Siddapura: The tribal colony at Avaregunda near here recently are having rare guests who were watched with amaze by the tribals who might have never seen such fair skinned people  in their lives.

When a ten member  team including six foreigners landed at this colony, the tribals were awestruck to  see them  and their attire. Members of the Raleigh India Trust of England are visiting the colony  not only to learn about the culture, lifestyle and traditions of the tribals but also to enlighten them on the  importance of  health, education, cleanliness and farming through a door-to-door visit.

The team will be in the district for 90 days  when they will also visit  Soolebavi, Sajjali tribal areas and  interact with the tribals with the help of representatives of CARD in Karnataka. The CARD representatives are  acting as translators to the visiting team.

The team is  studying the tribal belts by mingling with the locals in such a manner that may put to shame the elected representatives  and officials who prefer  chalking out schemes for such tribals by sitting in their AC cabins. The team is spending its days and nights in the tribal belt by consuming the food of the  tribals and even relishing it.The team is also educating the tribals on methods to be adopted to improve crop yield.

A glance at the living condition of the tribals at Avaregunda may shock anyone. To reach this place which is 8 km away from Siddapur,  one must trek for nearly three kms in a forest area.Children of Avaregunda trek this way to reach a school which is six km away. In case  there is news of some elephant  straying the area, then both children and elders prefer to stay indoors.

The colony relies on well water and during summer people  walk for  kilometers together to get water lest they will have to be satisfied with impure water flowing in the drain.

The colony has over 85 families  and  the place lacks  basic amenities including  road and electricity. Their appeal for better amenities have been a cry in wilderness so far.

The  Raleigh India Trust team is studying their problems.The foreigners  in the team are Liyan, Jose, Fina, Kiyon Tania Emily while Gautham of Tamil Nadu, Hanumath of Bagalkote, Shivappa of Belgaum and Meenakshi of Delhi are also accompanying the team.

The team heads Liyan and Jose said they would be submitting a report to their Trust based on their study.