With their small crops ruined by the unrelenting sun, Pithora painters and carvers are getting more and more desperate to sell whatever they can while the going is still good. The fallout: Paintings that would fetch between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 and teakwood statuettes worth Rs 500 or more are selling for almost one-tenth of their original pricetags.

Fear is the overriding emotion among the 1500-odd tribal families of Malaja, Gathia and Ambala, known countrywide for their skills as Pithora painters, teakwood carvers and terracotta potters respectively.

Falsabhai, a tribal artist with multiple disabilities, does not need words to convey that ``anything'' will do for his recent paintings. ``Rs 200 will be okay'', he adds as an afterthought.

Two days ago, Gulsinh sold three teakwood images for Rs 400 to a senior official. In other times, each would have fetched him Rs 500.

The bleak prospects of rain have triggered a virtual orgy of work in tribal houses within a 15-km radius of this town. ``It is no longer a money-earning hobby or even an art; it is out sole source of livelhood'', says Shankerbhai, a 40-year-old Pithora artist. ``The dull market has heightened the desperation.''

It is not just the money factor that makes it a depressive season for the local tribals. ``We revere our Pithora and teakwood works. It's painful to sell them like this'', say Govind, Manjlibem and Warsanbhai.

Traditionally, Pithora paintings are created just twice a year on the mud walls of tribal homes to celebrate festivals; the paintings are regarded as the ``blessings of Pithoro Babo (Lord Pithora)''. The wood-carvings, too, are created in the image of Khatris (Kshetrapals), the guards of the fields, for installation at the entrance to a village.

Though commercialisation may have been inevitable, Haribhai, a local merchant, says tribals may be forced to compromise further and further on their art and go in for mass production if the crisis continues. Admitting that the tribal artisans' plight was something he had experienced first-hand, Tribal Welfare Project administrator T L Chauhan says, ``Their works must be respected and valued. That may satisfy their limited needs and assuage their guilt.''