Tamia-Patalkot:
For Bindi, a poor Bharia tribal, being selected for an intensive training in adventure sports in the Tamia-Patalkot Valley, is no less than magic.
In the training camp, there are 200 tribal students like her from villages nearby, their lives of monotony and struggle exposed to a something new and thrilling.
"I had seen it on television. Now I am getting to do it," said Sanjay Kumar Uike, student from Chindi village.
Tamia-Patalkot is a breathtakingly beautiful valley amid the Satpurha Mountains. Its virgin terrain offers steep mountains, deep waters and thick forests.
The students are being trained so that Patalkot can be transformed into an adventure tourism hotspot which will also give the tribal population of the area - most of who live below the poverty - line a means of livelihood.
"We will select 25 students, give them basic training and then will hand over the camp to them so they can run it themselves and earn their livelihood," said Yadavendra Singh Ahlewat, trainer from Manali.
Sixty other students will be selected for specialised training and given licenses to operate on their own.
"Industrialisation is impossibility here. Tourism is one industry that can provide job opportunities to the tribals. It will also check their migration," said Nikunj Srivastav, Collector, Chindwara.
The Satpurha Adventure Camp may become an annual feature soon and a source of income for the tribal students.
They hope, it will also bring development for the villages around where even today there are no roads, no hospitals, not even a high school.