Turning to the hills where Aarey Colony is Keeping up Tribals' Traditions Alive!

With Holi just around the corner, two days ago, on Sunday, the tribals living in Aarey Colony celebrated with flowers, excluding the usage of colours and water. In an event named 'Jungle ke rang, apron ke sang', the tribals also hosted the participants with homemade food. Such is the hospitality of the Indigenous trives living in the popular Aarey colony, popular as the last and the only forest area in Mumbai, other than Borivali's Sanjay Gandhi National Park. 

The mood of Aarey is distinct. From silence echoing the hills at night and residents often spotting wild animals like leopards here, Aarey is buzzing during the daytime with the passersby and people rushing to their office in their cars and public transport. As Shreya Valecha, who organises the experiential tour to Aarey, likes to say, "It feels nothing but a hill station in the wee hours of the day." However, somewhere in the many corners of the colony live the indigenous tribals here who depend on the forests for their livelihood. 

Currently, multiple tour organisers are taking the city dwellers to the secret forests and connecting them closer to the nature - by helping them make natural colours out of flowers. The Localway is on the same mission here. For the last two weekends, the team, along with the participants - not more than 20 at a time - starts by searching for various wild flowers and converts them into colours. "It is a very different level of satisfaction and happiness that is visible on the faces when they see the colours coming out," Valecha says.

Aarey keeping the tribal hinterland alive

The 3,000-acre Aarey Milk colony has long been home to various tribals of Maharashtra. Walking here, we see various homes belonging to Warli, Kokna, Mallar Koli, Katkari, and several other indigenous tribes that have, as of yet, kept their traditions and distinct cultures alive. Amidst the encroaching urbanisation, we find the aroma of Indigenous cuisines coming out from the homes as we walk on a sunny afternoon.

While Mumbai might be procuring the ingredients from the supermarkets, the tribals here strictly source their ingredients from the forest, some of which might be the common fruits and vegetables like banana, guava, jackfruit, mango, Sapodilla (Chikoo) and more. Fresh shrimp are obtained from the river. We witness some of the houses having their own gardens, growing rows of trees and plants. Valecha, who works on this with her father, Dinesh Valecha, takes people for a cooking experience that is organised in an open space with the traditional chulhas as the tribals here do in their daily lives.

We find it no surprise that a lot of these homes have the Warli paintings on the floors and the walls that belong to one of India's primitive art forms. What is unique to see is even the dried, wild mushrooms. One of the Warli painting artists, Manisha Dhinde, has been working with The Localway on an experiential tour, where the participants go to her farm, and the team conducts games related to nature to instill a sense of natural preservation among people.

The Settlement's origins

Aarey was always a dense forest inhabited by tribal and various ethnic communities. Not ever being the cultivators, they were always dependent on the forests to source the food, including fruits, vegetables, tubers and even herbs. The forest communities also reared poultry and goats. 

It was officially in 1949 when the Aarey Milk Colony was officially established. Based on the ideology of Dara Khurody, who pioneered the white revolution in Mumbai, the former and the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru established the colony. At that time, some tribal settlements were displaced to establish the dairy farms, while the affected tribals were compensated for their work through jobs at the very same farms and the factories.

Gradually, urbanisation seeped into the otherwise Aarey Colony as the population of Mumbai's land increased. With time, the Aarey gave space to the popular Film City, and if we were to count the new development, the metro railway projects have made their way into the area, making the lives of the urban settlers easy, but intervening in the pristine Aarey Colony.

Forest keeping up the culture undergoing multiple challenges

As one wanders through the colony and gets lucky, they are greeted with the Aarey tribal festivals that are drastically distinct from any known religious or cultural festival of India. The people worship the Vagh Baras, celebrating the power of the tiger, and Gaon Devi puja, who is considered the Goddess of villages. 

As much as the forests still protect the tribals, the area has been undergoing various controversies. Back in August 2019, Mumbai civic body's Tree Authority (TA) had approved a proposal to cut 2,185 trees from Aarey for the construction of the car shed. The proposal also included transplanting 461 trees. However, this led to widespread protests. Even in 2022, the Supreme Court allowed Mumbai Metro to cut 84 trees, which got criticism. 

From time to time, the activists keep raising voices against the rapid urbanisation here in the area and aiming to preserve what is still left. Highlighting the significance of the forests for the tribals living here, Shreya Valecha says that the locals still make their utensils out of the forest leaves, like a place out of Palash that is used in the weddings. "Aarey is an example of how tribals have always kept a sustainable lifestyle, much before we discovered it," she adds with a grin on her face while talking about the recent culture towards sustainability.