Jharkhand is known for its folk arts that depict different types of rituals of tribal people living in and around the forest areas. Through their paintings, they depict their culture and mythology as well. To preserve these works of art for posterity, IFS officer Sanjeev Kumar started folk art camps in different parts of Jharkhand and is encouraging more and more people to start practicing these traditional arts.
Speaking with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, IFS who is the Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, CAMPA, Jharkhand, shared details about his initiative.
FOLK ART PAINTINGS
There are three types of folk art in Jharkhand. First, Paitkar which is present in the area of Jamshedpur, East Singhbhum; second, Sohrai and Kovar, present in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand, though it is spread outside Hazaribagh as well. Third is Jadopatiya which is present in Dumka region of Jharkhand. There are very few people who are practicing these folk arts with the advent of commercialization and marketing of contemporary painting. Folk arts are almost on the verge of diminishing as people are now moving towards contemporary painting.
To paint these folk arts, artists here use natural colours, which are made up of natural things like flowers, petals, stones, soils, etc., but these colours are not as much bright as artificial colors. So, somehow their demand in the market is slightly low.
“This is the main reason that I started this initiative in the form of art camps. First, I started the art camp in Dhanbad in 2007 to 2010 as Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), to highlight these paintings and continued there for years. Participants from all over India and from abroad like Australia, Bangladesh were part of the camp. Further, I continued these camps in Jamshedpur in the year 2011 and 2012, and then till 2019, in Hazaribagh. After that, Covid happened and we couldn’t continue. However, during the pandemic, we tried for online painting so that people practice it,” Mr. Kumar informed.
During the Covid outbreak, the forest department organized an online painting competition on folk art based on the theme of Corona and social distancing. Some of the artists depicted how people are trying to get out of the Corona infection through their paintings.
Recently, the officer has organized an online art camp on the occasion of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
Meanwhile, Mr. Kumar made a 40-minutes documentary film named, Vision through Images in the year 2013 to highlight the issues of these three painting forms of Jharkhand. Apart from this, he also included a similar kind of painting from the adjoining area of East Singhbhum, that is the area of Bankura which is called Paitkar. The documentary won a special jury award during the International Film Festival in Kerala in 2012. “People appreciated it and afterwards the documentary not only got screened in different states in India, but also got screened in other countries like Bangladesh and London,” Mr. Kumar said.
In another achievement, a picture clicked by the officer in the rural heart of East Singhbhum won an award at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. The photograph was selected as one of the 100 best photographs and was screened during the Glasgow commonwealth games. “They had a competition all around the world, in which people had to upload photographs themed on forest, wildlife and forest livelihood. So, I clicked and uploaded it and luckily won an award for it,” Mr. Kumar said.
AN ARTIST HIMSELF
IFS officer Sanjeev Kumar is himself an artist and has been painting since childhood, and has received many awards as well. “I have also been a part of some of the exhibitions in and outside the country, like in London’s Nehru Art Gallery, Bhutan, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Pune. I do contemporary art, though I promote folk arts more because these people deserve recognition,” Mr. Kumar said.
