At core of survival

Water scarcity defines life in a village inside Sariska Tiger Reserve's critical habitat, as debates over its relocation drag on

- BHAGIRATH KOTPUTLI-BEHROR, RAJASTHAN

BOTH ANIMALS and humans drink from here,” says Suman Gurjar as she dips a plastic container into a johad. The small, earthen check dam, built on the rocky terrain of the Aravalli hills to hold monsoon runoff, is filled with murky water. On one side, the johad is lined with thorny bushes, while the rest of the embankment is covered with animal dung and droppings. The green colour of the water suggests that it is mixed with animal waste and is not fit for consumption. “But we have little option,” says Suman, as she prepares to pour the water into another 20-litre drum through a thin white cloth in an arbitrary attempt at filtration. She will then carry the drum on her head for about 1 kilo-metre on foot to her house in Raika Mala village, located in Rajasthan’s Kotputli-Behror district.

Nestled high in the Aravallis and deep inside the Sariska Tiger Reserve, Raika Mala has an unusual layout. Households in the village are spread across a rocky, uneven landscape, with about 10 johads dotting the periphery. “These are our only sources of water for bathing, cooking and drinking,” says Suman, who makes six to seven trips a day to the johad, carrying back 20-30 litres of water on each trip. Almost all the women in the village spend up to four hours a day on this routine of travelling to the nearest johad in search of water.

Though Suman now goes through the daily ordeal without much complaint, she recalls her first experience of living in the village. lage with virtually no water source, let alone potable water. When she first moved to Raika Mala as a newlywed from her maternal home in Kalikhol village, in neighbouring Alwar district, 15 years ago, the daily struggle to secure water had come as a shock. She had then asked her parents if they knew what they had gotten her into.