Explore India: Experience the true way of community life in Bastar, Chhattisgarh

Somewhere in southern Chhattisgarh, a fish swims in permanent darkness. It has no eyes. It never needed them. The caves it inhabits — the Kotumsar, deep inside Kanger Valley National Park — have been lightless for so long that entire species simply stopped bothering with vision and got on with living. Bastar is that kind of place. Old in ways that make the rest of India feel recent.

Fly into Jagdalpur and within thirty minutes, you are in one of the most culturally intact, ecologically extravagant regions left in the country. Bastar is inhabited by the Gonds, Marias and Murias — tribal communities who have kept their way of life.

The weekly haats, village markets scattered across the region, are where locals trade forest produce while sipping mahua or landa rice beer. The ghotul — a traditional communal space where young people learn music, dance and social ethics from elders — is one of the most radical educational systems still functioning in India.

Then there is the ‘Niagara of India’ Chitrakote Falls that announces itself before you see it. During the monsoon, the Indravati River stretches nearly 300 metres across before dropping 95 feet in a horseshoe cascade. Take the boat to the foot of the falls — you will be soaked, immediately and be glad about it.

Bastar’s crafts are not souvenirs in any ordinary sense. Dhokra art — non-ferrous metal casting using the lost-wax technique — is a 4,000-yearold tradition traceable to the Indus Valley Civilisation. The wrought iron loha shilp work is equally captivating: scrap metal transformed into clean, modern-looking tribal figures that would not look out of place in a gallery. Before flying out, give an hour to the Bastar Palace in Jagdalpur — the Kakatiya dynasty’s former seat, parts of which function as a museum — and another to the Anthropological Museum, which documents over forty distinct tribal groups.

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