A lifelong bond

Tribals are those who live in forests, and this is what people know in general about the heritage community of India that constitutes more than eight per cent of our national population. It's true in the perspective of urban India as this is what little all of us are taught about them in school, and with this little knowledge about the country's hidden jewel, a young Indian Administrative Officer — Pravir Krishna — was assigned the task of handling the affairs of tribal-dominated district, Sarguja, as the District Collector. Sarguja is a den of the custodians of the forest.

The 1987-batch IAS Krishna was handpicked by the then Chief Minister of United Madhya Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, in 1994, as the new Collector of Surguja after his predecessor was removed over the allegations of making quick bucks from the relief funds meant for tribal welfare.

Krishna, who came to know about his new assignment at a midnight in 1994 during his stint as the Additional Collector in Jabalpur, was not much familiar with the tribals and their problems. Prior to his Sarguja posting, Krishna was like any other young IAS officer who would be busy planning and implementing different welfare schemes. The Surguja posting became a defining moment of his career, and from there on, he committed himself towards the holistic development of tribals. His journey is still on, which he hopes will never end, and this is his tryst with the tribes.

The book, 'Tryst with the Tribes', is the story of how a young IAS officer fell in love with India's tribal heartlands, and how these experiences changed him forever.

During his Sarguja posting, Krishna first came face-to-face with the stark realities of the exploitation of tribal people. It affected him so deeply that he embarked on a journey towards bettering the lives of tribals. Ever since, he has helped create an atmosphere where tribals could trade freely and earn more. In fact, his market reforms were listed by the UNO-FAO among 32 global best practices. Pravir's close association with the tribes began in Sarguja, it then continued in Bastar, and now as the managing director of Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), it has become even more important.

Two decades later, his efforts have culminated in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Jatiya Vikas Mission, an initiative for an enterprise-centric approach to tribal development vis-à-vis the traditional welfare-centric approach. The book also discusses critical topics like the pros and cons of providing a fair deal to tribes for their forest produce, and what needs to be done to quadruple the incomes of tribes using this as the engine.

The author offers various hands-on suggestions for transforming symbolic legislation for the tribes to a more robust approach towards tribal development which is based on strengthening self-help; use of local resources and sound traditional skills and knowledge bank of the tribes; and the need to develop enterprises based on these resources.

This is the remarkable story of a bureaucrat whose destiny is forever entwined with that of many of India's tribal communities.

In India, it is estimated that over 100 million tribal and other forest-dwelling persons depend on the forests for their subsistence and livelihood. It is normal to hear people, especially tourists visiting tribal areas, talking about the development of tribes without displacement and destroying their culture.

The author writes that Indian forests have an estimated diversity of 3,000 plant species that yield NTEPs, also known as Minor Forest Produce (MNF). If MNP activity is strengthened, tribal communities can become prosperous in their own habitat within the shortest time span, with moderate investment from the government. So, strengthening NTFP is a sure route to empowerment in tribal areas and this was the underlying argument behind the Van Dhan idea.

Acknowledging the efforts of Pravir, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said, "The book Tryst with the Tribes contains a very gripping narrative of a number of interesting experiences that the author has had in the tribal hinterland of India. The book not only makes fascinating reading, giving us the benefit of the author's insightful journey into the life and culture of the tribal groups but also gives a vivid description of the story of TRIFED that he has remarkably turned around with great competence, finesse, and foresight."

The book, 'Tryst with the Tribe' — one of its kind — offers a window to a creative blend of tradition and modernity that the author has brought to the field of tribal development.

Views expressed are personal