Jayamma Belliah

Sharmila Joshi

Text Editor

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Jayamma
Belliah, 35, is a Jenu Kuruba Adivasi from Ananjihundi village in
Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka. What follows is her photo essay about life
in a forest where both humans and animals have the potential to kill and also
be killed, by one another.  Over the course of six months, Jayamma took
photographs of her daily life on the fringes of Bandipur National Park, one of
India’s premier tiger reserves. Her photo essay is part of a larger collaborative photography project
about living with wildlife. This
was the first time she learned to use a camera (a Fujifilm FinePix S8630).

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Her
photo essay highlights the usually invisible gendered dynamics embedded in
human-wildlife relations. It implicitly questions prescriptive approaches to
wildlife conservation that largely ignore the socio-economic realities of the
rural poor. In addition to the photos presented here, Jayamma took many
beautiful photographs of birds. “My family was surprised I could learn to take
such good pictures,” she said, in Kannada.

03-DSCF5641-trench-JB-When_Jayamma_spotted_the_leopard.jpg

Cows on the trench:
 
 “These scrub cows
[nondescript local cattle, seen mostly as dung producers] belong to my family,
and my sister and sister-in-law are taking them to graze in the fields. We have
to cross the [Bandipur] forest to reach our village. Two years ago, one of our
calves was killed by a leopard inside the forest.”

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Sheep going home:
 
 “My sisters here are taking our sheep back
home. My sister is also carrying firewood which she collected. Some of us got
free LPG [cooking gas] from the government, but others didn&#39;t take it. They
thought that they would have to pay to get it, so that&#39;s why they didn&#39;t take
it.”

05-DSCF5647_goatsCrop-JB-When_Jayamma_spotted_the_leopard.jpg

Women and goats:
 
 “These goats also belong to
my family. My brother, sister and sister-in-law take care of them. We have
about 50 goats, and they graze in the forest. We get them back every day early
in the evening, otherwise there are chances of them being killed by wild
animals. In case we haven&#39;t earned enough money or if something else happens,
then we will sell one or two of these goats.”

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Tiger’s pug mark:
 
 “I saw this pug mark one
morning when I was going to work [as a domestic worker in nearby homes].
There are many tigers around here, they kill our cows and goats, they keep
coming and going. People here say that there are more tigers now than
leopards.”

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Two girls:
 
 “My nieces have to walk through the forest to reach
their school; they walk three kilometres from our village everday. My first
niece completed her 8th standard, but there is no high school here, so she will
have to go to one which is 10 kilometres from here. She will either stay at the
hostel there or travel every day from here. Because she is leaving now, her
younger sister has to go to school alone. She is scared of walking alone
because of the forest animals, so sometimes she skips school. She might drop
out. In my village, seven or eight children went to school and most of them
dropped out. Only my nieces have gone up to this stage of schooling.”

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The leopard tree:
 
 “This is the
 
 kaaludaari
 
 [footpath] that passes
through the forest. I walk to work every day this way, and my nieces walk to
school along with me in the morning. Three months ago, an old woman went to
graze her goats in the morning in the forest. Later, I was going back home
after work when I saw many people had gathered at this tree. Her goats had all
gone back home earlier, none of them were injured or attacked. So others went
looking for her when she did not come home and found her lying near this tree.
She wasn&#39;t eaten by the animal, there were only two bite marks on either side
of her forehead. I don&#39;t know if it was a leopard or a tiger. After being taken
to hospital, the woman died the next day. She was my aunt. I walk along the
same route every day. We are frightened to walk, but we can&#39;t do much about it.
We can&#39;t sit at home fearing this. We all sent a signed application for a
bus facility for the school children, but nothing happened.”

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The leopard:
 
 “The leopard was sitting on the rock on the slope of
the hill behind the place where I work. I was going back home in the evening
when I spotted it. It was very close to me, maybe a distance of 4-5 metres. My
husband had come to pick me up, so I wasn&#39;t very scared. If the leopard comes
close, we cannot do much. I took this photo because I wanted to take a picture
of the leopard. I would have taken it even if my husband wasn&#39;t there. I am
scared of the leopards and tigers. When I took the picture, the leopard saw us
and lowered its head slowly behind the rock.”

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Machan:
 
 When people grow groundnuts,
 
 ragi
 
 and
 
 avarekaayi
 
 ,
they go to their farms by seven in the evening and stay there until six the
next morning. They climb up the tree and guard their fields against animals the
whole night with no sleep. They try to protect their crops from elephants and
wild boars. When the animals come, they burst firecrackers. Sometimes they
can&#39;t do anything. They do this for six months during the harvest season,
otherwise all is wasted.”

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Dead vulture:
 
 “The vulture didn&#39;t know about the live electrical
wire and died after sitting on it. This was after a rain. What do these animals
know about the current passing through these wires? It fell on the
 
 rojada gida
 
 (
 
 lantana camara
 
 ) hedge
below. There were many vultures earlier in this area, but now their numbers have
reduced. Earlier there wasn&#39;t as much
 
 lantana
 
 as there is now, but for the last 10
years it has been growing a lot, and nobody knows how it grew so quickly. There
is not much use for it, but chairs can be made from the branches. Now it is
growing even in the forest. It comes up where the grass grows and the grass is
now becoming less. Because of this, the cows and goats have less to eat.”
 
 
 This work was
facilitated by Jared Margulies, in coordination with the Mariamma Charitable
Trust, located in Mangala village, Karnataka. It was made possible with the
support of a 2015-2016 Fulbright Nehru Student Research Grant, a Graduate
Student Association Research Grant from the University of Maryland, Baltimore
County, in-kind support from the Mariamma Charitable Trust, and above all, the
participation, enthusiasm and efforts of the photographers themselves.
 
 
 B.R. Rajeev’s help in the translation of
the text was invaluable too.
 
 
 All copyrights for the photos are held by the photographers alone in accordance with PARI’s Creative Commons policies. Any questions about their use or
reproduction should be directed to PARI.
 
 
 Related stories:
 <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/we-have-hills-and-forests-and-we-live-here/">‘We have hills and forests and we live here’ </a><a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/home-with-the-harvest-in-bandipur/">Home with the harvest in Bandipur </a><a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/close-encounters-with-the-prince-of-bandipur/">Close encounters with the Prince of Bandipur </a><a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/that-is-where-the-leopard-and-tiger-attack/">&#39;That is where the leopard and tiger attack&#39; </a><a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/this-calf-went-missing-after-i-took-this-photo">&#39;This calf went missing after I took this photo&#39;</a>

When Jayamma spotted the leopard

জয়াম্মার চিতাবাঘ দর্শন

जयम्मा की नज़रों में क़ैद तेंदुआ

जयाम्माला बिबट्या दिसला तेव्हा

ଜୟାମ୍ମା ଯେତେବେଳେ ଚିତାବାଘକୁ ଦେଖିଲେ

যেতিয়া ঢেকীয়াপতীয়াটো জয়াম্মাৰ চকুত পৰিছিল

ಜಯಮ್ಮ ಚಿರತೆ ಕಂಡಾಗ

ஜெயம்மா பார்த்த சிறுத்தை

ജയമ്മ പുലിയെ കണ്ടപ്പോള്‍

جب جَیَمّا نے تیندوے کو دیکھا

Ananjihundi

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When Jayamma spotted the leopard

Jayamma Belliah, an Adivasi from Ananjihundi village in Karnataka, documents her life in a forest with a camera. An outstanding photo essay on PARI to commemorate March 8, International Women's Day

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