Protect our tribes!

There are truly so many tribes and clans in India; it is baffling we live in this cocoon of a world we have built for ourselves, thinking this is life, while elsewhere, these clans and tribes truly live life.

One such tribe is the camel herding tribe of Sadri, known as Raikas. This tribe walks around the plains of Rajastha, pasturing the camels. The farmers, after the harvest, allow these herds of camels to pasture on their land as the camels not only clear the field but also make it fertile with their dung. But the sad state we stand in today is that there are lesser and lesser farms around and this means, these tribes, walk with their herds of camels, almost up to Madhya Pradesh. The tribe has its own ‘vet’ or animal healers, who follow traditional methods of healing, where a variety of ailments merely by smelling a ball of sand on which the animal has urinated. But the sad story here today, common with almost all the tribes across India is that the Raikas tribe is fast getting extinct. With lesser farm lands, Govt declaring the traditional pasturing land of the camels as ‘reserved national park’, with children of Raikas tribe getting educated and many migrating to the city, this is one tribe about which we may not even read in the books.

Development is good and a necessity. But it cannot come at the cost of eradicating our roots and our history. Preserving these tribes is as essential as preserving our monuments and environment.