| Humta Pahad resembles a cake with a huge piece missing |
Humta village in the interiors of Jharkhand has a queer, yet extraordinary, landmark — a mountain with one side completely flat. Hundreds of metres of gray rocky expanse glistening in the sun, Humta Pahad resembles a cake with a huge piece missing.
If the sight of the mountain strikes you as odd, the ‘flat’ explanation is bizarre. For years, villagers have been chipping away at Humta Pahad so they can feed their families. They cut the rocks, which are then snapped up by construction industry giants.
The disappeared side of the mountain is a statement on the state of governance in the insurgency-hit region, where officials do not venture, saying Naxalites will attack them. Villagers say that is a convenient excuse.
“Government officials tell us, ‘we cannot come there, it is an MCC (Maoist Communist Centre) area’. But that is not true,” said Draupadi Devi, the only woman in her village preparing to be a graduate in a year. “The Naxals do not try to stop development work. They know we will oppose them if they do.”
Many children go to school in the area, but that, for most, is their dead end. The few who could go to college in nearby Bundu town had no employment opportunities thereafter. There was little to earn from, except by selling firewood. None of the welfare schemes of the central or state governments have touched the lives of the people here.
“We had to feed ourselves and our families, and we realised there was nothing that the government or anyone else was going to do for us,” said Turu Munda, 45, as he takes a break from stone cutting.
Every morning at 7, dozens of men and women come to the site, many barefoot. The men trudge up the rock face with hammers. The women remain at the base to chisel the rocks into neat cubes and lug them to the waiting trucks.
They get a rupee and a half for every cube of rock — as big as two loaves of bread pressed against each other. Of that, the village head or munda gets 20 paise as commission, because he owns the mountain according to customary laws.
A munshi (clerk) sits at the base of the mountain jotting down every tedious detail. Each rock is accounted for before villagers dump them in the trolleys. These belong to agents of construction companies in Ranchi, forever looking for raw material to feed the booming construction industry.
Villagers work 11 hours every day, winding up at about 6 pm, making Rs 150 on a good day. With no other livelihood opportunities in sight, many wonder how long it is before the Humta Pahad will disappear.
“It was a huge mountain. One third has been cut off over years now. Let us see how long it lasts,” said local lawyer Vinod Kumar Singh.
hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=58a3ec29-7898-4e55-bd5c-832de0470e65&&Headline=Hunger+made+them+cut+a+mountain |
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