After almost four decades, residents of the Nilgiris needing a dentist will no longer be able to rely on the steady hands of Tarun Chhabra. The dentist, renowned in the Nilgiris for his long-standing ties to the district, and over the years has become renowned as an expert on the indigenous Toda culture and local ecology will stop practising dentistry from July 6, 2024 (Saturday).
Dr. Chhabra is the son of another famed dentist, Lieutenant Colonel T.S.Chhabra, who set up his practice in Coonoor and later moved to Udhagamandalam.
Dr. Chhabra, who started his practice in 1986 at the age of 22, has for years become renowned for his dedication to his patients, with him holding free medical camps every Friday for the last 32 years. “Based on my conservative estimation, I think around 55,000 patients have benefitted through the initiative,” said Dr. Chhabra, who has not only performed dental procedures for free during the medical camps, but also gave away free medicines to patients.
Some of his patients travel from as far away as Mettupalayam for treatment, said Dr. Chhabra, as he bade farewell to his final few patients, many of whom were visibly saddened to hear the news of his retirement. Samsudheen, a patient of Dr. Chhabra’s for over 12-years, said that his entire family relied on the doctor for dental treatment. “I was told today that I would need dentures and learned that Dr. Chhabra will no longer be available to make them for me. When I told him I didn’t have the money to pay for them, he told me that he would speak to another doctor and would help meet the expenses,” said Mr. Samsudheen.
Over the years, Dr. Chhabra has also become renowned as one of the Nilgiris’ foremost authorities on the Todas, an indigenous community from the Nilgiris and is widely regarded as one of the most important documentarians of their culture through his book “The Toda Landscape: Explorations in Cultural Ecology.”
Dr. Chhabra said that he got interested in the Adivasis’ culture when he read a work on the Todas by W.H.R. Rivers, the English anthropologist in the Defence Services Staff College library in Wellington, Coonoor. “I then began travelling with the Todas and began studying their ties to the local ecology and environment,” added Dr. Chhabra.
Through his work with the Todas, Dr. Chhabra also learned of their close ties to the endemic flora and fauna of the Nilgiris, and over the years discovered three new species of endemic balsams (Impatiens kawttyana, Impatiens taihmushkulni and Impatiens nilgirica) naming them with Toda-related nomenclature in the process. He is also credited with discovering a rare species of cobra lily endemic to the Nilgiris after more than 84-years.
With a glint in his eye, Dr. Chhabra admitted on Friday that retirement will be difficult, but that he plans on devoting the rest of his life on serving the local community even more than during his days as a practising dentist. “I am still thinking about Monday, when I will wake up and have nothing to do,” he said.
Apart from his work with the Edhkwehlynawd Botanical Refuge, where he is restoring more than 25 acres of grassland using native ecology, and with the Toda Nalavaazhvu Sangam, of which he is the only non-Toda trustee, Dr. Chhabra plans to spend his time after retirement establishing the Nilgiris kuttawddy center in Elk Hill, where he plans on supporting the education of poor children, offer free medical camps, organise cultural workshops for adivasis to learn about their culture and hold lectures on ecology.
“This will be completely funded by me, and I plan to liquidate all my assets and investments in setting this up. It is my belief from my work with the Todas, that we are nothing but custodians of this planet. We come from nothing and do not own anything, so I want to spend the rest of my days doing good for others and benefiting the Nilgiris and its people,” he told The Hindu.
