Kolhapur, 13 September

Every morning, when most teachers head to school using vehicles, Jivan Mithari, 55, sets out on a 5-kilometre walk through dense forests, braving rain, wild animals and the absence of a motorable road, to teach a single student.

For the past 13 years, the teacher has been walking to the Zilla Parishad school at Kawaltek Dhangarwada, a remote hamlet in the Gaganbawada taluka of Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district.

The hamlet has no electricity, and vehicles cannot reach the school.  “I went there on 26 July 2013,” Mithari said.

Before moving, Mithari had served as chairman of the Kolhapur District Primary Teachers’ Cooperative Bank. He said his fellow teachers once said that influential figures like him usually secured postings to well‑connected schools.

The school once had a much larger student population. The hamlet, comprising Kawaltek Dhangarwada and Anandur Dhangarwada, earlier housed between 70 and 100 families. But after 2000, migration to Kolhapur city gradually thinned the settlement.

This year, Mithari has just one student, Swara Bodake, who is in Class 3. Her younger sister, not old enough for education, also attends classes as the hamlet has no anganwadi. She is expected to enter Class 1 next year.

The school route is frequented by gaurs, leopards and other animals. Mithari recalled encounters with gaurs and said villagers had taught him how to respond depending on whether the animal was alone or in a herd.

Mithari has been told not to sit or stop along the route while going to school.