The verdant Rajmahal hill Range in Jharkhand, eastern India, and its surroundings have been the abode of the Malto Hill tribe for over 20 centuries. They are pejoratively called ‘Paharias’ because they are hill dwellers. The hills are verdant with green vegetation, forested foliage and good cultivable land. Ever since the entry of the British into the Rajmahal area (part of today’s Jharkhand) tribals have been victims of exploiting money lenders, land grabbers, and landlords who all were given free pass and recognition by the British. But, ever since independence, tribal areas have become the object of attack by business magnates, industrialists, mining lobbies and the like. Though tribal land cannot be alienated or even leased out according to Tenancy laws, these laws are circumvented by vested interests with the connivance of the district administration. Stone quarries, bauxite mines, coal mines, sand mines, iron ore mines etc., are garlanding the lives of the tribals. Instead of tribal development, it is the decimation of their land and pulverisation of their lives.
The picture shows a stone quarry on the land of the Malto tribe (‘Paharias’) in Dumka district. The quarry owner is a non-tribal outsider who makes crores in a month. Who cares! The illiterate and ignorant tribal villagers are taken for a ride with a pittance! This is called Tribal Development!