Resource rich or poor?
Left behind or on the margins is how the mainstream development lens would look at the tribal communities who continue to live in forest villages, like this man from a village in Odisha's Kandhamal area. On several parameters that have been defined by those who have access to development, his community would be found wanting, education, health, and economic resources. But this appears ironical as they live in the forest on the very resources that the developed need so badly. They are resource-rich but poor by definition. Modern medicine, nutrition, etc apart, the community itself does not find itself to be poor. What they do struggle with is how their methods and world views have become contested and unsustainable. They cannot grow enough to eat or buy what they did not need until the modern world and market did not hit them. I often drop my structured and resource-focused approach to see the view from the one who has lived in forests believing that the real space and t...
