They make treacherous treks in the rain in search of facilities

Rathnamma, 56, a resident of Tagti in Bhanukuli Gram Panchayat of Sagar taluk fell ill last week. Family members and neighbours felt she should be taken to a hospital as there was fear of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With no option to take her by vehicle, her family members ferried her for more than 3 km on their shoulders in a makeshift stretcher. Ms. Rathnamma’s husband Narayana and neighbours Ravi, Beerappa and Nagappa carried her up to Kanuru, crossing the hilly terrain and braving the rain. She is undergoing treatment at Sagar. “This is nothing new for us. It has been the situation during the rainy season for decades,” said Kalyan Kumar, a farmer who lives in Halmi, a neighbouring village. Whenever someone falls sick suddenly in this village of 15 houses, the relatives carry the patient to Kanur, from where they can get access to vehicles. “The path is also narrow and slippery. We somehow manage to take vehicles on the path during summer, but it is impossible in the rainy season,” he said.

The nearest primary school is at Kadakodi, around 2.5 km from Tagti. The schoolchildren have to get there by walk.

There are many such villages with no roads, power supply, and Internet connectivity in Sagar taluk. Their repeated demands for basic facilities have not yielded the desired results, because of objections raised by the Forest Department. “Most of these villages fall under the wildlife area, where the Forest Department has control. Recently, a contractor had bagged the work to provide electricity to Tagti and neighbouring villages. The forest officials did not allow the contractor to erect poles,” said Satyanarayana G.T., former president of Tumari Gram Panchayat.

The people in these villages go incommunicado for months during the rainy season. A majority of them are farmers, who grow paddy and areca. They have to carry their yield on their shoulders for long distances to sell them. “The people in these villages cannot be contacted either by road or telephone. Forget the phone network, there has been no electricity supply all these years. I don’t know how many more years these people have to go through this,” said Somaraj of Huliballi, who works as a TV mechanic.