Can a 15th-century Indian singing tradition help stop wildfires?

The Guardian

2 days ago

For years, the women of Murgapahadi village in eastern India have quietly managed farms and children, collected flowers and firewood in forests, and kept households running while their husbands work away in cities. This year, many are educating too – in song as they work.
Forest officials are enlisting devotional song-and-dance troupes – sankirtan mandalis – to help in the fight against fires in the dry deciduous woods of Odisha state in soaring temperatures. Fires have already affected more than 4,500 hectares (11,120 acres) of forest in Odisha this year, up from about 4,000 hectares in 2024. Officials are using technology such as AI cameras and satellite data to track blazes but are also turning to the appeal of song to ask villagers not to burn leaves in the forest, apractice believed to benefit the soil, but which has led to uncontrollable wildfires in recent years.
'With the rising temperatures, these fires are spreading faster, and dousing them is becoming ever more difficult,' says Dhanraj Hanumant Dhamdhere, deputy conservationist of forests in Keonjhar district, which has been hit by heatwaves since April.
Dhamdhere enlisted 80 devotional groups earlier this year. 'Cultural troupes are very strong in Odisha, and there are many artistes in rural areas,' he says. 'Also, people here are very religious. The troupes sing in local languages, which are easily understood, and their performances are enjoyed, so it is easier for people to connect with them.'
He says there has been a 20-30% drop in fires in some areas since the sankirtan mandalis were enlisted. Ghatagaon forest range, where Murgapahadi is located, is among them.
Sankirtan mandalis date to the 15th century, originally groups of men playing cymbals, drums and singing songs of religious devotion. Women rarely went out alone, let alone sang in public. But two years ago, women from Murgapahadi formed their own troupe to revive the tradition.
'When the men [of the village] migrated to Hyderabad and Bengaluru to work in factories, the sankirtan mandali became almost non-functional. We decided to revive it,' says Pramila Pradhan, 35, who heads the troupe in Murgapahadi.
Odisha, one of India's poorest states, has some of the highest migration numbers. In village after village, as mandalis began undergoing a revival, spearheaded by women, government agencies saw an opportunity.
Pradhan's troupe of 17, nine of whom are women, were curious but hesitant when the forest department called them in January. They were given a poem, which the women set to a rhythm. The next morning, they walked around the village singing: 'Listen listen my dear sisters, brothers, don't set fire to the forest. If the forest survives, we survive … we get a healthy climate.'
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While Odisha has laws to punish those found responsible for any fire in the forest area, the appeal of the songs are more effective. 'The villagers listen to the sankirtan mandali,' says Omprakash Jena, a forest guard. 'People believe them, and if they are asked not to do something, they obey.'
Jena credits Pradhan's troupe for the 'minimal' forest fires recorded this summer, making up just 26 of the 600 fires that occurred in Keonjhar district.
Dibakar Patra, president of an umbrella organisation of sankirtan mandalis in Odisha, says there are about 20,000 troupes in the state, of which at least 1,000 are all-female. 'We have traditionally performed at festivals and birth or thread ceremonies and weddings,' he says. 'But now the government wants to use us in a better way. Our mandalis have now been enlisted for rural water conservation awareness in addition to forest fires.'
Analysts point out that this is not enough to help a community at the sharp end of the climate crisis. Mining is expanding in the region, and polluting industries including coal, steel and aluminium dot the landscape in Keonjhar and Angul districts, contributing to planet-heating emissions.
Biswajeet Mohanty, secretary of the Wildlife Society of Odisha, says engaging women in dance will not resolve factors fuelling the climate crisis. 'The victims of climate change are being told to use the medium of sankirtan mandalis and move from village to village to spread awareness, even as polluting industries are being expanded,' he says.
The women say the forest fires affect their incomes and children's nutrition. 'We collect wild yam, tubers, spinach and mushrooms for the family. If there is a major fire, we have to make do with the rice we get from the government,' says Balamati Munda, 42.
But for now, they credit the sankirtan mandali with helping them feel more relevant to society.
About 180km (112 miles) away from Murgapahadi, in Ambanali village, Angul district, Ketaki Nayak slips her sari pallu off her head and tucks it into the waist of her petticoat, taking her position with other women in two neat rows. 'I sang songs when I was in school, but after marriage no one encourages you to go out and sing,' she says.
Nayak was married at 10. Now 25, she has two children aged eight and 10. 'These days, girls are studying, even working as pilots,' she says. 'I had never thought that I had talent, that I would go out and sing and people would bless me.'
Tutor Kusha Behera says the troupe has received a call about a government project, which they plan to take part in. 'We have young girls, even students joining the mandalis,' he says. 'While these women have lost their youth, the next generation of young girls is learning what women can do.'
This story first appeared in the Migration Story, India's first newsroom to focus on the country's vast migrant population