Day 1 (11th April 2010)
I am here in Melghat, around 120 kms from Amravati, one of the district places in Maharashtra. Melghat is one of the tiger reserves in India, a unique representative! The state of Marathas has lost its entire tiger fauna, and only few of them are currently residing in the reserve of Melghat. We are total of 15 participants, enthu in wildlife conservation. Most of us are photographers, birders and amateurs. Today we had a safari by Gypsy to the tourist track. We got to see lots of birds and a heard of Gaurs. We visited the nature interpretation centre at Semadoh; and got to see the actual sizes of animals. I personally feel that watching wildlife in a sanctuary sitting in a Gypsy is not interesting. We have a thought of being at a safer side, we are in group, we do have cameras and other equipments, we are quite sure of the capacity of Gypsy to turn back and run away with a faster speed than the wild animal in case it attacks…so it’s kinda observing the wildlife from balcony of our respective houses. The thrill which you can experience wandering bare footed in jungle has its own category! Gaurs are really magnificent animals, but watching them from Gypsy made me feel that they are no different than buffalos!!
In the evening session we sat on machan from 4.30 to 7.00 p.m. sitting on machan fulfills your thrill requirement! You are alone though in a group! You have no measures of defence even if mishaps occur. You cannot run away nor can you hide! The only thing which I like the most about machan is that it tells you the jungle stories, shows you the real jungle dramas audio-visually, provided you sit quietly on machan. You shut your mouth, you listen to the surroundings…I have never imagined that the jungle can be so serious and dreadful at the same time! I heard laughs of hyena, a great horned owl calling the jungle so loudly that the voice itself created an image of this particular owl in my mind; no doubt it was a great horned owl. Nightjars, owlets, tree-pies, kingfishers and peacocks, everybody has its own story to tell to the jungle, but at different time intervals. I found the hierarchy so impressive that the jungle tries to maintain. I tried to be quiet, got to see peacocks coming to the waterholes, drinking water. Got to see, grey junglefowls (both males and females). There was a distinction between the behavior shown by both the males and females of peacocks and grey junglefowls. Males were quite alert as compared to the females; might be because of the more decorative plumage and heavy builds than females.
7.05 p.m.
We thought to left the machan, climbed down and started walking to the campsite. Visibility started decreasing as the darkness started showing up with a subsequent increase in the cries and activities of birds; these were the last few minutes for them to drink enough of water for the night to pass. There we encountered a bear, just 10-15 feet away from us up on a small hill, and yes we were bare footed with no torches to see the site, a single swiss knife in my pocket to depend on! I was curious enough to shoot a photo but the light was not enough, and my mind was still telling me that it’s a wild boar and not a bear until it roared; as it was the sole voice it could create! Now it was confirmed that it was a bear and four of us were in danger! It stood on its hind legs might be just for having a better look at us. Well, I have read enough of appropriate books to know about bears and was quite sure about the unpredictable behavior shown by it. Well, what could I do in such a case? Just thought about it and told all the other three that it’s a bear and that we should not run even if it comes towards us. I thought that just standing in front of it was not enough and that I had to do something just to scare it away, as it was quite interested in our activities! So I told the entire group that I will count one, two, and three and that we have to shout as louder as we could do! Well, we shouted, the result was it turned back in that typical bear style…we shouted twice, made a lot of noise as we started approaching the camp site! When we reached the camp site, a villager at camp site told us that the bear is still there!! I think, this is the unpredictable behavior of bears!! My throat was dry, and I was so helpless holding my swiss-knife in the right hand, what can I do in such situations? A swarm of questions, started approaching me just like angry honey bees, as if I am the one who has stolen their honey!!
Day 2 (12th April 2010)
I know and I understand the current situation of jungles in Maharashtra, and to a greater extent that of India and the world of course. I try to save water, save electricity, I don’t myself wear belts made by turtle or snake skin and don’t gift them as well; I am a vegetarian (turned just 3 months before!), I don’t eat eggs of wild species! I am quite aware of situation of plastic and that it’s accumulating in the environment and it’s harmful to all of us! So see, I am well educated, can get a job of environment teacher in schools, colleges; I can earn money either by teaching school children about do’s and don’ts of environmental education (EE) or I can start a N.G.O. dedicated to work for EE and can earn a lil bit for myself!! Well, most of these NGOs do this! I am not an anti-NGO man nor am I pessimistic about the NGO thing. I honestly think that working in an organization is much better than working individually and yes, it’s more effective, and then how can it be a failure? Here is this NGO…may be let’s just say organization (The word NGO might depict something else!). Nature Conservation Society, Amravati (NCSA) of Mr. Kishor Rithe, Mr. Vishal Bansod and Mr. Nishikant Kale, all full time members and care takers of NCSA (I don’t know about other members and other people involved in its operation, so those please forgive me for not mentioning about them!!). These are the hard workers who are really working for nature conservation and purely for nature conservation. They have research projects, they have conservation projects, and they are in direct contact with villagers living here in the buffer zone of Melghat tiger reserve. See, the problem is not only with the tigers and that they are poached so heavily that we just have to provide them with adequate amount of land; but also with the human beings who are settled on this tiger land and living with them. These people are living here since so many years that we just cannot resettle them to some other land! Their forefathers must have encountered forefathers of today’s Melghat tigers. Human-animal conflict is not time bound! There are many human families and tiger generations which are living here since before declaration of tiger reserve boundaries! Hence we have to solve problems of villagers along with saving tigers. NCSA has helped villagers living in Melghat and the work cannot be stopped here. It’s a continuous process. Total of 19 villages are to be resettled out of which 3 villages have been successfully resettled. We visited one of such villages, known as “Kund”. It’s a success story, written by NCSA, Forest department and of course villagers of Kund. Villages which are situated at boundary of core area want to get resettled just to avoid human-animal conflict and to proceed towards a better life. There are provisions made by government. So, for every problem our government has some solutions, the only thing is that we don’t know about them and we are bored of visiting government offices just to get something done. We think that writing mails is enough but it’s not. Kishor sir explained this situation in a very nice way to us…
“अरे, ये तुम्हारा देश है! तुम्हारी सरकार है! It’s not British government!”
Kishor sir is a computer engineer and currently he is dedicatedly working for the rights of Melghat villagers, on their health aspects and on the conservation aspects related to Melghat and other tiger reserves and national parks of central India. He is keen to raise an issue, fight for it; he does not think about the risk involved in it…he repeats. “It’s your government and not the Britishers!” He has faith in our government, and he has studied the law of this country so wisely that he knows where the solution of problem is. This the first time I saw such an organization working so enthusiastically.
Day 2 was not lucky for us as the other group got to see a wounded sambar, might be a possible prey of a leopard/tiger! We just felt the presence of a leopard/tiger and that was really exciting. The monkeys were continuously giving alert calls, typical of sighting of tiger by monkeys. We also heard alert calls given by barking dear, the whole of the jungle stood still in the fearful appreciation of the king of the Indian jungles. Way back to camp, we got to see a mother crested hawk eagle feeding its nestlings.
Sorry!! I Forgot to mention about Ravi. Ravi is a tenth standard korku boy, associated with Duda van and actively working in the field of EE for other korkus. He knows the current condition of Melghat forests and that we have to act rather than just talking/discussing about it. We got a chance to interact with him; he was not shy talking to us. He answered most of our questions logically, not innocently! I asked him, “what do you want to be in life?” he answered quickly that he wants to work for forest conservation. So difficult a question answer of which we people cannot find whole our miserable lives and this guy was so prompt and happy to answer it!
NCSA, the resettled village and talk by Kishor sir really motivated me to break up the cocoon of helplessness…the starry night in the tent was excited by the stories of the jungle ghosts and that of the king of the jungle…some heard, some strangely not heard before…all about Melghat, The Land of Tigers!
Day 3 (13th April 2010)
Last two days were discussion days (contradictions, controversies, comments, suggestions, questions and same questions repeated for a hell lot of times!!!), today is no different. We started our day with a nice trail to Chaurakund. We first went up 6 kms or so in the jungle ahead of Chaurakund. Got to see pugs of leopard; I was happy to see the presence of leopard here. It was quite near to the village and yes, they were fresh. I just imagined the crepuscular cat walking on the trail. I do this, every time I see pugmarks or scat of any animal…that’s my specialty. You imagine these magnificent animals walking on the trails, in their respective styles…it just like watching them live in jungle. We went ahead expecting something special to see, could not see animals though. Way back home, we stopped in the same village, just to get to know chaurakund people, their lifestyle, their relation with the jungle, their problems and lot more stuff. I and Vishal Gokhale (an enthu birder from Pune) started a conversation with an old lady who was sitting in her old house and that we caught her curiosity in our activities and our purposes to get down in chaurakund. She talked about herself, her family, her children and her Buddha (husband). She repeatedly emphasized about her health problems and that she cannot move much around. She talked about her children, told us that her three sons passed away because of illness, the only survived one is living in the village nearby, but he is not that into her. Her only daughter lives next door and she is quite helpful. Her house was nicely built. She told about the jungle and added that अभी सब उजाड हो गया (Most of the jungle has been cut down). Her Buddha had worked as a helper to the hunter sahib. He used to build machans on tiger kills and sit on the machan for tiger hunt with sahib. Those days, were prosperous days for the couple. I think that, sahib would have been a great attraction to the villagers, youngsters mainly, as they would have been paying them a good amount of money to locate tigers. The old lady was from Kund, the same village which was resettled near to Akot. Well, Akot is far away (for village people) for her; so she is not able to go there visit her family in there. She was not happy with the resettlement! This lady told us many things about health facilities, water arrangement and other aspects.
It was quite a good talk with her. I separated from Vishal and just started wandering in the village. These people seemed curious to me, as I saw a nice collection of shapeless marbles they were worshipping as their god. So they find their god, in such complex, abstract and so to say beautiful forms created by nature. I think, the origin of the concept of god is more in the non-understandable form! I turned to a village boy who attracted my attention. His name was Shiva. Shiva is in sixth standard and he regularly goes to the school. He is clever as he solved all the basic mathematics questions which I asked him, such as what is 5+4, what is 9+4 and what is 5*4 etc. Shiva is an indicator of educational system operating in chaurakund. It’s a positive sign. The Duda van (Duda means Forest owlet in Korku language), a EE program run by NCSA is popular in these village boys. Shiva told me about Duda. He asked me the next possible dates of Duda to come here; I told him that I am not the right authority to tell about it, but that I will convey your message to the right personals! Shiva was enthu about meeting me again, as I told him that in the month of May I’ll come to have a talk with him again and that I’ll ask him more complex mathematics problems (For which I have to learn maths, well it’ll take a month or so…;-))
Back in the camp we had a nice (I mean, really nice) discussion on our trip. Everyone discovered the fact that villagers are approachable, they know about Duda.
In the evening we again sat on a machan, but this time we were 10 people, all amateurs and all expecting a tiger. This should not happen. Tiger is not a candy!! We people are so eager to watch, buy anything valuable that we almost loose the excitement! The result was clear we could not see a tiger not even a single wild boar! What we saw was a Gaur male, who was disturbed because our notorious activities. Finishing the 7.00 pm deadline we climbed the cliff, up on the base camp we got to know that yesterday evening as the group sitting on the machan left it, a big cat came just after 20-25 minutes. Workers at base camp heard those roaring sounds…I was annoyed by the fact that we could not make it! It’s not just watching a tiger, but it is more about feeling the presence of the big cat. In my story, the big cat is not only a magnificent animal; but it’s something at the ace of food chain that governs the jungle. Many people asked me the whether I saw a tiger or not? And to tell you the truth they were more excited asking me the question than me. “I saw a bear, what’s more than that??” on such a reply they just turn around!! I don’t know what’s so special in watching a cat who knows you as one of the tourists coming just to get nice pictures of it. Well, a bear is so mad to understand all these things!! ;-) Back to the camp site we encountered a civet (who crossed us and climbed up a tree; it was looking so cute that we just kept watching it!) and a jackal. It was the second last day at Melghat; everyone was tired; but we had to finish the assignment given by Kishor sir in the morning. The assignment was to identify any of the conservation problem and setting up strategies by using different tools. It was theoretical and was really nicely made. I talked about polluted wetlands and their effects on migratory birds. I will describe this in some of my next blog posts. Each participant presented various problems and innovative solutions for them. It was too late; we finished off and went to our respective tents. Back on his way to NCSA centre Kishor sir spotted two bears near the camp site…we were quite awake in our tents, the dark night was over the tent, and we were murmuring about the last night of the camp and the amazing experiences we got to have in Melghat-The land of Tigers…
I am here in Melghat, around 120 kms from Amravati, one of the district places in Maharashtra. Melghat is one of the tiger reserves in India, a unique representative! The state of Marathas has lost its entire tiger fauna, and only few of them are currently residing in the reserve of Melghat. We are total of 15 participants, enthu in wildlife conservation. Most of us are photographers, birders and amateurs. Today we had a safari by Gypsy to the tourist track. We got to see lots of birds and a heard of Gaurs. We visited the nature interpretation centre at Semadoh; and got to see the actual sizes of animals. I personally feel that watching wildlife in a sanctuary sitting in a Gypsy is not interesting. We have a thought of being at a safer side, we are in group, we do have cameras and other equipments, we are quite sure of the capacity of Gypsy to turn back and run away with a faster speed than the wild animal in case it attacks…so it’s kinda observing the wildlife from balcony of our respective houses. The thrill which you can experience wandering bare footed in jungle has its own category! Gaurs are really magnificent animals, but watching them from Gypsy made me feel that they are no different than buffalos!!
Last two days were discussion days (contradictions, controversies, comments, suggestions, questions and same questions repeated for a hell lot of times!!!), today is no different. We started our day with a nice trail to Chaurakund. We first went up 6 kms or so in the jungle ahead of Chaurakund. Got to see pugs of leopard; I was happy to see the presence of leopard here. It was quite near to the village and yes, they were fresh. I just imagined the crepuscular cat walking on the trail. I do this, every time I see pugmarks or scat of any animal…that’s my specialty. You imagine these magnificent animals walking on the trails, in their respective styles…it just like watching them live in jungle. We went ahead expecting something special to see, could not see animals though. Way back home, we stopped in the same village, just to get to know chaurakund people, their lifestyle, their relation with the jungle, their problems and lot more stuff. I and Vishal Gokhale (an enthu birder from Pune) started a conversation with an old lady who was sitting in her old house and that we caught her curiosity in our activities and our purposes to get down in chaurakund. She talked about herself, her family, her children and her Buddha (husband). She repeatedly emphasized about her health problems and that she cannot move much around. She talked about her children, told us that her three sons passed away because of illness, the only survived one is living in the village nearby, but he is not that into her. Her only daughter lives next door and she is quite helpful. Her house was nicely built. She told about the jungle and added that अभी सब उजाड हो गया (Most of the jungle has been cut down). Her Buddha had worked as a helper to the hunter sahib. He used to build machans on tiger kills and sit on the machan for tiger hunt with sahib. Those days, were prosperous days for the couple. I think that, sahib would have been a great attraction to the villagers, youngsters mainly, as they would have been paying them a good amount of money to locate tigers. The old lady was from Kund, the same village which was resettled near to Akot. Well, Akot is far away (for village people) for her; so she is not able to go there visit her family in there. She was not happy with the resettlement! This lady told us many things about health facilities, water arrangement and other aspects. 
It was quite a good talk with her. I separated from Vishal and just started wandering in the village. These people seemed curious to me, as I saw a nice collection of shapeless marbles they were worshipping as their god. So they find their god, in such complex, abstract and so to say beautiful forms created by nature. I think, the origin of the concept of god is more in the non-understandable form! I turned to a village boy who attracted my attention. His name was Shiva. Shiva is in sixth standard and he regularly goes to the school. He is clever as he solved all the basic mathematics questions which I asked him, such as what is 5+4, what is 9+4 and what is 5*4 etc. Shiva is an indicator of educational system operating in chaurakund. It’s a positive sign. The Duda van (Duda means Forest owlet in Korku language), a EE program run by NCSA is popular in these village boys. Shiva told me about Duda. He asked me the next possible dates of Duda to come here; I told him that I am not the right authority to tell about it, but that I will convey your message to the right personals! Shiva was enthu about meeting me again, as I told him that in the month of May I’ll come to have a talk with him again and that I’ll ask him more complex mathematics problems (For which I have to learn maths, well it’ll take a month or so…;-))
