Description: This photo was taken when a Melghat Tiger Reserve Project was undertaken to study the signs of Bio Diversity in the Melghat Forest area. There have been re-location of three villages to encourage the wild life habitat, and this picture is from the Village of Kund, where people still had some odd jobs to work in the forest. The place didn’t even have its basic amenities like decent meal, and safe drinking water and electricity. This picture is of this huge labourer family who have more than 25 members all cramped in just one makeshift house with nearly so many children who are going without their basic need of education and a socially accepted childhood. They lay in the forests, with the trees and nature barefooted and know much more than we would know about wild life. Their games are inclusive of no toys, just dust & stones but they still manage their most genuine smiles irrespective…Isn’t there a lot to learn from them?
Author: Deepika Mirchandani, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Location: Amaravati, Maharashtra
Year: 2009

Kids of the Forest, Amaravati, Maharashtra