It’s ironical that scores of Adivasis lose their lives to seasonal diseases during a period when they are highly cautious and take certain measures to ward off ailments. Most of the deaths caused by diseases, between 30 and 35 this season according to independent estimates, have taken place during the month of shravan , i.e., August-September, a period when the tribal people take to stilt walking to avoid slush and thereby avoid contagious diseases.
Stilt walking is on the wane as it is no longer required by the farmers to reach their fields through slushy paths. Not only the roads in and outside habitations have been developed in recent decades, but the change in layout of villages, thanks to weaker section housing has rendered the activity irrelevant.
Stilts were used when tribal people encountered slush while going to their fields or travelled to villages. The use of bamboo sticks to walk protected them from snake bites and diseases that came through, as is believed by the Adivasi Gonds, Kolams and Pardhans.
“People of my father’s generation used to walk on ‘khodang’ or bamboo stilts when they were required to go out of the village,” recalls Atram Chandu, a 55-year-old Gond at Marlavai village in Jainoor mandal. “Even Haimendorf saab had found it useful, my father used to say,” he adds of the days of famous Anthropologist Christopher von Furer-Haimendorf, who had made Marlavai his home in 1941.
‘A game’“Though only children walk on stilts these days thinking of it as some kind of a game, the activity is part of our religion,” observes Madavi Lachu.
“The season starts at the start of the month of Shravan and ends on Pola , the festival of thanksgiving to bullocks,” he explains.
The day after Pola , the khodang are discarded in a heap at the village boundary. This is also an occasion for the Adivasis to feast at the place by observing ‘bodaga’ to thank their gods for keeping them safe from diseases.
On their way back, the tribal people carry herbs from the jungles which are burnt in the evening.
The children are made to inhale the emanating smoke which is considered to have medicinal properties.
