!! The inner voice of the people of the western part of Wai Taluka about agriculture, villages and nature !!
In 1975, the Dhom Dam was built. Many villages were resettled from 42 villages. The western part of Wai Taluka is geographically a part that is blessed with natural wealth, biodiversity, and abundance. Dhom Dam, Balakawadi Dam, Kamalgad, Rayreshwargad, Rohideshwargad, Pandavgad, Panchgani and the area located in the lap of Mahabaleshwar, is the western part of Wai Taluka. It is a part that has been deprived of facilities for many years. Today, even the villages of this area have been lost in the face of urbanization. The agriculture that is becoming barren is a prime example. Traditional tools and manpower are not available for farming. Many have taken the city as a place to earn a living. And all the people are stuck in considering it as their own. No young people live in many rural villages. You will see only elderly people. Health facilities have become rarer than tribals. Today our region is being called Switzerland, Canada, the Amazon valley. But such architectural details are not seen anywhere. In beautiful natural areas, there are only poor people’s mansions and settlements. Here, foreign rich people are coming and taking commercial advantage of tourism. Land is being sold at a cheap price. There is no control, restrictions, or restraints on this. No village has succeeded in stopping land sales. Poor farmers are selling their land for their needs. Then they are completely immersed in general expenses, marriages, bars, social prestige, and interest money taken from outside. Today, almost 35 percent of the land has been sold. The mountains in many villages have been sold. If outsiders are taking full advantage of this, then we do not want tourism development. People from Wai and the eastern region call us Konkanis. Konkani people are simple and naive people. Their simple life and lifestyle show sophistication. These Konkani people are the naive people who preserve cultural heritage. They have a scientific pre-history. Rural culture, festivals, traditional customs, simple life are the heritage of Konkani culture. By giving tourism status to the western part, we should not lose the village and village. Culture, customs, traditions, rural art and culture should be maintained and preserved. Only through this can tourism develop. In the future, thousands of tons of waste will be generated here in the name of tourism development, who will destroy it? And in the future, a big problem will arise in a serious form. Konkani people should live in this geometry, they should do agriculture. The humanity of the village should also be maintained. The village should also survive. Cultivation of rural culture is the need of the hour.
Today, in places like Panchgani, Mahabaleshwar, the country’s wealthy industrialists are coming and taking the land of poor farmers at a cheap price and building bungalows, farm houses, dhabas, resorts, and Panchtarikh hotels for hundreds of years and earning a lot of money. In the name of development, the balance of the environment has been completely disrupted. Air pollution is being caused by cars on a large scale. Thousands of tons of waste are being generated. Of this, plastic waste is the main waste. Today, the subject of research is how much tourism employment generation benefits the local people. It is seen in Mahabaleshwar, Panchgani. These outsiders are earning a lot of money from tourism. The culture here has changed and the culture of the people has changed. Those who used to own the place are working as servants for them. Our entire society is responsible for this. Our people are doing similar jobs like gardening, watchman, and begari work with heart and soul. And they are feeling blessed. Our connection with the red and brown soil here is completely broken. We are becoming slaves to someone and doing service. We have become helpless by being just namesakes. Today, for example, outsiders from Vyahali and Boriv near Dhom Dam are coming and buying land, occupying it and earning money.
Forest resources have been destroyed, the environment has been degraded and concrete forests have been built in this land. We must get clean atmosphere, air, pure spring water, and poison-free food grown from agriculture here. This agricultural land in the hands of farmers should not be lost. Otherwise, it will not take long for us to be like the Baramure villages of Mahabaleshwar. In the name of development, the villages here are on the verge of destruction. Everyone has been lost in the jungle of concretization. The remaining land in the area of Dhom Dam, Balkavadi Dam, Jambhali Pazar Talao, Nagewadi Dam should remain in the ownership of the farmers. We will not be able to show agriculture to the future generation. This is the inner voice of the soul. If the sales transactions that are taking place in this area today continue, we will be unable to show the village and agriculture to the future generation. Rather than selling our land to the rich and powerful and becoming landless, it is the need of the hour to stop selling land in line with the current situation. Our ancestors and descendants have taken care of this invaluable asset. They did not sell it. It is our fortune to take care of it today. Otherwise, a situation like the surrounding villages in Pune will definitely arise. It is important to protect and preserve the reality of our culture, village. And in reality, we should cultivate the culture, culture, and traditions of our festive rural lifestyle. We should stop celebrating festivals in cities. The red, red soil and black soil here are a living example of its biological properties. The crops, fruits, and flowers grown here are of innovative quality and standard. And there is a demand for it. We should preserve this village and agriculture. We should preserve the rural traditions and food culture here rather than the tourism level. Our life and standard of living should be in accordance with the past. We should not respect the virtual imaginary life of the urban development area. Real life is in the village. We have rural traditions through sustainable means. We should preserve and protect our food culture. In the future, there can be a big talk about rural food culture. Many young people are following a path that is harmful to health by eating Chinese food. This is detrimental to health and causes many diseases. Many young people in villages should be freed from addiction. Tourism should develop through agricultural sector and local farmers should live. Instead of accepting outside culture food, local food culture should be adopted. The gram, millet, wheat and horticultural crops grown here should be eaten as poison-free food and they should be fed to outsiders through tourism. Only then can the quality of local tourism increase. And tourists will get two paise by getting the taste of the hands of the rural people.
We do not want a connection ghat to Mahabaleshwar Panchgani in the name of development. The huge pollution caused by cars in this area, carbon dioxide, is harmful to animals and humans in the future. We should live a village life free from the noise. At the same time, it is certainly difficult to know when we will destroy thousands of tons of waste plastic. If tourism increases today, destroying lakhs of tons of waste generated will be a matter of great concern. Relative development is important for us. It is in the complete rural culture. Public health services, construction of good roads, public ST transport services can change the lives of the people here. And agricultural tourism, rural cultural festival tourism creation are the real important questions. By giving only tourism status, rural culture will go to the hands of the rich and the poor will be deprived. We really don’t want a ghat connecting Mahabaleshwar. We don’t want the current situation of Mahabaleshwar. We don’t want the future problems of traffic jams, immense pollution, millions of tons of garbage. We want simple life and living standards, folk culture, village culture to survive. Clean air, plenty of sunlight, villages should be preserved in the well of pollution. It should not be destroyed in the jungle of concretion, this is our inner torment. Village folk culture should be preserved.
Shri Tanaji Phanse
Environment Conservationist
9821454037
Navi Mumbaikar