Jamuna Tudu

When Jamuna Tudu moved to her husband’s village in Jharkhand, she found the forest around it disappearing tree by tree. Instead of accepting it, she gathered the women of the village and began to guard the forest herself. People came to call her “the Lady Tarzan of Jharkhand” ^[2].

A love of the forest from childhood

Jamuna grew up in a poor Santhal family in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. Her father was her first teacher, and he taught her to love and respect forests and wild animals ^[2].

After her marriage, she moved to Muturkham village in East Singhbhum, Jharkhand ^[2][3]. Life there was hard. She had to walk deep into the forest for firewood, and she watched as large numbers of trees were cut and carried away by people taking timber illegally ^[2][3].

Women on patrol

From 1998, Jamuna set out to protect the forest by helping villagers see it as their own ^[3]. It was not easy. There were arguments within the village and clashes with those who profited from the logging ^[3]. She kept talking to the women of Muturkham until they agreed to stand with her ^[2][3].

Together they formed a forest protection group, the Van Suraksha Samiti ^[3]. By 2017, about 60 women were patrolling the jungle in shifts three times a day, carrying sticks, bows and arrows ^[3]. The work was dangerous. Her official citation records that she was attacked several times by people involved in illegal logging, and survived ^[2].

The villagers still use the forest, but carefully. They take fallen trees and branches for their needs rather than cutting standing trees ^[3]. Over the years, the group protected around 50 hectares of forest, not just near Muturkham but around other villages too ^[3].

A movement that spread

Her example travelled. By 2017, around 150 forest committees with more than 6,000 members had been formed through her work ^[3]. Later she set up a larger network, the Van Prabandhan Avam Sanrakshan Mahasamiti, which her citation says includes more than 350 committees across 350 to 400 villages ^[2].

The forest department “adopted” her village, which helped Muturkham get a water connection and a school ^[3].

Recognition

Jamuna received the Godfrey Phillips Bravery Award in 2013 and NITI Aayog’s Women Transforming India Award in 2017 ^[3]. On 25 January 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs named her for the Padma Shri, listed under Social Work (Environment), from Jharkhand ^[1].

Her story shows that protecting a forest does not always need big budgets. Sometimes it needs a few determined people who refuse to look away.