Allahabad: The visit to Kumbh Mela in Allahabad was the first time Sonmati had stepped out of her village in Sonbhadra and one that gave her a chance to get married to a groom of her choice, Narendra .Belonging to one of the backward tribes of eastern UP, Sonmati and her family earn a living by collecting wood and tendu leaves from the nearby forests. While Sonmati belonged to Korawan tribe of Uppi village, Narendra belonged to Baiga tribe of Ghaghari village in Sonbhadra.Though the couple had been wanting to get married for long, however, when they told their family about their decision, their families expressed helplessness. Barely able to make ends meet, they simply had no money to plan a wedding for them.Months later, Sonmati and Narendra are sitting next to each other in a mandap, dressed in traditional wedding attire, in a mass wedding organised by the Jaishankar aka Bhikhari Baba aka Junglee Baba. The seer earned the moniker ‘Junglee Baba’ because of his efforts to conserve forests and work for welfare of tribal population of the country.The seer organised a mass wedding for 101 couples on Thursday at sector number 6 of Kumbh Mela ground. A resident of Kasari Ramgarh of Vijaygrah block of the district, Junglee Baba has been organising mass weddings every year since 2005.“My daughter wanted to marry this boy but we hardly have money. We couldn’t afford the expense. Then this opportunity came and now she is getting married to a groom of her choice,” said Dhanmaniya, Sonmati’s mother.In the tent set up at the Mela ground, scores of men and women belonging to tribes like Baiga, Gond, Panikar, Patari, Chero, Agariya and Bhuiya from eastern UP were getting married in the presence of Junglee Baba.

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