The ST Bus from Amravati dropped me at Harisal in the Melghat Tiger Reserve at one in the afternoon. Apart from a cigarette kiosk and an empty tea shop there was nothing at the bus stop. With a white towel wrapped across one's face to beat the heat, one crossed the road and trudged to the home of a range officer for shelter. The range officer was kind and got his wife to prepare a nimbu pani for relief.

After downing the nimbu pani, the range officer left me at his friend's home where one waited for an hour before Kishor Rithe and Nishibhau with their faces and heads wrapped in white cloth came in their Gypsy. We went to the Thadada waterhole in Harisal to look at the dead bodies of a rat snake, monkey, two night jars, a peacock, a grey jungle fowl, a shikra, a grey tit and a drongo. Korku tribals had poisoned the waterhole with some pesticide to trap a deer or a sambhar or even a tiger. Instead, a few dead birds and snakes were found at the water hole after consuming the poisoned water. Three forest guards who were patrolling the area, assembled the dead near the waterhole and cremated them.

Waterhole poisoning in the summer, apart from poaching, is a common practice with the tribals as animals break out of core areas in search of water. For the tribals, it is a business deal though being at the lower end they take the risks for a small price with the private trade located in the cities enriching themselves by a few crores. Forest officials, who should be patrolling the reserves, are busy at meetings with their political bosses. In most reserves, the Field Director is located some 50 to 100 km away offering little lead to the under-paid ground staff.

After the cremation ceremony, which lasted for five minutes, we went to Chaurakund where the first medical camp for tribals by the Nature Conservation Society, Amravati, was on. The society has a medical van funded by Born Free Foundation offering free medical aid to tribal villages located outside the national parks in the Satpuda range. Korku men and women assemble at a spot to help themselves to medical aid, which has long been denied them, despite Government-run Primary Health Centres. The medical van rotates its visits across national parks in Satpuda to have some continuity in medical attention.

On the day one was there one saw poor Korku tribals coming up with pains in their limbs or toothaches and in some cases with cancer. Their eyes are blank. They talk little. They cower before the doctors even when offered chairs to sit. Most prefer to squat on the ground. They walk in wearing torn clothes. "It is surprising to find Korkus, who do not smoke or drink, having cancers," commented Kishor Rithe. Detailed health data is being collated for further study.

A few doctors based in Amravati and nearby towns are keen to help and on this day there were two young doctors Dr Vishal Wadekar and Dr Vaibhav Manore along with Dr Advani, a dentist, on voluntary duty. Over 100 patients, male and female, were health-checked. The patients give in wholly to the doctors and are rather wary of the medical instruments. Being illiterate they can identify tablets by their colours. One watched the doctors telling them: "Ye hara goli do bar kha na aur lal goli rath ko (Two green tablets twice per day and one red tablet in the night)." One fellow, who had his tooth knocked out, caught up with us late in the evening at Harisal complaining of severe pain. The doctor checked out on his tablet consumption, which had gone wrong with a mix-up in the colour of the tablets.

The May 31 issue of Down To Earth edited by Sunita Narain, has an edit, "Woolly-headed environmentalism: Tribal rights and democracy loose to conservation banter" saying the Tribal Bill "is not settling a debate of wildlife versus people, it is a debate about whether we shall give people what is theirs to hold and manage. We can still build a green future, this time through the active involvement of people in growing and harvesting trees or in building livelihoods from the enormously rich minor forest produce of the land." The edit concludes, "No `wooly-headed environmentalism' is needed here."

None needs to grow tree in forests. With few exceptions, the tribals have been front-running poaching and poisoning operations in national parks. They have to be given a better life outside the parks as otherwise, there will not be any forest or animals left. My friends like Kishor, Nishibhau, Pratap and others do not mind being dubbed woolly-headed. They have a different head, which aches at the sight of ruined forests or trapped animals. But that is better than supporting the Tribal Bill and also functioning as the chief of the Tiger Task Force. One expects nothing from the Tiger Task Force. It is bad times for the tigers.