Taking the path less travelled and exploring to fulfil his inner urge and meet some unassuming people ceaselessly pioneering nature's preservation and spread, 56-year-old Venkat Botcha had experiences that overwhelmed him in the North-East.
“I have been surprised beyond my imagination with nature's bounty and the sculptures at Deo Tamura in Tripura and Unakoti in North Tripura. One of the most important reasons for my long trip is my desire to meet Jadhav Payeng, known as the Forest Man of India, and to see his conservation efforts,” says Mr. Venkat.
He planned his odyssey, in which he eventually covered 7,600 km on a scooter, after seeing a TV programme that described Deotamura as the gateway of heaven.
However, he mostly avoided the general tourist circuit and went on his own. "Going alone considering the security conditions in the North East where the presence of security forces is ubiquitous is a major factor and at several places people are surprised at my covering treacherous stretches without any problem," he says. Fearing for his life, his hotelier at Agartala bought him a train ticket for his return. “But I managed to give him the slip,” he says. Since his is not one of those heavy duty vehicles it perhaps gave the impression of being a local man going about his work on a scooter, he says. Another factor is the bad condition of roads and the most difficult stretch is between Imphal and Silchar.
He began his long arduous journey from from Visakhapatnam on April 27 and reached Gangtok via Vishnupur in West Bengal where he saw the famed terra cotta temples. Up to Gangtok, his wife Anamika accompanied him.
From there via Tawang, he reached Majoli district in Assam to meet Mr. Payeng. When he went to meet Mr. Payeng at night he was surprised and asked him to come the next day at 3.30 a.m. He took him by boat to “Molai” forest named after him.
Beginning as a 16-year-old with the Forest Department, he later began his pioneering work. His method is to take a three-acre area, live there and raise a forest by planting trees. After that he moves to the next part. The forest grew so thick that a large number of elephants and some tigers and rhinos made it their home.
Mishing tribe people, to which Mr. Payeng belongs, also produce silk that lasts for generations.
From there, traversing Nagaland and Manipur, he reached Unakoti in North Tripura. It has around 100 pieces of sculpture in a valley mostly of Siva, mother goddess and good number of Ganesas.
“Adopting a modern concept, they have sculpted the idols without breaking or disturbing the stone and designed their work depending on the rock’s condition,” observes Mr. Venkat.
His next destination was Deotamura in South Tripura, also home to sculpture and the most important of them is the imposing 30-foot Kali carved on a hill beside the Gomti river. “The sculpture dates back to 15th century and it's amazing how tribal artists could do it without scaffolding. They probably improvised on the native techniques used for gathering honey,” Mr. Venkat says. He describes it as primitive art but with perfect illustration generally associated with classicism.
On the last leg of his tour, he went to villages near Chirapunjee where Khasi tribals made root bridges to connect areas on both sides of the river.
He returned home after 27 days via Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha.
