Poor in bandh-hit Darjeeling scavenge for food in forests
SILIGURI: Fifty-six-year-old and without work for a month, Asok Thapa is not strong enough to walk 7 km every day and search for wild mushroom and bamboo shoots inside the Sukna forest. So, he has found a partner in Ajay Rai, 20 years younger. Unlike the childless Thapa, Rai has three children to look after. Compulsions have somehow made them perfect partners.
The duo, just like most poor people in the Darjeeeling hills, is victim of the circumstances created by the indefinite bandh called by 15 political parties and non-political organisations demanding Gorkhaland.
Thapa and Rai want their own state too but right now, they are desperately looking for food. And, on most days they return to their wives emptyhanded.
As life in these picturesque hills remain paralysed, people like Rai and Thapa seem to find themselves at the wrong end of an ethnic movement although their support for the cause remains unquestioned.
Residents of Chunbhatti in Kurseong sub-division, about 21 km from Siliguri, the duo was seen walking down NH-55 on Thursday. They were returning from Sukna forest after completing a rigorous routine.
“All we have at home is some rice. We go deep into the forest to look for mushroom and bamboo shoot so that we can at least cook a dish. Our families received 10kg of rice each a week days ago from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.
But how long can one eat only rice?” said Rai. Thapa, a daily wage earner till last month, said, “We have no lentils, cooking oil, vegetable and money. Mushroom and herbs from the jungles are all we can live on, only if we are lucky enough to find some.”