Combating COVID-19, tribals adopt their own way, wear masks made of leaves

April 26: Nature is said to have some sort of solution for every problem. When the city populace seems to be worried about the shortage of face masks, the tribal populace as usual depended on the forest produce and made their own masks. Such a scene could be noticed in many parts of India including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, some parts of West Bengal and Chhattisgarh borders.

Interestingly, tribals residing in the agency areas of the district have made face masks out of teak leaves. Further, they are not only staying indoors but are also preventing outsiders from entering their villages by barricading the borders. Perhaps common sense took the upper hand and defeated the learned city populace who require police to monitor whether they are really wearing masks when coming out of the houses.

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra took to Twitter to share a picture of two children wearing leaves as masks amid coronavirus pandemic. He wrote, “Don’t know who took this and the location but I hope this photo becomes one of the most iconic images and memories of the pandemic…A reminder that nature already provides us with all that we need.”