MUMBAI: They walked ten days, covering a distance of roughly 400kms, negotiating uncharted jungle trails between the borders of Maharashtra and Gujarat. But for this group of migrant workers and their families, the intrepid bid to escape the lockdown has ended in disappointment – they are back where they started, on their way to a construction site in Virar which employed them After the border between the states was sealed, over 3,000 migrants had massed near Achhad village, the last post on the Maharashtra side, on the highway in Talasari taluka.

While a number of migrants were turned away or moved to temporary shelters set up by the district administration, some broke through the cordon and took to forest paths to cross into Gujarat.

Rajesh Dawak, a construction worker, his wife Relam, their two-year-old son Krishna along with extended family comprising around 20, men, women, children, spent nights in the jungle trekking to Gujarat. They were eventually stopped by police at Surat, put in a truck and dropped off at the Maharashtra border. When TOI found them, they were fleeing the camp in Talasari, despite the offer of food and shelter, and circling back to their construction site in Virar.

Rajesh said they decided to take their chances through the forest into Gujarat in a bid to get back to their village near Bhopal.

The walk from Virar to Talasari had taken six days. “The border was sealed, so we sneaked into the jungle,” he said. Aware of the presence of wildlife—it’s a stretch known for leopard sightings—they kept to the periphery of the forest, but ensured they did not get noticed along the way.

The men, around 10 of them, used their phones sparingly, switching on one at a time, so it would help with navigation, phone calls and visibility. “The phone acted as a torch. We had to watch for wild animals at night,” said one of them, Harish Dawak.

The group would walk during the day and break at dusk to cook a meal of rice and dal over firewood found in the jungle before catching up on sleep. The women admitted that the two nights in the jungle left them with a sense of dread, especially for the children’s safety. Relam said she and the other women clung to their children.

Rajesh said they had made it to Surat and would have continued onwards if they had not been stopped. Once they were shipped back to the shelter at Talasari, they collectively decided to leave and head back to their hutments in Virar. When TOI found them, they were resting their sore feet in the shade of a tree; they had another 95kms to go.