Badlands

The wild riverine tract of the Chambal, more famous as the former haunt of dacoits, is a national sanctuary teeming with birds, mammals and dulleyed, toothy amphibians. It also hosts the oldest mela in India.

- Anurag Mallick

It’s no secret that bandits love borders. If Veerappan operated in the Satyamangalam forests at the intersection of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Chambal at the tri junction of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh has been the original haunt of dacoits for decades. The labyrinthine ravines were once the lair of dreaded dacoits like Sultana Daku, Daku Maan Singh, Paan Singh Tomar, Phoolan Devi and Nirbhay Gujjar. Carved out by the Chambal river and weathered over centuries by flood and rain, the beehad (wilderness) of mud cliffs and scrub forest runs in a two to six-kilometre-wide maze either side of the 425-km-long river. Straddling three state boundaries, what better hiding place for rebels?

From Rajput chieftains escaping Muslim persecution after the fall of Kannauj and Delhi to rebellious sepoys and freedom fighters during the 1857 war of independence or villagers absconding after caste and property disputes, the Chambal became the ultimate refuge of renegades for centuries. But there’s a distinction between dacoits and rebels, as Paan Singh Tomar elucidates in the 2012 Bollywood flick, “Beehad mein baagi hote hain, Dakait to milte hain Parliament mein!” After many dacoits surrendered (some ironically joined politics), the wild riverine tract was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1979 to help revive gharial and marsh crocodile populations. Chambal, once notorious for its wild life, began to be recognised for its wildlife!