Kolsa

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Their passion also saw them embracing risks and quite literally taking the untrodden path. Poonam nostalgically recollects the night when she sneaked into a deadlocked village which was out of bound for everybody. "The tribals of Kolsa village inside Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve were so paranoid from the name of relocation that they would not let any conservationist or forest officer touch them with a barge pole. One fine night, I covered my face and got inside the village through the farmlands," she recalls. Once inside, Poonam bridged the gap that existed between potent landlords and marginal farmers and around 26 families were relocated in 2011. This proved to be a major breakthrough in wildlife conservation for the Dhanwatey couple. The couple are working at present towards implementation of Dr Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Jan Van Yojna in 150 villages of the state. "In the next five years, we wish to bring about maximum employment in tribal villages, convince them to get rid of open defecation and hygiene issues and provide them plentiful drinking water,"