“Prabodhan Aaranyotsav”: The Forest Food Festival at Ambatha, Nashik Dt.

Although every year MPSM celebrates the Forest Food Festival ‘Prabodhan Aranyotsav’, this year was truly special. The scale, variety, enthusiasm and professionalism infused into the event was impressive.

A lot of preparatory work had gone into the event which was celebrated with gaiety and gusto on August 17, 2004 in Ambatha, Surgana. Fr Paul Raj and his team made every effort to make the Utsav a success by coordinating with Fr Joel, Fr Callistus and the team at MPSM. This collaboration produced a synergy resulting in the celebration of an event truly worth remembering.

The guests and dignitaries were welcomed by a beautiful tribal dance accompanied by music produced by traditional local instruments. Around a thousand plus attended. The participants were predominantly women, which was appreciated by the guests. Jesuits from the Province, such as Fr Godfrey (a Trustee and former Director), Fr Wesley (Director of the Pre-Novitiate), women and men religious from other congregations attended. The Pre-novices and a few scholastics contributed immensely. They worked hard and in concord with MPSM’s senior staff and the new recruits.             

There were several eminent speakers whose inputs enthused and enlightened and raised hope for future direction, expansion, collaboration and networking.

Ms Amruta from EcoSatva spoke of the urgent need for Bio-Diversity Conservation. She called for an immediate and urgent action for the restoration of degraded eco-systems which has adverse impacts on the food chain consequently affecting the quality of life in general. She underscored the need to maintain a Bio-Diversity Register.

Milind Thatte, a forest rights activist, talked about the rights of tribal people on the one hand and made an impassioned plea to protect the forests on the other. He focused on the two important legislations – the Forest Rights Act that gave the forest dwellers their rights and the Bio-Diversity Act that makes provision for the preservation of threatened biodiversity. He compared the Forest to a ‘mother’ who protects her children and cautioned all against harming her. He told the tribals that he is willing to join hands with MPSM to engage with them.  

Sharvari Kalantre, a well-known nutritionist, talked about the importance of various food and fibre for adequate nutrition needed for good health. She talked about the role fibre plays to clean up our system. She asked the participants to eat more of nutritious vegetables than, for instance, consuming large amounts of chutni that has few nutrients. Pointing out the importance of nutrition for health, she said that if we balance our food and have proper nutrition, we need not go to the doctor and consume allopathic medicines. She stressed the importance of vitamins that come from food.  

Deepali Chandak, a well-known woman entrepreneur, was full of praise for the work MPSM was doing and for the reflection it was generating in terms of improving agriculture and livelihood opportunities of the farmers. She applauded the ‘vichar manthan’ that was going on at the festival and was sure that something very precious (amrut), would emerge from it that would benefit the lives of the farming communities. She felt there was a good scope to improve the livelihood opportunities by popularizing forest vegetables and by going in for entrepreneurship.  

Leena Bansod IAS, Managing Director – Maharashtra State Cooperative Tribal Development Corporation Limited, emphasized the importance of developing livelihood opportunities. While she appreciated the subsistence economy of the tribal people and their self-sufficiency, she felt that they should look beyond and go also for a cash economy by producing and selling their surplus in the markets. She felt that they should also think of a cash economy to finance some of their other basic needs for the education of children, medical treatment, travel and so on. She advised them to make use of the government schemes and loan facilities. She said she believed that adivasis can become good entrepreneurs if they received training. In this connection she talked about the PESA gram sabhas and projects undertaken such as the cultivation and marketing of bamboos and nagli etc.

She told the participants that since their products are organic, they deserve to get higher prices for their produce. She also suggested good packaging and branding for better marketing appeal and bigger sale. She suggested going in for a logo, etc. She encouraged the adivasis to be ‘future ready’ and so invest in technology and entrepreneurship. In this connection, she mentioned ‘Eklavya Kushal’. She also talked about the need to engage in tribal tourism and elaborated on the concept of ‘Immersive Tourism’ that would be attractive plus sustainable in nature. She said that there is enough demand from urban dwellers for such an experience. This could generate local employment and result in income generation. There would be demand for ‘guides’, ‘Trekkers’, ‘bullock carts’ and so on. All this would lead to a healthy transformation and better and sustainable development.

Kashiram Sevre (Vaidu-Sarpanch): He is a vaidu (traditional healer). In search of ‘herbs that heal’, this intrepid healer takes risks and has ventured deep into forests (of other states as well) and has had to deal with hostile forest guards. He spoke confidently about the effectiveness of herbal remedies and seemed to be a repository of traditional healing systems that also called for a certain amount of restraint, discipline and sadhana from adherents/practitioners. He carried with him some herbs and vegetables which he said were effective in treating several ailments, from headaches to other serious illnesses. He said there was no need for rushing to the allopathic doctors and incur unnecessary expenses and side effects. His treatment has been particularly helpful to pregnant women. In many cases, miscarriages had been prevented.

The book “Adivasi Davaduri”, by Late Marie D’Souza, the 3^rd revised edition, was also released at the Event reinforcing the need to document the rich tradition of healing practices among tribals.

After the main event in the mandap, the dignitaries and participants made their way to the hall to taste the various types of food items, more than 30, prepared by the tribals from the forest produce. The variety of food items, some of them being medicinal in nature, was remarkable. There was bhaker made out of rice, nagli and other grain, tasty chutnis, and a host of other preparations. The food on display was particularly useful from the point of view of nutrition and health. Almost everyone was seen tasting the food and expressing their joy and admiration for nature’s bounty and gratitude to the villagers for their hard and creative labour.

Pooling resources towards a worthy cause, coordinating with several stakeholders, collaborating and networking with various NGOs, Govt Agencies, production of quality publicity material, planning and conceptualizations, team building and communication, etc. call for skilful leadership, which Fr. Joel Noronha S.J. provided. Given the activities and the thinking behind activities such as the ‘forest food festival’ we realize that they align with some important Apostolic Preferences (Universal, Conference and Provincial) of our Society. Preferences such as Ecology, Spirituality, accompanying our Youth and Walking with the Poor, and so on, have been guiding us, sometimes invisibly, in our quest for health, healing, wholeness, peace and reconciliation – with God, with one another and with creation.

Tony Dias S.J.