Eastern U.P.'s Forest Dwellers Are finally On The Revenue Map

Vantangiyas, who derive their name from a Burmese tradition of hill cultivation, have lived in tin shacks without toilets for decades

- Omar Rashid, Gorakhpur

There is no proper road to Jungle Tinkonia­-3.

As its name suggests, one must pass a woodland of sal and teak trees to reach it. The situation gets even more precarious during monsoons and medical emergen­cies, as the village does not have any health centre.

Its infrastructure is ram­shackle, with most residents living in mud houses shel­tered by tin roofs and with not a single toilet for a popu­lation of 3,300 people.

Yet there is a sense of re­newed hope and excitement in this village, buried in a for­est near Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

In a culmination of de­cades of extended struggle by its inhabitants, Tinkonia is finally being exposed to the benets of government schemes and a wider range of employment and utilization of resources previously prohibited by forest laws.

Previously a forest­bound village, Tinkonia is among the 23 Vantangiya villages in Gorakhpur and Maharajganj that have been declared as revenue villages by the Yogi Adityanath government, opening the doors of deve­lopment in these neglected settlements for the first time since Independence.

No facilities

As they earlier fell under the Forest Department, these villages and their residents were deprived of basic go­vernment schemes and could not even get basic fa­cilities, including BPL cards, employment guarantee pro­jects, healthcare, education, electricity connections, pensions, loans and permanent housing.

After being declared a re­venue village by Chief Minis­ter Adityanath as a “Deepa­vali gift” last year, it has been electried with solar connections, seven water tanks and three hand­pumps have been established, and ration cards issued. But a lot still needs to be done for them.