Fotos

Two Adivasi (tribals - don't know from which tribe, perhaps Bhils) boys in the south west Gujarat area of the Dangs prepare a small fire to cook fish. In the middle of nowhere it's 'safe' for the adults to 'fish' with small amounts of dynamite - highly illegal and by the look of it not very successful!

I didn't see more than one or two small ones come to the surface. Regardless they carried on! Not a good ecological practice I think.

This is a well known beauty spot of the forested and hilly Dangs at a place near Giri Falls.

Since 1997/8 the Dangs have been less easy to visit for Westerners - I last went in 1997 and could only go as a guest of the local MLA. I filmed tribal dancers and interviews with tribal development workers as well as a ritual with a bhagat, music and local craft production and medicinal practices. This was my third visit - on my second Indian security services tried to arrest me as an escaped Western gun runner - they caught the real guy in the end (nowhere near the Dangs) - he was released from prison this year and I could finally see some resemblance as he appeared on TV being led out from an Indian jail! Scary moments and high drama as I was with my wife and two small children on this particular trip. How they found out where I was in a tiny village on top of a distant jungly hill is anyone's guess.

Didn't fancy an Indian jail, particularly not the local one which I had visited before and been introduced to some of the charming inmates. After half an hour of vigorous argument, mostly in Gujarati, the two uniformed and two plainclothes men finally got back in the jeep and drove off.

I really like the Dangs and have met some fantastc people there - I wonder what these lads are up to ten years on?