In Pics: From Tripura to Gulf via Chennai

Why young men are escaping Tripura for slums of Chennai ?

Slums of  Chennai are becoming the testing ground for young men from Tripura who want to go to Gulf countries in search of better, richer lives. Each one of these young men has a plan — they know what they will be doing in five,10, 20 years. Life is a game of hopscotch; the moves have been charted for them by those who have gone before.

Spend four-five years working in a big Indian city, save money to move to one of the Gulf countries, work there on a higher salary and return home with bigger savings. Life can wait. “My mother is looking for a girl, but I want to earn enough money first,” Rakib Ali says. “Then I can start a family.”
For many of them it is the first time, they come across the sea. It scares them but also soothes them.



They stay in dark, stuffy rooms of the Sreenivasapuram slum where the Adyar river meets the Bay of Bengal. Assamese security men, Rajasthani carpenters and Odia cooks live here alongside Tamil fishers, and auto mechanics. Lovers scrawl their names on the ruins of houses that the sea clawed down in 2017, during a severe storm.



Lorries of bubble-top cans, the only source of drinking water, jostle for road space with cars outside local service stations. Tsunami rescue drills are regularly conducted to keep the floating population and rescuers abreast of the things to do in case disaster strikes.


Tripura has the highest unemployment rate in India at 19.7 per cent, as compared to the national average of 4.9 per cent, said the Ministry of Labour’s Annual Employment-Unemployment Survey, 2015-16 report.

Tripura had the second highest number of emigrant households, after Sikkim, among north-eastern states, according to the NSS 64th Round Migration in India 2007-08 survey. This can be attributed to Tripura’s geographical and demographic attributes, which differ from its neighbouring states.

Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on three sides and has a majority Bangla population due to migration since ancient times. Bangladesh has high rate of emigration to Gulf countries and thanks to easy movement of people and news, this trend easily caught up with Bengali men in Tripura. In the absence of proper information, they end up paying hefty amounts to unscrupulous recruitment agents.



The trend of emigration is escalating even among the state’s tribal population. Bhola (19) belongs to the Tripura or Tripuri tribe. His family has a small rubber plantation which does not provide sufficient income. 

The 12-by-12 feet room he shares with five other boys in Sreenivaspuram is criss-crossed with two nylon ropes bearing piles of clothes, both washed and unwashed. Several bags lie stacked along one wall. Three mats are laid out on the floor. The ceiling fan whirrs futilely overhead, merely distributing the hot air around the room. The grey wall of the kitchen shelf is turning black from the soot from the kerosene stove.



Most boys sit out in lungis, out on the terrace to enjoy the evening sea breeze. A couple of them bathe in the saline groundwater, readying for the night shift. Their vacated sleeping slots will soon be taken up by the ones coming back from their day shifts.

“Water is not good here but there is no other option. Canned water is costly and only used for drinking,” Bhola says. “In Tripura, rivers are clean and there are wells and ponds within our compounds.”


These young men, and the dozens more like them who pour into Chennai by the day, see these hardships as a necessary step to their future. In contrast, many unskilled or semi-skilled emigrants from India mortgage family properties or take loans, often from recruitment agents, at high interest rates to meet the migration cost.

“Such a practice increases the vulnerabilities of migrant workers manifold,” said a 2015 report by International Labour Organization on migration from India to the Gulf countries. “Several cases are reported in which workers are forced to work in deplorable conditions because of the huge debt burden incurred during the pre-departure phase.”



Things can still go horribly wrong, however. Gopal Das, a 36-year-old driver, had to be rescued from Saudi Arabia in 2017 by the Ministry of External Affairs after he sent an SOS video over Twitter. Das was hired as a family driver, but was forced to work on farms without salary or food.

“Whenever I asked for money, they threatened to kill me,” he says, on phone from his native Barapathari village in South Tripura district. “I am glad to be out of there, but in Tripura, I am not getting regular work. Sometimes I think about going back. Maybe I will get lucky this time.” 

The writer wishes to thank the National Geographic Society and the Out of Eden Walk, whose 2018 Journalism Workshop supported the creation of this project.

Those who tend to the forest

Ram Prasad, a member of a study group that recorded the bio wealth of the forest, digging out a tuber in the forest of Pondi village, Madhya Pradesh. “We were able to convince people that saving the forest is in our interest as it will stop providing us food, wood and medicines, if we don’t change our practices,” said Ram Prasad.

Ram Prasad pushes his spade into the soil digging around two hands deep. After a few minutes, he fishes out a clean, white tuber sans the hair usually attached to underground food. Colloquially called Dongchi Kanda, the greasy, minutely sweet root was worth the effort. “It is very good for scorpion bite as well. Tie it at the place of bite and the poison won’t spread in the body. The person can easily be taken to the healer,” Ram Prasad informs. After a short uphill climb, he digs out another tuber. This one did not require much effort and had a faint hint of turnip.

The forest around Pondi village in Baiga Chak region of Madhya Pradesh is full of such vines and tubers as well as trees of sal, mahua (Madhuca Indica) and tendu (Diospyros Melanoxylon). Mehul (Bauhinia Vahlii), the largest creeper of India, is stretched over the forest. Its large leaves, divided into two symmetrical lobes, are used to serve food or stitched to carve bowls, while its stems are entwined and strained into ropes.

Till some years ago, these vines and tubers were in scarcity and all one could see was a stretch of sal trees. Thanks to villagers like Ram Prasad, who are a part of the local forest study group, the diversity has evidently come back.

Baiga Chak, an officially recognised traditional habitat of Baiga tribe, has always been known for its myriad species and their inclusion in local diet, lifestyle and healthcare. With changing times, however, the forest was losing its richness. This prompted the non-profit National Institute of Women, Child, and Youth Development (NIWCYD) to establish forest study groups in various villages of the area in 2005.

The approach was unique as instead of getting experts to research on the changing ecosystem, villagers were trained to not only analyse the situation, but also suggest conservation plans through available local knowledge. In short, they were to become citizen scientists.

However, before all that, it was essential to generate a spirit of ownership among locals. “Villagers had lost connection with the jungle as they believed it belongs to the forest department, which never consults them on its management. This meant they didn’t feel the responsibility to preserve it as well. As we talked to them about how they use the forest in more ways than one, they realised the need for conservation and also asserting their right in governance,” says Balwant Rahangdale of NIWCYD.

In the process

Mehul, the largest creeper of India, had become scarce. It is now abundantly available thanks to efforts of villagers who studied the bio wealth of their area and implemented conservation practices.

The forest study group members interviewed village elders and documented details of 71 bird species, 56 varieties of trees, 23 types of wild vegetables, 18 types of tubers and 34 varieties of medicinal herbs along with their uses. A herbarium was also prepared for floral species. They found that bamboo, amla (Gooseberry), char (Buchanania cochinchinensis), tendu, mehul, harra (Terminelia Chebula) and many more useful species were declining.

“The study also informed us that over exploitation and faulty extraction was leading to this drop in forest quality,” says 29-year-old Kisan Lal Pasgaiyan, one of the members of the forest study group. Many villagers would cut down the whole tree instead of just taking the fruits or flowers. They would also light fire to get rid of bushes which make certain areas inaccessible. “In addition, forest department preferred sal over other species for its timber. Coupe felling or routine axing of trees by the department to encourage regrowth would also kill vines like mehul and falling trees crushed seedlings,” Pasgaiyan adds. 

The study groups presented their findings in gram sabha (village council) meetings and sought suggestions from everyone. “We were able to convince people that saving the forest is in our interest. If we don’t do that it will stop providing us food, wood and medicines,” Ram Prasad adds.

Solutions to problems 

What followed was a comprehensive plan to stop reckless cutting of trees and burning of forest floor. Patrols were set up and fines imposed on violators. “It still took us a couple of years to make people understand and follow sustainable practices,” Pasgaiyan says.

The forest department also had to face a lot of resistance in its coupe-felling exercises. Thankfully, nature responded to such actions and several floral varieties have strengthened their hold. The basket of forest produce has also expanded. “People earn extra income by selling produce like mushrooms, mehul and tendu leaves, which have spread over a larger area, all thanks to the study and subsequent actions taken by the villagers,” says Balwant Rahangdale of NIWCYD.

Theory put into practice

The ownership villagers now feel for forest is evident from the fire-control measures they take. “Earlier people would not even put down the fire close to the village. Now many rush to extinguish the flames anywhere in the jungle,” Pasgaiyan points out.

The real evidence of improved forest health comes from the status of water bodies. The two main streams, which used to dry up by April first week, now run till end of May. Many farmers have now started sowing Rabi (winter) crop of wheat and ramtilla (an oilseed), not possible earlier.

The concept of citizen science thrown up by the Baigas gains greater importance when looked in the backdrop of persistent rural to urban migration and loss of traditional knowledge with passing away of older generations. Such exercises in documentation and analysis can be a good means to not only preserve the knowledge but also benefit ecosystem-dependent occupations, including farming, fishing, and trade in minor forest produce. Considering that India is still a biomass-based country, the impact can be massive.

— This article had been done with support from the Trans Disciplinary University (TDU)-Nature India Media Fellowship.