Paintings telling the saga of Baiga tribals in Mandla walls

 

                                                                    

                

How one can use the unused space of walls for public awareness could be well learned from painter Ashish Kachhwaha who used empty space of walls of Nehru Park, nestled close to Kanha National Park of Mandla, to tell the saga of Baiga tribal’s lifestyle.

 

Now paintings of Ashish Kachhwaha have become a point of attraction and tell people in dept that how tribal lives, how they worship nature and moreover, how much they revere tigers.

Ashish Kachhwaha has expressed his feelings towards Baiga tribals on walls spread in 4000 square feet area that also in three and half months. His work is yet to be finished.

The most interesting feature is that district administration and local municipality is bearing the cost of his project so that people can peep into the lifestyle of Baiga tribals. Paintings show that how this tribal community prefers to have tattoos on their body parts, how they live and how much they respect wildlife.

Ashish Kachhwaha is painting for Baiga tribal for the past 20 years as he is very close to the tribal community and loves their culture.

“When I was a teenager, I used to visits markets with my grandmother where I observed the culture of Baiga tribals. They are very close to wildlife. They are spread over Satpura-Maikal landscape and they never harm big cats but we have misunderstood them” said Ashish Kachhawaha.

 

He said that very few knew that Baiga tribals construe the leftover meat of killing of a tiger as “ Prasad” and they never harm feline.

He said, however in today’s era people are luring Baiga and pressurizing them for tiger killing. He said Government should work towards the employment of the tribals and education of their kids so that they can continue their age-old tradition in intact form and do not get tempted by wildlife hunters.

Sharing his recent experience, Ashish Kachhwaha said a young scholar from France visited Mandala district for his research work. He researched the culture and lifestyle of Baiga and he became so close to the tribal that he left his mineral water and started drinking the water Baiga use to drink. Even the researcher started taking the local alcohol of Baiga and left his foreign brand. Ashish said, foreigners, have started understanding the culture of these tribals.

Ashish Kachhwaha has displayed his art in an exhibition at Pune that threw light on a culture of an ancient tribal communities. He said Baigas are more civilized than the modern man. “I was attracted towards the community with their sweet coexistence with nature and wildlife. They always try to keep sticking to the knowledge of their ancestors. They share a deep and thoughtful bond with forest and their existence lies in jungles,” added Ashish.