‘We used bows and arrows to keep the illegal loggers out’: How ‘Lady Tarzan’ saved the forests
“We were lying on the railway tracks almost unconscious and could have been run over by an approaching train if I had not acted and [managed to] push both of us away.”
It is hard for Jamuna Tudu to forget the night she and her husband were attacked for campaigning against illegal loggers in eastern India.
But there have also been plenty of positives for the 43-year-old to take from a fightback against deforestation in Jharkhand state that has earned her the nickname “Lady Tarzan”.
She has given a new lease of life to about 50 hectares of forest that had been destroyed and formed an association of 10,000 women to fight against future devastation.
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The renowned environmentalist, who lives in the small town of Chakulia, has won awards for her exemplary courage – including the Padma Shri in 2019, one of India’s highest civilian honours.
Ms Tudu comes from an indigenous tribal community and was born to a poor farming family in Jharkhand’s neighbouring state, Odisha, the seventh of eight siblings. “My father couldn’t fund my education due to poverty,” she says. “He got me married when I was just 18.
“The situation was no better at my husband’s house. He used to work as a labourer in house construction but his income was negligible. I began to assist him, in the work to supplement the family’s income.
“But it was a very tough job, as my work entailed mixing the construction material and the chemicals were quite hazardous for health.”
Her life took a new turn when she discovered that a hill outside her marital home had been wiped clear of trees by loggers. It was a problem that immediately resonated with Ms Tudu, who had been passionate about the environment since her childhood, when she used to plant saplings in her father’s field.
“The hill – several acres of land – had become barren due to massive deforestation, done illegally by the timber mafia,” she says. “The tall trees were completely axed and [only] small shrubs were remaining.”
Yet the villagers were not protesting “due to their fear of the mafia”. So Ms Tudu decided to save the hill from further environmental degradation by creating awareness among the locals, especially women.
Her task turned out to be easier said than done. “Women were also cutting the trees for firewood used for cooking,” she says. “I began to visit door to door on a bicycle to convince them to come together to save the environment for the better of our children.
“Most of the women turned me away for fear of facing repercussions from the mafia, but a few dared to join us. It took me eight years [until 2006] to convince the village women to work for the environment.”
Ms Tudu and a handful of women began to patrol the hill, urging people to stop deforestation. They carried bows and arrows, the traditional weapons of indigenous people, for their safety.
She was warned of dire consequences, but the support of officials from the forest department and locals helped her to pursue her mission. So she expanded it, forming small groups of women in neighbouring villages to stop the environmental degradation there.
Their activities didn’t go unnoticed by the illegal logging “mafia”, who were seeing their income fall due to the drop in tree cutting. In 2013, Ms Tudu – by now nicknamed Lady Tarzan by the affectionate local media – faced a brutal attack while trying to stop the criminals from loading logs on a train.
“We received a tip-off that logs were being kept at the local railway station to be transported to another place on a goods train,” she says.
“I rushed to the station in the night with my husband and a handful of supporters. As we confronted those who were loading the logs on the train, they became angry and picked stones from the railway tracks and began pelting us.
“We were caught off guard by the sudden attack and began to run for our lives in the pitch-dark. My husband was severely injured and became unconscious after a big stone hit his head. He was bleeding profusely. Even I sustained severe injuries.”
As the pair lay injured on the tracks, Ms Tudu heard the sound of an approaching train and managed to push her husband off the tracks and roll off herself, saving their lives.
Despite the near-death experience, she has been unwavering in her mission to work for the environment and has a team of thousands of women to act as her eyes and ears in keeping a vigil on illegal activity in the forest.
They also tie rakhi (protective bands) on the trees and offer prayers at the Rakhia festival held in August. “We consider trees our children and ask the new mothers to plant a tree on the birth of a child so they can forge an emotional bond with them and protect them like their children,” she says.
