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On the India-Bhutan border, an indigenous group faces extinction due to mining pollution
FirstpostThe entire population of one of the world’s smallest indigenous groups, the Toto, live in a village on the India-Bhutan border. But it also fails to fulfil our requirements during the extreme summers.” Above: Reshma Toto “The Totos have been living in Totopara for the past several centuries and worship nature. Anju Toto, 47, who runs the only guest house in Totopara, says: “Earlier, numerous small streams in the village had water throughout the year. “The population of those migrating from other states and even Nepal and Bhutan has exceeded the local Toto population,” says Biswas of North Bengal University. People from other areas who began to arrive axed the forests to build houses and sell the wood for survival.” Biswas adds: “We suspect more than 70 percent of Totopara’s forest cover has been lost in the past four decades.
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