Mood lifting lights

‘Diyas’ or tealights are an integral part of most Indian households - be it tribal homes or urban. While the tribals have their own set of festivals and celebrations, they contribute immensely during some major Indian festivals such as Dussehra and Diwali, supplying timber, tribal diyas etc. In October 2020, something remarkable happened in the Bastar region’s Kakalgud. This tribal village is home to Sal trees spread in 1,000-odd acres of jungle. Sal trees take many decades to grow and spread and tribal folk are careful not to cut them. Besides, the tribals also plant several Sal saplings every year as a gesture of giving back to the jungle. The rural and urban folk of Bastar had the practice of cutting these trees for a chariot tableau every year for the Dussehra festival. Watching the forest cover getting thinner every year due to this practice, the tribal sentinels approached the Gram Panchayat (local administration of the village) and asked them to stop supplying wood from their jungle for Dussehra. When several groups from Bastar’s areas approached the village for cutting the trees, the village authorities politely explained the importance of the forest cover for the sustenance of the tribal population. Much to the surprise of authorities, all the groups who had approached the area for timber understood and respected their decision of not cutting trees. They went to other isolated jungles for timber and Kakalgud’s Sal tree cover was saved. The festival of Dussehra, which marks the destruction of evil, came true to its message and destroyed the evil practice of cutting Sal trees. Now the tealight holders that the tribal folk make during Dussehra and Diwali are gentle reminders of this victory.