Putting out forest fires with music, drums and a dash of devotion

The dying art form of sankirtan mandalis, recently revived by the women of Odisha’s villages, is being enlisted by forest officials to spread awareness about protecting forests

Roli Srivastava

Rakhi Ghosh

Members of sankirtan mandali perform in the village before going to stage of Solah Prahari Yagyan.

Ashutosh Maharana/ The Migration Story

KEONJHAR/ANGUL, Odisha: The women of Murgapahadi village in eastern India have for years managed farms and children, walked to forests to collect flowers and firewood, and quietly kept their households running while their husbands were away in cities for work. But this year, their voices were heard loud and melodiously across the village as they moved  around singing songs about protecting the forest from fires.

Forest officials tackling fires in the dry deciduous forests of the eastern India state of Odisha are enlisting the devotional song-and-dance troupes—sankirtan mandalis, a dying art form recently revived by rural women—to protect forests from rapidly intensifying blazes as temperatures soar.

The blazes in Odisha’s forests have already impacted over 4,500 hectares of forest area this year, up from about 4,000 hectares recorded last year. Officials are tapping new technology such as AI cameras for quick alerts on fires, satellite data on the scale of the fires and have put more personnel on forest duty. But they are also tapping the appeal of devotional groups to ask villagers not to burn dry leaves in the forest, a traditional practice in these parts that has led to uncontrollable forest fires in recent years.

A fire in the Keonjhar forest in Odisha. Picture credit: Omprakash Jena, forest guard, Keonjhar

“With the rising temperatures, these fires are spreading faster, and dousing them is becoming ever more difficult,” said Dhanraj Hanumant Dhamdhere, deputy conservator of forests posted in Keonjhar district. Dhamdhere was referring to the ‘fire triangle’ of heat, oxygen and burning material—all abundant elements in the forests of Keonjhar, which has been besieged by heat waves since April.

Given that most forest fires are human-induced, Dhamdhere enlisted 80 devotional troupes earlier this year as part of a broader strategy to connect with locals. Pointing out that the state had common customs across every tranche of society, including tribals, he said that this made the task simpler.

“Cultural troupes are very strong in Odisha, and there are many artistes in rural areas,” he said. “Also, people here are very religious. The troupes sing in local languages, which are easily understood, and their performances are also enjoyed. So it is easier for people to connect with them.”

The forest officer said that there had been a 20% to 30% drop in fires in some pockets after the sankirtan mandalis were enlisted. Ghatagaon forest range, where Murgapahadi is located, is among them. 

‘THEY LISTEN’

A woman collects Mahua flowers that fall from trees and gather on the forest floor. Villagers set fire to dry leaves and bushes to clear the forest floor as it becomes easier for them to pick the mahua flower.

Rakhi Ghosh/The Migration Story

Murgapahadi is a forest-dependent village, where a vast majority of tribal women collect the pungent-smelling mahua flower used in the production of alcohol and medicine. They also gather tamarind, honey, leaves, flowers and other forest produce to sell in the local market, a key source of their income.

However, the women also set the dry leaves that collect beneath trees on fire, particularly to make it easier to pick the pale yellow mahua flower that shines against the ash-black forest floor. The fire also makes it safer to collect flowers, as it clears the area of insects and snakes. Small fires are also a traditional farming practice, as the burnt residue of leaves and crops is considered good for soil fertility.

While women believe that the fires they light in the forest are small and controlled, officials point out that they have caused uncontrolled blazes on several occasions, exacerbated by the heat, dry leaves and winds. This was one of the government’s reasons for engaging devotional troupes: the fact of women educating other women about the hazardous practice. 

All-woman or women-led mixed sankirtan mandalis are a fairly new phenomenon in these parts where women rarely ever step out alone, let alone dance and sing in front of people. 

Sankirtan mandalis, cultural troupes with a history dating back to the 15th century, have traditionally had groups of men play cymbals and drums and sing and perform songs of devotion. Women always watched from the margins. But two years ago, a bunch of women in Murgapahadi put together a dance troupe to revive the art form.

Pramila Pradhan, (35), who heads the Smile Sankirtan Mandali stands along with two other male instrument players of her troupe in Murgapahadi village in Keonjhar district, Odisha.  Ashutosh Maharana/ The Migration Story

“Earlier, our village had one sankirtan mandali,” said Pramila Pradhan, 35, who heads the troupe in Murgapahadi. “The men of the troupe performed at yagyans (fire ceremonies held on occasions such as birth and marriage) and local festivals. But when they migrated to Hyderabad and Bengaluru to work in factories, the mandali became almost non-functional. We decided to revive it.”

Odisha is one of India’s most impoverished states, recording some of the highest out-migration numbers. In village after village, as mandalis began undergoing a revival spearheaded by women, government agencies sensed an opportunity to tap these for a larger cause.

Sarojini Nayak, (35)  helps other members of her troupe before their performance

Ashutosh Maharana/ The Migration Story

Pradhan’s troupe of 17, of whom nine are women, were both curious and hesitant when the forest department called them for the initial meeting in January this year. There, they were given a poem, which the women set to a rhythm and practised. The very next morning, the troupe walked around the village singing the song in Odia: Listen listen my dear sisters, brothers, don’t set fire to the forest. If the forest survives, we survive…we get a healthy climate.

While Odisha has laws to punish those found responsible for any fire in the forest area, the villagers’ belief in devotional troupes makes them more effective. “The villagers listen to the sankirtan mandali,” said forest guard Omprakash Jena. “People believe them, and if they are asked not to do something, they obey.” Jena is posted in the Ghatagaon forest range, where Murgapahadi is located, and credits Pradhan’s troupe for the “minimal” forest fires recorded this summer: only 26 of the 600 fires that occurred in Keonjhar district.

EMPOWERMENT, IRONY

Ketaki Nayak, a member of the local sankirtan mandali gets ready for a performance with other troupe members in Ambanali village, Angul district, Odisha. Roli Srivastava/The Migration Story

Women occupying centre stage in sankirtan mandalis and discovering and putting their talent on display for the first time, said they were enjoying “a rare freedom, happiness and empowerment”. There are several such mandalis now, a couple of them spurred on by watching other women perform.

About 180 km away from Murgapahadi in Angul district’s Ambanali village, members of an all-woman troupe spoke of being inspired by the performance of another women-led troupe which they saw at the village fair a few years earlier. The women took permission from their husbands before forming a group of their own and have been actively performing for the past couple of years, even receiving invitations to events organised by industries in the region.

Neighbouring Rainali village has its own all-woman sankirtan group. When The Migration Story visited on a warm March evening, the women performers were practising their song-and-dance routine with much fervour, hitting a crescendo of drum beats and high-decibel chanting in a windowless hut as the sun dipped on the horizon.

Kusha Behera, the tutor of the Ambanali women’s troupe, said that women were “dedicated”. “Men are no longer capable of performing in the devotional troupes, not only because they are absent from the village but also for their addiction to tobacco and alcohol,” he said.

Dibakar Patra, president of the Shree Jagannath Kala Sanskruti Sankirtan Seba Bikas Parishad, an umbrella organisation of sankirtan mandalis in Odisha, said there were about 20,000 devotional troupes in the state, of which at least 1,000 were all-woman troupes. “We have traditionally performed at festivals and birth or thread ceremonies and weddings,” he said. “But now the government wants to use us in a better way. Our mandalis have now been enlisted for rural water conservation awareness in addition to forest fires.”

Members of sankirtan mandali perform before an audience in Murgapahadi village, Keonjhar district, Odisha. Ashutosh Maharana/ The Migration Story

Analysts, however, point out that this is not enough to help a community at the sharp end of the climate crisis. Mining is expanding in the region, and polluting industries dot the landscape of both Keonjhar and Angul districts, contributing to planet-heating emissions.  Forest fires peak in March and April in Odisha, and the state forest department’s portal has a dedicated section documenting this crisis which is worsening due to rising temperatures.  Contributing to the heat are emissions from the coal mines and other industries such as steel and aluminium.

“The victims of climate change are being told to use the medium of sankirtan mandalis and move from village to village to spread awareness even as polluting industries are being expanded,” said Biswajeet Mohanty, secretary of the Wildlife Society of Odisha, which works on pollution-control activities. “Since women-led troupes are already organised, it makes it easier to mobilise them, but their engagement is in no way a resolution for the factors fuelling the climate crisis of which they themselves are victims.”  

The forest fires, women said, impacted their incomes and children’s nutrition. “We collect wild yam, tuber, spinach and mushrooms for the family. If there is a major fire, we have to make do with the rice we get from the government,” said Balamati Munda, 42. Their engagement in the troupe brings in some income—5,000 rupees from the forest department—but analysts said this was too meagre an amount for a community struggling to survive.

Ketaki Nayak, a member of the local sankirtan mandali poses for a picture at a neighbour’s house in Ambanali village, Angul district, Odisha. Roli Srivastava/The Migration Story

But for now, women are crediting the sankirtan mandali for helping them believe that they are relevant to society. “After this forest fire awareness programme, we are happy that we are not only singing devotional songs but are able to do something good for society,” said Murgapahadi’s Pramila Pradhan.

At Ambanali village, Ketaki Nayak slips her sari pallu off her head and tucks it into the waist of her petticoat, taking her position with other women as they form two neat rows. “I sang songs when I was in school, but after marriage no one encourages you to go out and sing,” she said.

Nayak, who studied up to second grade and was married at 10, is, at the age of 25, the mother of two children aged 10 and eight. “These days, girls are studying and working as pilots,” she said. “I had never thought that I had  talent, that I would go out and sing and people would bless me.”

Tutor Kusha Behera said the troupe had received a call for a government awareness project, which they are planning to take up. “We have young girls, even students joining the mandalis,” he said. “While these women have lost their youth, the next generation of young girls is learning what women can do.”

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(Edited by Radha Rajadhyaksha)

Roli Srivastava is a climate and just transition journalist. She is also the founder of The Migration Story

Rakhi Ghosh is an independent journalist based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. She is a former print and television journalist and she writes stories on health, migration, education, climate change.