Dodge Games in the Forest: How Adivasis Co-Exist with the Tiger and Other Beings

Dodge Games in the Forest was published in August 2024 by Dhaatri, a ‘resource centre for women and children’ based in Telangana. The 64-page book chronicles the everyday negotiations and resilience of forest-dwelling communities as they navigate life alongside wildlife, including the tiger.

It carries stories from Panna district in Madhya Pradesh, home to Gond Adivasis. Once ruled by Gond kings, the region has now been transformed by the presence of the Panna National Park and Tiger Reserve. The forest, once plundered by colonial and feudal hunters, is now a contested space. Conservation efforts, though celebrated for reviving tigers, often displace local communities. The revival has also brought new challenges; mining, tourism, fenced plantations, and proposed dam projects now threaten the fragile co-existence between people, tigers, and other wildlife.

The stories in the book reflect these tensions and people’s struggle to survive amidst rapid change. The book features several stories wherein individuals recall their encounters with tigers, leopards and even bears. In the first story, titled ‘The Crunch Crunch Games with the Tiger’, siblings Rohini and Rahul from Umravan gaon walk through the forest daily so Rohini can catch her school bus. They like making the entertaining “crunch crunch” sound by stomping on dry leaves, only to find that tigers also make this sound and follow this same path. They eventually learn to distinguish between a tiger on the hunt and one that is just taking a walk by examining its footprints. This fun exercise turns into a skill, enabling them to detect the tiger's size and direction, warn the villagers, and turn their school commute into an investigative, alert experience.

In the story titled ‘Smells of Death – Today I Met an Animal – a Tiger’, Janka Bai of Umravan encounters a tiger while walking to the forest to collect firewood. She is worried about not gathering firewood for her meal, but not of the tiger she spots on her way to the forest or the rotten smell that suggests a recent kill. The two look at one another and acknowledging the other's presence without saying anything. Janka Bai calmly finishes her task and considers the tiger's age and prey as she makes her way home. Villagers hear the tiger's cries that night. Janka Bai and the tiger seem to display a mutual understanding of each other’s existence and need for survival during their quiet encounter.

The narrative emphasises the necessary tenacity of rural life as well as the bond between people and wildlife that is based on respect rather than fear. Adivasi life is rooted in co-existence and ecological knowledge. Yet, external models of development have trampled this experiential wisdom, criminalising traditional practices and labelling Adivasis as encroachers. The book concludes by questioning whether driving out the very Adivasi communities that have long practised conservation and cared for their ecosystems can truly offer sustainable solutions to development-related challenges.