The colour of water

He's a butcher out of business. "I want to shift to a town like Panderkauda," says Sarfaraz Qureshi in Yavatmal district. "I'm unable to sell any meat in the villages I work in." Qureshi is a small operator who carries as much meat as he can load on to his motorcycle to poor tribal villages on the forest edge. And there he sells at very low prices. "Yet my business has collapsed," he says. But why? Have people in those villages stopped consuming meat? Are they now unable to afford even his prices?

"These past months, they're eating more meat than ever before," says Qureshi. "Only, it's free. The forests are stone dry and the drought has seen many wild animals coming out these past months to the fields and farms in search of water - only to be trapped and eaten. So how can I sell any meat? I've made many trips and sold nothing." There is no aspect of life in Vidarbha that has not been impacted by the severe water scarcity.

Matter of life and death

In the village of Jaulkhed in Akola we meet a baby deer that strolled in with the goats returning from grazing. A sympathetic village has adopted the young creature, who seems at ease with his new world. Other wildlife has been less fortunate. Boar, deer and even peacocks coming out of the forest or woods for water have been eaten by hungry villagers. The desperate search for water is a matter of life and, literally, death.