Kadbanwadi Grassland; Timeless Beauty??

 

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“Some things cannot grow old; that’s what you call timeless.”... Matshona Dhliwayo

Matshona Dhliwayo is a Canadian based Philosopher, Entrepreneur, and author of books such as The Little Book of Inspiration, Creativity & many more. No wonder a philosophical mind always is intrigued over the scale of time, so are the words of Dhilwayo. And when I visited Kadbanwadi grasslands (I mean one more time) it’s his words about being timeless, echoed in my mind! I have visited first time to Kadbanwadi grasslands exactly ten years back & even after ten years its landscape welcomed me with same beauty i.e. the dry yellow expand of grass spread over gray plains & hills, shrubs with thorns, small water pools in deeps & chinkaras (oh yes, wolves too) running on this background, indeed this is what timeless means! But it’s not the time which is enemy of this beautiful habitat but as usual here too the enemy comes with a human face for entire Kadbanwadi grassland!

I know those which reads my sharing regularly (I appreciate your patience & am grateful) must be thinking what’s so fuss about this whole landscape thing which we call as habitat also & sometimes its grasslands (most of the times) or Sal forest or some bamboo forest or vegetation on some hills or some plantation around a stream or river (actually Nallahs) or whatever, does these all matters so much as when we have much more pressing issues like recovery from lockdown era?  Issues such as our jobs or our business or our kid’s school admissions, their college fees or our EMI’s which keeps mounting, are these things not more important & are of life & death level than some grasslands in danger! Indeed these issues are of life & death but then this above list is by our own choice, right? And what about all the animals, birds, reptiles, fish, trees, creepers even the grass in such habitats, they definitely are under stress not because of their choice but it’s our choices which we are forcing on them  & making them face life & death matters for which they don’t have any solution, the way have for our such matters!

Well, coming back to Kadbanwadi, those who are still unaware it’s a piece of some 30 odd sq km  of grassland on estern outskirts of Pune which is part of the vast rain-shadow stretch of the Deccan plateau connecting Satara road to Solapur road & further towards Nagar road mean nearly entire outer half circle of Pune city’s South-North outskirts. Agreed there are many such pockets or say islands like Kadbanwadi which once must have been connected give ample room for all the animals & birds like wolves, short toed eagle, chinkaras & many such to roam happily. But slowly with our (read as humans) choices we started forcing on these species & we cut them all their routes making them survive in small pockets & Kadbanwadi is one such & this pocket too is shrinking. Its this aspect is what I wanted to point out or say raise my voice for & for even if hundred times I have to write about such aspects of wild life then I don’t mind it as that’s one way to make humans aware about the damage we are doing to our future!

The major change I saw in the Kadbanwadi was not about the protected area as on the very entry we could see a pack rather family of four wolves which included two cubs. And let me tell you, especially those who are not forest goers, a wolf may be very commonly used term in our mother tongue (Marathi i.e. Landga) but to sight a wolf is ten times more difficult than to sight a tiger in a project tiger forest. This is because the wolf is a very shy nocturnal (mostly moves in night) animal & with constant threat from humans interference in its life the more shy & careful it has become to show its existence. We were so delighted though due to distance & the pack was on move, clear photography wasn’t possible but at least we could sight them & watch them for long a sheer joy as still this wonderful animal which is a major link in the grassland’s life cycle is surviving & regenerating! At the same time we spent nearly one hour in observing a wonderful aerial drama where a short toed eagle first hunting a snake & then a “Fast & Furious” type air chase between eagle & jungle crows which ended by eagle successfully avoiding the crows & landing on a babul tree & in the process swallowing the snake. It later went to its nest where it will throw up the swallowed snake to feed its infants, which were awaiting for food. So much to see & learn & rejoice in so small piece of land, that’s why one should spare some time for such outings!  The sad (or threatening ) part is, what’s happening outside of the protected pocket of Kadbanwadi & right from ploting for farm houses, bungalows to farming to excavation for murrum (construction earth material) & a road going through this piece of landscape, everything is threatening for the wolves & all the residents of Kadbanwadi landscape! And as I said earlier with all the respect for forest dept’s efforts within the protected part the major nuisance is from outside as just the way we are facing land problems at Project Tiger like Tadoba for accommodating more numbers of tiger same problem here is with wolves which are tigers of the grassland forests. And if wolves don’t have enough land means no land for their prey like chinkars & rodents & outcome is death of entire lifecycle & his is definitely not by all these specie’s choice, right?

Ok, two incidences I will like to mention related to this trip of Foresters (our small group of six likeminded friends), one of our female friend who was part of organizing this trip has to cancelled her trip at eleventh hour as her some relatives were to visit their home on that day. Many will say what’s big deal, all (read as most) women has to give priority to the family & the allied duties, indeed but had she be a man (male) would she had been required to cancel her wildlife trip for such reason, is the question every one of us must ask to ourselves & do whatever you want with your answer for the same! As it’s this female friend runs Jungle Belles an organization for making women exposed to wild life as well their getaway to the nature reducing their stress of daily routine & even she has to face such reasons for not being able to make for the trip!  Another was just after the outing, on the Jungle Belles webinar Mr. Asheem Srivastav, PCCF of Gujarat was sharing about wild life in Gujarat & one young girl in the webinar audience after seeing image of lesser flamingo asked him what use of this bird is? Asheem sir was bit baffled, what she meant as use of the bird & asked her what she meant? The girl replied she meant the way a hen gives us eggs, what this bird gives to us? Asheem sir explained patiently her, every specie but not just this lesser flamingo, has a role to play in the nature & that’s why every bird is useful in its own way & the girl was satisfied with the answer. But that question about “use of the bird’ lingered in my mind as that question shows what we the grown-ups thinks about not just wild life but all other species as for us it’s just about their usefulness & no wonder in such environment of the greedy thought process we are in a way corrupting entire next generations mindset too, about the nature & this mindset is the biggest threat to the timeless beauty of many spots like Kadbanwadi! 

Fun is we all know the problem & solution but who is responsible for the solution about that everybody is looking at each other whereas the poor wolves are looking at all of us for the solution! By me, the solution lays only with revenue & senior IAS officers & rulers i.e. Ministers of concerned depts. Because every square inch of the land in this country & its use is totaly controlled by these two people only & unless they don’t decide that more land should be given to wolves & chinkaras for their needs, till then even the god can’t give the land to these species! Agreed they all are servants of the people first but high time they must realize the people includes even wolves & chinkars & not just humans, just because they can’t vote, which again is not their choice but ours! Just a thought to conclude, (read as "Waidhanik Ishara"), if the choices we make can ruin or say destroy the grasslands like Kadbanwadi which even the time wasn’t able to destroy then the same choices will definitely destroy us also one day, mind it, that day is not far away!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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