Once up on a time there was a woman named Lakshmi. She lived in the jungle and off it. She had none of the creature comforts we take for granted. No tea, no coffee, no penicillin, no flour, no milled rice. She lived among elephants, pythons, tigers, leopards, bears, and all the other denizens of the jungle. All were her friends. Amid them she lived for 40 years, 18 of those alone. And then one day…
It sounds like a tale you heard from your grandmother a long time ago on a nice, lazy afternoon. But this story happens to be true, a perfect example of that adage that the truth is often stranger than fiction. When TNIE met this remarkable woman it was in the jungle hamlet of Panavally, about 18 km off Mananthavadi in the Wayanad district of Kerala. The village is nestled close to the Begur Forest Range of the Wayanad Wildlife S
anctuary.
Even on the threshold of 70, Lakshmi looked charming. Her eyes radiant with spirit, words with fire and movement elegant. She came to Panavally only recently, rehabilitated in the village which is close to the jungle.
The story of Lakshmi daughter of Ranga Shetti from Mysore would probably have been unremarkable if she had not married Dasan Chetti in the 1960s. Dasan was the son of a farmer at Kottappadi, a jungle hamlet that’s about 2km from the Appappara-Tholppetti Road. The hamlet is close to the Thirunelli Maha Vishnu Temple, the jungle shrine of Vishnu, known as the Kashi of the south. Lakshmi went to Kottapadi to live with her husband.
After a few years of marriage the couple moved to a ‘one-acre’ land owned by Dasan. On this land, enveloped by virgin forest, they made a nest, and shared love and life. “My husband liked the jungle very much,” she recalls, “and gradually I also started loving the charm of nature around us.”
It was difficult at first as she had to overcome her natural fears. “I was afraid of animals, whether elephants or smaller animals, but gradually the fear was replaced with a passion for the life that abounded around us”, said Lakshmi Avva.
She fell in love with the jungle eventually. There were not many families in the vicinity, so she befriended the animals. A devotee of Ganesha and Krishna, she found she could strike a chord with the wild world.
Eighteen years ago, Dasan Chettiar died. By that time, the village had become part of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. Without any children, Lakshmi was alone in the jungle. Many thought she would leave the forest for her relatives elsewhere or at least for the nearby hamlet. But to everyone’s surprise she decided to stay back.
Days passed and the seasons changed. The years went by, but for Lakshmi the outside world hardly mattered. On rare occasions she visited nearby Panavally or Mananthavadi town, mainly to buy essential supplies. The people living in the villages on the fringes of jungle fondly called her Lakshmi Avva (Mother). She was happy in the jungle. No animal ever attacked her. No elephant herd raided her homestead. Forest officials believe she has the power to command the herds. Even the deadliest tusker will not touch her.
“I enjoyed my life in the jungle. I overcame my fear of animals. Now, why should I be afraid? I lived there for decades. I know each animal. And they know me. If there is a newcomer in the elephant herd I could identify it. It was like meeting neighbours, after a while. Whenever I felt there was trouble I would chant hymns of Ganesha and Krishna,” Lakshmi Avva says.
The mother of the jungle was an enigma to everyone who had heard about her. They attributed divine powers to her. She lived all by herself for 18 long years, to the amazement of the people around. From Mysore to Wayanad Sanctuary was a great distance. And then one day, her story took a new turn.
One day, officials from the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), an NGO that focuses on the rehabilitation of families living on elephant passages, visited Lakshmi in her jungle nest. They pleaded with her to leave and promised to look into her rehabilitation. This would mean the jungle would be left exclusively to the animals.
“At first, I was shocked. How could I leave a place I loved so deeply?” asked Lakshmi Avva. When the initial talks failed to bear fruit, the NGO sought the help of the forest department. Then followed months of ‘persuasion’. It worked.
“They told me I was becoming old. So it would be tough for me to live in the jungle. They also offered me a house close to the jungle. I don’t want to become a burden for anybody at this age. So I decided to shift”, says Lakshmi Avva.
Thus, on September 23, she left the jungle for a new home at Panavally near Kattikulam. Avva took only a small idol of Ganesha along with her from the jungle. She wept when she bade adieu to her simple abode. She greeted the trees, birds, billowing bamboo and the wind that whistled through. All the way to the edge of the jungle, she chanted songs, the songs of her heart that enlivened her jungle life.
Is she happy with her new life surrounded by people? “I have learned to be happy everywhere”, she replies. “God is everywhere, the wind is everywhere and life is everywhere. In the jungle there are animals and birds; here it is the people. That is the only difference,” she added.
Within a few days of her arrival she had become an endearing presence in the hamlet. Everybody knows Avva. All greet her. Recently, she even organised a housewarming ceremony, though it was extremely simple. Avva is home again, even though the neighbours are so different.
The Mother of the Jungle has become the Mother of the Village. Saving elephants one family at a time
Saving the Elephants
The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) is an NGO on a mission to restore the elephant corridors of south Indian forests. It was WTI that took the initiative to rehabilitate the families living in the jungle hamlets as part of clearing the Thirunelli-Kuthrakotte elephant corridor linking Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary with the Brahmagiri Wildlife Sanctuary of Karnataka through the forests of the North Wayanad Forest Division.
Executed with the cooperation of forest department, the rehabilitation project is funded by Elephant Family, an NGO based in the UK. The Tirunelli-Kuthrakotte corridor is a 2,200-acre strip of land that links the Tholppetti and Begur Forest Reserves. When the project began, the corridor was home to 54 families in five settlements.
“So far we have rehabilitated 35 families of Thirulukunnu, Valiyammidi, Pulayankolli and Kottappadi hamlets in connection with the project”, said Sabu Jahas, project manager. “Each family will get equal extent of land and a house worth `2.25 lakh as part of the project”, he added.
“In the case of Lakshmi Avva WTI has also deposited `1 lakh in bank as she is an aged woman who needs some money each month”, he added.
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·First Published : 11 Dec 2010 09:17:00 AM IST
