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Flex Mentallo

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  1. Flex Mentallo
    The villagers were mostly wary of outsiders. I didnt think to ask, but it is a reasonable surmise that I am the first foreigner to visit there.
  2. Flex Mentallo
    Their diet consists mainly of leafy vegetables, and very little protein. The children show clear signs of malnutrition, as do many of the adults.
  3. Flex Mentallo
    These are among the poorest people I've encountered in forty years of travels in India, with the exception of homeless people, who themselves are often villagers driven from the land by hunger in search of better opportunities in the cities which, sadly, all too often they come to realize, are non-existent.
  4. Flex Mentallo
    While Purnabha did his best to guide the NGO worker living with the villagers, I did my best to document living conditions.
  5. Flex Mentallo
    Even a basic understanding of sanitation needs to be taught.
  6. Flex Mentallo
    Here the tea pickers live in the most primitive conditions, and Sonali and her team work to support them as best they can.
  7. Flex Mentallo
    And yet there are villages in the heart of the forest and along its edges.
  8. Flex Mentallo
    The vines are everywhere, in some places weighing down the very tops of tall trees.
  9. Flex Mentallo
  10. Flex Mentallo
    You realize that anything could be watching, and even the largest of animals would be hard to spot if still.
  11. Flex Mentallo
    The silence eventually becomes unnerving.
  12. Flex Mentallo
    The jungle is absolutely still.
  13. Flex Mentallo
    Fifty yards in, and you've lost the sense of where the forest edge lies - unless you've thought to station a companion!
  14. Flex Mentallo
    However the jungle is so densely entangled with vines that it is difficult to penetrate.
  15. Flex Mentallo
  16. Flex Mentallo
  17. Flex Mentallo
    Fortunately or unfortunately, my brief exploration of the jungle did not include encounters with elephants or leopards.
  18. Flex Mentallo
    The teae plantations look idyllic, but the tribal people who pick the tea earn only about half the Indian minimum wage (which is Rupees 200 per month).
  19. Flex Mentallo
    Recently an elephant and her calf were killed by a train - only a couple of days after we had left. Meanwhile another elephant broke into a factory cafeteria in search of food, and pretty much trashed it.
  20. Flex Mentallo
    Dooars is a beautiful place, teeming with wildlife. Here are a few recent photographs by other photographers in the Dooars Facebook Group to give you an impression.
  21. Flex Mentallo
    Stunning
  22. Flex Mentallo
    Yeah, we had at least three cameras operating, all at various moments taking photos of other people taking photos!
  23. Flex Mentallo
    I don't honestly recall seeing another. If I do, I'll holler!
  24. Flex Mentallo
    Thanks so much, Mike!
  25. Flex Mentallo