Huts with natural colours

KORAPUT: It’s a tiny hut of Patraput village in Jeypore block of Koraput district stands with pride to challenge the shades of many modern paints. Almost all the huts in the village dominated by Bhumia tribe bear the same look . The walls are shining , floor is deep black , boarders are painted red virtually at no cost . However no paint manufacturing company could claim the paints to be theirs . The colours are prepared using different kinds of soil and barks and fruits of different trees from the forest , Kamala Pujari , an old woman of the village said .

The red soil is collected from the hilltop, White shining soil from the river bed after performing specific rituals and worshiping to get the blessings from the mother earth . The mud prepared from these soil is then mixed with the barks of wild plants and fruits like Bahada and boiled in pots .

Additions of the natural ingredients help the mud more sticky . This coloured paste when applied on the walls appears shining and prevents termite to catch on the wall for a long time , she said . The floor , polished with a black paste prepared by mixing cow dung with farm soil collected from their paddy field maintains to remain dry even on a rainy day, Daimati Rampuria , another resident from the village said .