Nagpur: Her phone starts ringing even before she settles into a chair inside the DPDC cell at the Nagpur Municipal Corporation headquarters. One call ends, another begins. For Mayatai Ivnate, the transition from corporator to member of the Rajya Sabha has not diluted the importance of local issues — if anything, it has amplified them.“I still get calls from my prabhag every day,” she says, glancing at her phone between conversations with officials. “People don’t see posts, they see accessibility,” she adds.Beyond the steady stream of civic complaints lies a deeper worry — one unfolding in the tribal belts of Deolapar. A recent tiger attack that claimed a villager’s life triggered a dharna, but the crisis runs far deeper. During her visit to the protest site in Ramtek taluka, Ivnate met agitators who have been staging a sit-in for nearly a month under the banner of a local Janhit Sanrakshak committee and accepted their memorandum.Villages including Patharai, Dahoda, Pipariya, Dongartal, Bandra, Vadamba, Karwahi, Pindkapar (Lodha), Belda, Khanora, Bothiya-Palora, Katta, Deolapar, Umri, Varghat, Hivra (Bazar), Salai, Tangla and Pusad rehabilitation areas have been living under the shadow of fear for years.“The situation is extremely serious. People are living in fear,” Ivnate tells TOI. “They cannot step out after evening, cannot go to farms. This conflict has increased manifold, especially near forest areas.”In the past year alone, 24 people lost their lives, hundreds of livestock have been killed, and large swathes of farmland have suffered damage — turning the issue into a full-blown humanitarian crisis.She says she has directed officials to step up forest patrolling, deploy rescue teams and ensure immediate relief to affected families. While urging protesters to temporarily withdraw the agitation, she assured them of sustained intervention.“I will meet the Union forest minister. We need a long-term solution. Lives are being lost,” she adds, also planning a meeting with CM Devendra Fadnavis to push for a permanent resolution.Yet, for Ivnate, the crisis is not just about wildlife. It reflects the layered neglect of tribal regions —roads, lack of education facilities, limited job opportunities and weak market access. “Development has to reach them. These are basic needs,” she says.Back in the NMC office, another call interrupts — a reminder that her political journey, though elevated, remains grounded. She insists she will continue as corporator while serving in Parliament, even declining to take an honorarium from the civic body.On Nagpur’s growth, she credits leaders like Nitin Gadkari and Fadnavis for transforming the city and says she will work with them to resolve citizens’ issues.
