He is often visited by wild elephants, wild boar, antelopes, leopards, bison, etc. Sometimes snakes keep crawling around but he refuses to leave
In today's day and age one cannot think of staying away from the internet, social media apps etc. We are so used to it that moving away from these things seems like a daunting task. However, 56-year-old Chandrashekar might be able to change your point of view on this.
Between the villages of Adtale and Nekkare in the Dakshina Kannada district is located a dense forest where Chandrashekar resides. Away from the city life and all the civilisation, he took shelter in nature.
If you want to reach him then you will have to walk 3-4 kilometres through the jungle and soon you will be able to see plastic sheets resting on bamboo sticks from far away. Besides the small tent, you will find an old ambassador car, white in colour with a radio that's the only functional thing inside it.
You will also come across Chandrashekar, who now looks lean with strong limbs, half bald, not shaved or had a haircut in years, rubber slippers and who only owns two pairs of clothing.
There was a reason behind Chandrashekar wanting to live like this. He owned a farm of 1.5 acres in Nekral Kemraje village and was leading a peaceful life. In 2003, he had to take a loan of Rs 40,000 from a co-operative bank but could not pay it back. In return, the bank auctioned his farm.
Chandrashekar could not stand this and went to his sister’s house in Adtale in his ambassador car. A few days later, he had to move from there as well since he was not getting along with his sister’s family and decided to live alone. He managed to drive into the deep jungle and parked his car there. To protect himself from the rain and sun he put up a small tent.
He has been living like this for 17 years. He takes bath by the river that flows inside the forest, he weaves baskets using dried creepers around him and sells them in a shop in the nearby village and takes the rice, sugar and other groceries in return.
All he wants is to get back the land that the bank sold off for which he has preserved all his documents.
He is often visited by wild elephants, wild boar, antelopes, leopards and bison are also very frequent. Sometimes snakes keep crawling around but he refuses to leave the place. The forest department does not seem to have a problem with him since he has caused no harm to the jungle.
Chandrashekar does hot have an Aadhaar card but the Aranthod Gram Panchayath visited him and gave him his dose of COVID-19 vaccine. During the lockdown period, he managed to stay alive on water and wild fruits for weeks.
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