chital meat and this was realized only a few days hence when note was taken at Arrod of the missing buffaloes!
This has been observed from other parts of the country as well. M D Madhusudan and K Ullas Karanth state in their in ‘Hunting for an answer - Is local hunting compatible with large mammal conservation in India’ : Hunting for sustainability in Tropical Forests : 2000 “Hindus did not eat or kill gaur and muslims did not eat pigs, porcupine and pangolin. However these taboos are increasingly being disregarded and their value in mediating hunting impacts appears to be declining.”
Next was Anghora. It was here that I met D, the sarpanch of Dhamni. D had a pukka (concrete) house and a bike at Dhamni. During our halt at the tea-stall earlier in the day I had heard stories about the fort that stood in ruins on a small hillock near Anghora. I had begun my conversation with D by asking if thieves and dacoits stayed in the fort as rumoured. He had given me an offended look and said that such people would not dare to stay near their homes. The talk then veered to guns and licences. He said that while they could renew a license for Rs. 15/- they had to shell out Rs. 3,000/- for getting a fresh one which was valid for 3 years across the states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. He had been at work to get his licence renewed earlier that day. D was otherwise suspicious and did not talk much other than sharing that 11 families stayed at the village and the other nearest settlement was at Tonga.
I was a little intrigued by the gun licenses and checked up the laws that governed them. The licenses for the guns held by the Moghias (that I came across) were issued to them under section 3 of the Arms Act 1959 for bonafide crop protection. These are usually issued for a period of 3 years and are renewable thereafter subject to compliance with law. Also, in certain cases, the validity extends beyond the borders of the state from which the license has been issued. Some of the licenses seen by us were valid throughout Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In contrast the licenses issued to non Moghias in the region are for self-protection under section 34 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, these being valid only within the district of issuance, Sheopur in this case. Also the Arms Rules 1962, has provisions that could help in keeping a check on the hunting by the Moghiyas who have been issued a license. Section 14 allows the state government, subject to conditions, to ask the license holders to deposit arms or ammunition for such period as they are not required for the protection of crops or cattle and as may be specified therein where upon the licensee would be bound to comply with these order.
At Tonga as I chatted with the sharp eyed middle-aged K who wore a blue kurta, I discovered that the settlement had weathered 20 Central Indian summers. His family stayed in a hut while the house the government had constructed for them was put to use for goats and other stores. Quintessential case of a scheme thrust down by authorities! During one of my trips I had noticed vultures hovering above as also large number of bees in a corner where a blanket covered a standing cot. I believe wild meat lay hidden beneath the blanket. On another trip I saw them making jaggery for which they had procured a machine on rent while sugarcane came from the fields nearby. Sweet loving me had shred inhibitions to consume what I today recall was a lot of jaggery. I also recall that he got irritated that day for while I asked him questions on Sheopur forests and the wildlife they harboured my knowledge of them was at best meager. He had told me that some of them from the village had crossed the Chambal river to Rajasthan for crop protection and that because they were Moghiyas they had to inform the police stations of their whereabouts. Both, the station governing their settlement as also that of the locality they went to.
This made me wonder on what the legal provision could be and I discovered that Moghiyas are De notified Tribes (DNTs). Meena Radhakrishna writes in ‘Dishonoured by History – Hindu : 2000’ “The term ‘criminal tribes’ was concocted by the British rulers, and entered the public vocabulary for the first time when a piece of legislation called the Criminal Tribes Act was passed in 1871. With the repeal of this Act these communities were officially "denotified" in 1952”. S Viswanathan in his ‘Suspects Forever – Frontline : 2002’ adds “Under the Act 150 notified castes of "hereditary criminals" within the Hindu system were to be kept under police surveillance. Four decades after its repeal, the mind-set remains.” Dilip D'Souza writes in his ‘Branded By Law - Looking at India’s Denotified Tribes : 2001’ “As it often happens, that term has in its turn acquired derogatory connotations. And, in any case, even half a century later, they are still routinely called criminal and perceived to be so, for colonial attitudes die hard”. He adds in his ‘Lazy, shiftless, theiving But people – Rediff.com : 1998’ “I don't mean to imply that such tribes are entirely innocent of committing crimes -- they are not as the rest of India is not. But there is a context, a reason, that deserves consideration”. Meena Radhakrishna further states in her Dishonoured by History – Criminal Tribes and British Colonial Policy: 2001’ “While sedentary societies experience and express an overarching discomfort, a suspicion regarding itinerants which make for fertile ground for seeing them as potential criminals, we know little unfortunately about the myths that the itinerant people have about sedentary societies”.
Sevapura again was about 5 kms from Agraa and finally after a couple of trips as also after having heard of her I met J. She was based there with her husband who was not very pleased to see me but she somehow got on talking. While wild pig meat lay around for sun to play its role she complained of not finding any kill! I had heard of police station personnel causing her harm in no small measure and of her hot headedness. However she was perhaps was the only one of her tribe with whom I had a good laugh. She complained of the Government Officers forcing her to hunt for them! J also talked of a lawyer at Shivpuri Mr. Roop Kishore Vashisht who was trying to work for Moghiyas but said Shivpuri was too far and if we were to organize a function at Vijaypur she could help congretate about 1,000 moghiyas. She also offered to take me to a couple of villages but I could never meet her again. We had discussed gun licences issued in the area, particularly to Moghiyas, with the Agraa Police station in-charge and later got to know that 2 days hence he had forced her to get a wild pig for the Police station!
I went to Shivpuri to meet Mr. Roop Kishore Vashisht. According to him Moghiyas originally hail from Rajasthan, the expanse around Bundi - Hadoti. They were brought to this i.e the Gwalior – Chambal region for crop protection and hunting by Shri Daulatrao Scindia around 1810. Even today in Madhya Pradesh they are found primarily within physical boundaries of the erstwhile Gwalior state. Discussing their social life he said while marriage within Moghiyas earlier took place at age of 10 to 12 years today it stood at 16 to 18 years while their language he said was a mix of Rajasthani and Gujarati. I fully agreed for its similarity with Gujarati helped me in great measure. He had guided them to form an association ‘Moghiya Adivasi Samajothan Shodh Samiti’ of which M was currently the coordinator. The association had decided to conduct an annual meeting of its members on 18th of April – Shaheed Tataya Tope Diwas. He also stressed that the need of the hour was to help Moghiyas stand up to the higher castes who had been making their lives miserable since years. To bring out his point he said that the men had to wear their dhotis above their knees while women had to carry their footwear in their hands when they walked pass their oppressors. The association distributed copies of ‘Ram Charit Manas’ to its members with the belief that it was the greatest tool for social education. On my asking about their hunting wildlife he said while hunting did take place very few of them actually subsisted on it!
One these copies of Ram Charit Manas I came across at Adwada (near Sesaipura) where I met H. H was the first one to offer bidi – pudiya as is the practise otherwise in the region. He had been a sarpanch of Biloua and his son was one of the few Moghiyas I had heard who had studied till class 8. Biloua was where he cultivated 15 bhigas while at Sesaipura he another 85 bhigas. Of these only 20 bhigas were legally owned! We started chatting in context of Mr. Roop Kishore Vashisht whom he referred to as Shivpuri wale vakil (lawyer) sahib and he immediately voiced his opposition to inclusion of Bel Pardhis and Shikaris in the association. Moghiyas he said were superior to these other 2 tribes and did not have wedding and eating relations with them. He also shared that since the number of animals in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary had decreased now their rakhwali (crop protection) vocation was not in vogue in the landscape. Many Moghiyas had moved on to Uttar Pradesh too besides Rajasthan where the problem persisted.
An earlier Management Plan of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve has this to say “Moghiyas are nomadic and move camps depending upon availability of employment and availability of wild animals, whom they hunt for food and skins etc. to support their economy. The population of the Moghiya tribe is very small, but still it is a very important community for conservation of wildlife.”
I visited Hatod, also in Shivpuri, with Raju, the place I first came across on the net with reference to the Moghiyas. I could meet neither of the 2 families who lived there but sat over for long chats with people who were then based at the same 500 acre farm as them. These families, according to their co-workers, hunted almost daily but had no altercations with the forest department personnel for the later were supplied free meat. As we discussed the meat prices I realized that colleagues at Agraa were more or less on the mark. Sambar, chousingha and chital meat was sold for Rs. 40/- a Kg while Nilgai was lower at Rs. 30/-; wild pigs topped the list at Rs. 50/-. Birds were sold at Rs. 15/- each while hares were sold for Rs. 50/- during summer and Rs. 75/- during winter. They also deposited their guns and kills a little away from their dwelling place amidst the bushes. Men and women both were accomplished liquor brewers for which they put to use sugarcane and mahua. This they sold for 30/- a litre. We then went to Mani Kheda where the dam on Sind river was under construction. While we could not meet further families here we got to know that the Moghiyas were doing brisk business. They sold wild meat to labourers on the day of the week payments to them were made by contractors. The construction site employed labour in hundreds!
“Hunting is widespread countrywide and poses a serious threat to wildlife even today. However, in an environment where the very existence of hunting is often discounted or even denied, there have been very few attempts at assessing hunting intensities, their impact on wildlife populations, or the factors that promote and maintain hunting.” (M D Madhusudan and K Ullas Karanth in Local hunting and the conservation of large mammals in India : 2002).
I then had gone to Chapraith to meet L. His house was in a torn condition to put it succinctly. Cultivation did not find a mention once during our conversation and I had gathered he was primarily into hunting. He had initially complained that his nomadic lifestyle had left his children uneducated like him and that he feared that they too would suffer like him. He also mentioned of his elder son with whom he had gone to Ghaswani police station to get their gun released! When I had asked how many children he had he suddenly shouted and asked all of them to stand in a file, counted them and then added the elder one who was elsewhere. This meeting I shall remember for long on account of this. When I had talked of the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary asking him if he was aware of its creation he replied in positive stating the ban on hunting inside was fine with him since he was happy with hunting in the jungle beyond and added that he did not go to hunt inside the sanctuary.
A report by Wildlife Institute of India by A J T Johnsingh, Q Qureshi and S P Goyal ‘Assessment of prey populations for lion re-introduction in Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Central India’ : 2005’ talks of this hunting. “The Sanctuary has suffered a lot in the past, as a result of poaching by the local people, particularly the Moghia tribals. There are reports of them still sneaking into the Sanctuary to shoot wild animals. So as to reduce poaching by the use of guns in future, making use of the provisions in The Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, new gun licenses within a 10-km belt from the Sanctuary should not be issued. Efforts should be made to confiscate guns from persons known to poach”.
Panwada was next. Here we met K. Ks fame had reached us before we got to meet him. We had been warned of his being dangerous during our visit to the Burgama police station which in the first place was undertaken to know more of the Moghiyas in the vicinity. K and his brother A stayed at this village, about 3 kms from Sesaipura. He had complained of harassment from both police and forest department personnel and also lamented that their demand for crop protection had come down considerably. When I had asked rates for the work when they were employed for crop protection he had said 10 Kg of the crop per bhiga of cultivated area protected. At times they also got token amount of 100/- per household and added that they usually had to ask villagers to provide them grains in advance. In addition they had the kill at their disposal!
An earlier Management Plan for Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary states this; appears somewhat ambitious though. “In Basantpura some of the villagers engage moghia and in Masaoni a man from Bhind district to protect the crop from raiding by the herds of herbivores. These men, while performing the duties of watchmen, try to hunt the wild animals either by putting a snare or by using gun powder. Hence a serious threat of poaching of wild animals remain there between December to February every year. No outsiders should be allowed to stay inside these villages particularly during the crop season.”
We had come to know of another non government organization working with Moghiyas and this at Dewli in Rajgarh. On my writing a letter to BAIF Development Research Foundation requesting them to share information on Moghiayas I got a reply that was to surprise me further. It said “Moghia is a tribe which weaves baskets using Negard, a type of shrub available in abundance in this area. This is their only means of livelihood. On an average, each tribal person prepares 10 – 15 baskets in a month depending upon the local demand. They also trade their baskets against food with the local people. A seasonal form of employment, they migrate to neighbouring places for remaining part of the year.”
One of the few visits that Ritesh had undertaken alone turned out to be quite dramatic. He had gone (with an acquaintance) to Khodapura where they parked their vehicle and walked further 5 kms towards the Chambal river. The settlement was visible from a distance on account of fire that had been put to keep the winter at bay. As they neared it the children rushed around and S came forward to greet them He lead a nomadic life and was based Gangapur a while ago. He used to hunt regularly and by his own admission a pair of sambhar horns fetched him Rs. 4,000/- while the hides ranged between Rs.3,000/- and Rs. 5,000/-. Most of this he sold in the leather market near the fort at Agra. He used to supply animal parts to government officials in both states receiving due price for his “efforts”. Recently he had sold hide of a baby leopard to a customer from Secunderabad for Rs.12,000/-. They had spent the night at the village and in the morning after long round of pestering were shown a glimpse of 1 lepoard skin and few chital horns. These were stored under beneath a shrub that they reached only after walking another 3 kms!
We had also made a trip to Mau, 10 Kms from Sheopur and interacted with some village elders who were not from the tribe. They said the while during times gone by rulers and jamindars forced the Moghiyas to accompany them on shikars (hunts) some of today’s babus asked them for favours in form of meat, stating the species clearly! Hunting they had pointed was very much prevalent and had shared of 2 incidents. Few weeks ago a leopard had been killed near Virpur and the issue was hushed up while few years ago a box that fell from the bus going from Sheopur to Sawai Madhopur had deer horns and not wooden toys as it was supposed to have. They also told us how Moghiyas were very sharp eyed and could decipher footprints even amidst thick foliage. By virtue of this skill that they possessed they had helped one of the elders we were talking to, Udaysinghji, to get hold of the culprits who had stolen 3 sacks of grain from his store.
A National Geographic coverage of Dharmendra’s efforts by Paul Kvinta and Tom Pietrasik – ‘Cat Fight : 2009’ states “Though extremely marginalized in India’s stratified caste system, ranking down near the Untouchables, Moghiyas do command respect for their significant bush skills. You won’t find better trackers and hunters”
Patalgarh was next. We had got to talk to the Moghiya families here but the conversation was of a slightly different nature. They had talked of their deities Dhudhu Mai, Salla Mai and Banki Mai and how they offered them goats on occasions. They extracted oil from wild pig fat to put to use in cooking. They seldom cooked for their guests but hand raw food over to them. They were not educated by reason of their nomadic lifestyle but wanted their children to be educated. However when their had children attended school they were harassed and often beaten up by children from higher castes. When children married the bride’s parents received dowry! According to them the social discrimination had continued even when they worked as daily labourers for they were given wages at rates lower than that of their higher caste counterparts!
Talks at Agraa and at other places had featured issues that I understand Moghiyas would not have communicated on. Moghiyas used muzzle loaders. Some of them were apt at making these and electricity poles could be put to use in the process. The ammunition primarily was potash, gunpowder and ball-bearings. Quantity and proportion of the ingredients varies depended on the intended kill. We were then able to procure all the ingredients easily at the Vijaypur market where potash cost Rs.20/- per 10 grams and gunpowder Rs. 150/- per kg. They would have license for one gun while actually possessing more than the licensed number. These are risky and many a times trigger off a blast that is fatal for the person handling the gun. They maintain camels which are also used to tow their kills. While a camel could carry a wild pig or a chital a Sambar would be a little too heavy for it. Sahariya men at times ask Moghiyas to accompany them for hunting. In return or making hunting easy them they would give Moghiyas a pre decided share of the kill. At times this could also take form of a Honkaro. Here 20 to 30 Sahariya men would accompany 1 or 2 Moghiyas on a hunt. The Moghiya would wait in a clearing ready to shoot while the Sahariya men would go shouting in the bushes and trees nearby such that wildlife would move in sheer surprise and fright to the clearing where the Moghiyas would be waiting. I was also told that since villages had shifted outside the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary Moghiyas had lost a ready market at the place of action and now found it relatively difficult to sell meat!
This series of conversations with Moghiyas presents a confusing picture to say the least and the road ahead is a challenge. A tribe that probably knows more natural history than many of us who read this has had its skill-sets rendered illegal (hunting) and redundant (crop–protection). At a time when Wildlife Conservation needs all friends and supporters it can get to stand on its feet to development, can we make it possible for Moghiyas and other such tribes to join us !
To close I share something I read today on similar lines by M D Madhusudan and Mahesh Rangarajan ‘Nature without borders – The Problem’ – Seminar : 2010 “Conservation in practice has to tie in with wider secular trends that combine ecological sanity with justice, a space for nature with one for livelihoods. There are working approaches with different and often more effective ways of drawing on knowledge and institutions, processes and practices to create more not less space for nature. But for that we need to think afresh and create anew!”
Posts
