Off the beaten track- Bishnoi and Pali villages in Rajasthan

From Jodhpur, just 25KM away is Guda Bishnoi village in the middle of the desert with sparse vegetation. The village is known for the migratory birds and endangered Black Bucks (an Indian antelope). The place became popular when a celebrity was beaten up by the poor villagers for shooting and killing two black bucks. The villagers then filed a police complaint for the same. And so it is not a place for anybody to get caught while hunting!

A kitchen in the corner

The villagers, the Bishnoi tribe, are 100% vegetarians and lead a very simple and clean life. They are very poor, live with minimum facilities and at times they sleep without food ... but, they prefer to die saving the animals and trees in their village and around! They even bury the dead because cremation needs wood!

They worship nature in every form. They follow 29 principles preached by Guru Jambeshwar Ji around 500 hundred years ago. Actually, Bish-noi  means twenty-nine! During 17th century when King's men were cutting down the Khejri Trees around 360 Bishnois died protesting. They hugged the trees when the king's men cut trees. Along the trees they were cut too! This happened in the nearby village Khejarli. This was the place where the Chipko Movement (an initiative to save trees) originated in India. These people are poor but they live for a cause and they work hard for it!

I went on a drive on the long deserted roads, the area is actually Khejri forest. These trees are thorny and provide hardly any shade. The nuts collected from these trees are edible. I saw few Black Bucks from far enough not to get a good picture. In the picture are Chinkara or Indian Gazelle, other deer species which share the habitat with black bucks. Very hot area difficult to step out and walk off the road. If not good footwear it is possible to hurt your ankles.

From there I headed to another village called Pali popular for its pottery work. The potter demonstrated few things about pottery. I too tried and made a small pot. My niece was very good at it and she made one very artistic piece in her first ever try! It isn't easy as it looks. Though not a great buyer I bought some terra cotta camels and colorful bedsheets/quilts as gifts just to help them.

I really don't mean to highlight their poverty by displaying these pictures. But, I would like to highlight their selfless belief to save the nature and wildlife even in that extreme poverty. And they consider it an honor. There is film, Willing to Sacrifice based on incidents where Bishnois took bullets to save Indian Gazelles from poachers. It won the Best Environmental Film award in 5th International Festival of Films held in Slovakia.

A scene from Guda Bishnoi

I was amazed by the dedication of these people. When the organizations that get heavy funds  in the name of conservation of nature and culture hardly do much work, and these poor people are willing to sacrifice their lives even for a single tree or an animal! It was a thought provoking half a day excursion from Jodhpur which I consider was one of the great experiences in Rajasthan.

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This post is linked to Nature Notes and Our World Tuesday.

If you want pictures please ask me :)
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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.