Palghar: No roads, tribals carry pregnant woman in makeshift stretcher for 5 km

Tribal residents of Ambarbhui village in Wada taluka carried a 21-year-old pregnant woman to hospital via the hills. Pics/Hanif Patel

Residents of Wada taluka in Palghar district had to carry a seven-month pregnant tribal woman in a makeshift stretcher for 5 km through the hilly terrain on Wednesday. Aarti Vishal Tabale, 21, was in pain and had to be rushed to a hospital, and there is no road connecting her village to the main road.

The incident happened in Bamanshet Pada of Ambarbhui village in Wada, adjacent to India's financial capital, after Aarti developed labour pains.

"She got labour pain in the early hours of August 18. I was already in Vasai for work when I got a call from my relative that Aarti needs to be taken to hospital," said Vikas Lilka, her elder brother. "I rushed to my village and made a doli out of a bamboo stick and bed sheet to carry my sister. There were other relatives and neighbours who helped us carry her for a nearly 5-km stretch on the mountain," he added.

"After reaching the main road, we sat her in a car and drove her to nearby Nimbavali Primary Health Centre. Thankfully, there was no complication. It was just an early labour pain. We returned through the same path, carrying her on the doli," Lilka said.

"One would not believe that people living in a village, which is very close to Mumbai, have to suffer like this. I would request the chief minister to please help us connect to a main road," Lilka said. Lilka added that all patients and elderly people, who are unable to walk, in their area are taken to hospital on makeshift stretchers.

"This is a tribal area and snake bite cases are reported quite often," he added.

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Lilka said, "Whenever such videos go viral, people contact us, but give us false promises. No one has ever come forward to connect this village to the main road."
"The problem mounts specially during monsoon when the venomous snakes come out. We have to cross the dark forest area in the hilly region after completing our daily work in Vasai," he said.

Prashant Khandavi, the sarpanch of the village, said, "We have been requesting all the politicians to connect our village to the main road, but our requests fall on deaf ears."