Sanjay Dubri & Bandhavgarh; Pearl & Dimond of MP Forests!

 

-

“The best thing forest has taught me is, being in the right place at the right time”…

Travelling some 1500 plus kilometers from Pune to Bandhavgarh & then to Sanjay Dubri NP in MP, waking up at 4.30 am in morning to facing the cold of Central Indian forests, chasing pug-marks on a dusty & bumpy track, when you see a big male tiger sitting right in the middle of the road & looking curiously at you, you forget all the hardships you have gone through. As well its mid-march & entire forest is blossomed with colorful flowers attracting honey bees' which keeps buzzing around you all the time, you wait for hours at one spot absorbing the heat of summer afternoons’ & finally king of the forest comes out from his comfort zone & started walking along your vehicle, all you can do is, thanks to the God or that power which has made you lucky to witness such sights, that is what forests does to me! And this is not the only take away, right from evening walks to resort in the dusk listening to the music of wilds to getting awestruck by the sight of hundreds of blooming Forest Flames which are painting the horizon red, the list is endless why I keep visiting forests!

Above words which came to me when I started this sharing which is about the forests, that too of Central India (not tadoba, lol) & you must be knowing Bandhavgarh but the other one i.e. Sanjay Dubri National Park is far lesser known, even to the veteran wild lifers. If Bandhavgarh is a dimond then Sanjay Dubri is a pearl for MP forest's Navratna i.e. nine tiger resreves & I have written enough about the earlier one, Bandhavgarh & it’s the same forest where I have sighted 22 tigers (yes, you read it right, 22) in one single day but some days you are luckier is all I will say about it & Bandhavgarh is much more than tigers, its sheer landscape is a subject of separate sharing. It’s the later one, Sanjay Dubri I want to share more about, but first something about Bandhavgarh, quickly! Two things, it’s the new field director there, Dr Anupam Sahay, who at first glance looks like a Bank Executive(of a private bank) & is surprisingly particular in communication as well proactive & knew his job so well, which is a rare case in now a day, may it be a private or a govt organization! He wants tourists to visit the park, & he understands protection of wildlife is also part of his duty, so he is tough & even if he is accessible to everybody that doesn’t mean you can take him for granted! We discussed many things about wildlife & tourism & sure in future you (readers) are going to get more of this place from me! Rare part is, right from tour operators to resort GM’s to guides all were speaking good about FD, again a rare thing especially when you are in a govt service! One more interesting thing which I will share at end part (means there is lot more to read ahead, lol) but before that about another person from Bandhavgarh, Sunil bhai aka Sarpanch(his local friends fondly call him), Sunil Yadav, who a decade back was a young, rash (take it positively) gipsy driver in & around the park but today he is a matured driver cum tour operator & owns a small six rooms home-stay also in Bandhavgarh. I have seen his journey & its people like him who are real change makers or say need of the time, using wildlife tourism as a means of earning he has created a small empire of himself which sustains nearly fifteen families, & that matters a lot. When you look at large migration of people towards Metro cities from these parts of our country which has only forests & farming as well attraction for so called city life style, then you realize importance of people like Sunil who decided to work hard & stay where they have been put by their birth & prosper, that’s what inspires me most about personalities like Sunil bhai!

And this was exactly the point raised by Mr. Amit Dubey, IFS, field director of another jewel in MP Forests’ crown Sanjay Dubri NP, formerly Sanjay NP! And he came all the way to meet us at our resort (few words about the resort at end) a rare gesture from a senior govt officer & this is why MP forests are progressing as proactively the entire system is working for conservation of wildlife! They too have issues, such as skilled  manpower, funding, poor infrastructure for the dept & park like SD (sanjay dubri) which are very remote from big cities making commuting difficult so does the prosperity for the locals. What he said or pointed out is very important, that tourists are welcome & but the wealth generated out of this tourism must reach to the grass root level i.e. local people around the forests & not for just a few (tour operators & resort owners), then only it will help in wildlife conservation! Here is where the “promoting local” factor comes into picture, which includes right from home stays to giving jobs to locals in the resorts & this isn't an easy thing! As the tourists which will be spending money needs service by his standards as well ambiance & this is where most home stays lack, so we need to train the home stay operators, show them what tourists from urban areas need. Rather I will advise every home stay seeking (making) family to send their one or two members in any good quality hotel / resort in forests like Tadoba or Bandhavgarh to work for at least six months so they will understand the tourism as a business. Or else I have seen failure of many home stays just because they couldn’t stand to the basic needs of the tourist! Cleanliness & food are the two most important needs of any tourists visiting forests & ready to stay in home stays, here is where forest dept can take lead & using private firms, NGOs’ can strengthen this aspect by which the money from tourism will go to the end user. Yet the importance of the tour operators remains as they are in a way the bridge between wildlife, locals & outer world & if they won’t make money they won’t be interested. Rather I always feel the wildlife tour operators for wildlife ( read as forest dept) are like Insource agents for LIC. The way LIC respects & encourages these agents the more revenue LIC earns, same should be here! Here many people will say wildlife tourism & Insurance are two different things, but let me tell you very frankly, if we want to save wildlife then the locals must prosper financially then only, they will give everything to save the wildlife & for that we must make policies ensuring this outcome!

Coming to SD NP, it is nearly 1700 km from Pune & yet worth travelling that distance because I drove from Pune to SDNP, and from Pench to this place in nearly six hundred plus kilometers there is nothing but forests in between & huge farms of wheat! This belt with these forests & wheat farms takes care of nearly fifty percent of our country’s wheat needs & tigers also. As these patches of forests are corridors which we must conserve by making them new centers of wildlife tourism! SDNP is on the border of Chhattisgarh, UP & MP & is home to some of the cleanest rivers in the country, where you can directly drink water from the rivers or streams as no pollution ailing factors are around, thanks for the distance from urbanization! Though the main attraction of wildlife (unfortunate fact) i.e. Tiger sightings are a bit less here & the reason is because of huge expand & perennial water bodies  spread across the park, the tigers are not needed to come in open & the forest is thickly wooded with less patches of open or grasslands. At the same time, there are many villages in & around the park which makes tigers a bit cautious to make movement in daylight. And as the number of tourist vehicles is less the tigers are not yet used to the tourists & prefer to keep inside the cover of forest. Yet, Sanjay Dubri park holds a story which will make every human’s & not just wild lifer’s eyes moist. Few years back, a tigress which was having three cubs got killed due to a railway line passing nearby from SDNP (one more threat) & when forest dept tried to rescue the three little cubs they couldn’t find it at first. Worried, the search began for the cubs & after a few days the most interesting phenomenon surfaced, another tigress which happened to be step sister of the deceased tigress who also was having three cubs of her own, was seen taking care of these three orphan cubs also. This is not heard as tigers are private animals & often a tigress has been known to kill other tigresses’ cubs also & here is a tigress who along with her cubs taking care of others cubs. And it’s not easy to grow six tigers, as she must hunt every day to feed them which she did & that’s why the tigress is now known as The Mausi (Aunt)! For forest dept she is T28 but locals & forest officers in private fondly called her Mausi only & I was lucky to get sight of Mausi in one safari! In the times where humans have forgotten relation, duty or kindness named terminology, an animal like tiger whom we call  cruel, is displaying all these aspects of life, interesting! As well, the officer with me was Mr. Babunandan Singh, whose eight years daughter Suhani also accompanied us in the forests as she was on vacation and was staying with him. It’s heartening to see their bonding & shows how difficult duty of a forest officer is, which seems so glamorous from outside from the sightings. And, Babunandan has received the President's Award under his belt when he risked his life to extinguish a forest fire in an enclosure where a tiger has kept, imagine the courage, is all I can say! In stark contrast the ranger was a young man Akash, from a big city like Jabalpur & has to give away luxuries of city life & be in the hardships of wilds for all the year & yet he was cheerful as well welcoming to any advice or suggestion for wildlife conservation! This is forest, as these & many such people hold the hope for wildlife as their duty!

Oh yes, about the MP Tourism’s Parsili (village) resort I must mention, one of the best locations overlooking river Banas & dense forest around, out of the world is the only word to describe; you need not have to see a tiger as first it might be already seeing you here & another all you have to do here is do nothing! Just be here, take long walks (in day time) & connect yourself with the wilderness & for that you have to visit Sanjay Dubri NP!

On the way back, I visited one Shivam Barghiya & Burgat village, Umariya near Bandhavgarh. There was news on the front page a month back which said, a German Shepherd dog saved his owner’s life by fighting a tiger & died in the process! I have read the news & it kept lingering in my mind as for whom I should be sad, for the dog who dared to fight with a tiger knowing it’s going to die or for the tiger who has to attack a human again knowing that's a risk for its life! I went to meet Shivam who told the story as he was an eyewitness. I saluted Bentho the dog, and said sorry to him as it’s because of we the humas forests /habitats are reducing & the tigers are needed to come into our farms & dogs like Bentho have to pay the price of their life, for our wrong deeds! With all such memories & moments & bid adios to Sanjay Dubri with a promise that irrespective of the physical distance between us, it will always be very close to me & will come back again soon!

Here are some moments from the recent trip to Central Indian forests, go ahead get mesmerized, …

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72177720324555907/

 

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Tigers, Poaching, Media & Tourism!

 

                                         

--

“When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity” …. George Bernard Shaw

Shaw was no doubt one of the greatest authors in any generation & indeed he may not be authority on the tigers but he was definitely an authority as a writer on human behaviour & he has exactly put that in his above quotes. As the sharing is about tigers (read as deaths of tigers) I will modify great Shaw’s words a bit i.e. “When a man wants to kill a tiger that is self-protection or necessity or an accident but when a tiger kills a man then he is a Man Eater!” The modification has come from the recent incidents where a tiger got killed (rather many of them) news about which most people read & forget as well there is another big article about the poaching threat of the tigers run by a popular Marathi daily! First of all, I congratulate the media which has consistently taken up the issue of wildlife(tigers), under threat but the problem is like a random firing of these journalist writings eventually causing damage to people which are not the culprit, though awareness is ok but effectiveness of such news is my point of sharing. We know wildlife at large is in danger but for that one forest dept can’t be held alone responsible rather they are like a toothless & clawless tiger when protecting wildlife is the aspect outside of the forests.  But of late it’s the fashion among media (read as news reporters) & self-proclaimed wildlife experts (lovers) to target forest dept & wildlife tourism for any bad thing happening to wildlife tourism. And with due respect our Hon Courts (judicial system) also jumps in & lashes at these two fronts of wildlife. Mai Baap govt i.e. Ministers & top bosses of respective depts take action, & usually the sufferers are root level people related to wildlife such as guides, gypsy drivers, RFO’s & ground forest staff. Joke is, if you see the deaths of tigers then hardly 1% (yes, one percent) of these deaths are in protected forest areas where tourism is controlled while all other deaths have happened where there is no tourism in existence, is my subject of sharing!

And then there was another news of ministers of State, conducting a meeting of forest dept & locals to improve wildlife in which the forest officers only got scolding for their inefficiency in controlling tiger deaths as well man-animal conflicts! Best part was, in that meeting the villagers around forests were in for increasing wildlife tourism & ok with some humans getting killed by tigers as they know some causalities are & will be there but yet they are happy with the tigers around them because it’s the way to prosperity together & that’s coexistence, about which we are not doing anything! I also don't consider myself wildlife expert but I have travelled enough in & around the forests & I am a wildlife life lover but my love is not blind, is the difference! Let’s come to the threat or say threats aspect to the wild life (read as tigers) & reasons of tiger deaths which were nearly above ten in the first two months of 2025. First is, out of ten or twelve deaths just one can be surely said as poaching, & other deaths were due to fighting with each other & accident due to being hit by vehicles & fallen in well or electrocuted. Another aspect is, all such deaths were outside of project tiger or protected forest. Let’s understand what is difference in these terminologies as then you will understand the problems or challenges in the job of tiger protection. Project tiger or sanctuary or reserved forest is the forest where entry of any outsider is only with permission of forest dept & on record. As well this forest has got dedicated staff for patrolling as well tourism operations & every entry exit from the roads is under check of forest dept so private vehicles are not allowed & those which enters for tourism has to follow speed norms as well their numbers also are fixed & with guide along. Forests which come under Project Tiger also get additional funding for their needs from Central Govt as well the forest officers have special powers here which are not there for areas other than Project Tiger. At the same time any encroachment is legal crime in these forests as well works such as even diffing a well or making a road through these forests needs special permission from NTCA a body governing Project Tiger. All such provisions make conservation of tigers as well wildlife much easier in these forests but scene is entirely different outside the boundary of protected forests.

The major problem of tiger conservation is not within protected forests but outside of them which we must accept as then only we can make right policies to save the tigers. Because in the protected forests as tourism is allowed & in controlled manner so it works in two ways, first it brings prosperity (money) to the villagers thus they join hands with forest dept in protection of tigers & second, these tourist vehicles are like eyes & ear of forest keeping wildlife in their sight which forest dept alone won’t be ever able to do. Now, once we are out in the open unprotected forest this tourism factor also is missing & the tigers are on their own to survive! At the same time compensation for damage by wildlife may it be of human or cattle life or of crop also is less & delayed making people enemy of wildlife or say cause of conflicts means deaths of wild animals because of electric fencing or traps which are actually for protection of human’s property & not to kill wild animals! Here, from these unprotected forests roads, railway tracks run through on which vehicles travel with no speed limits causing maximum deaths of wild animals, we do nothing about it. In these unprotected forests exist open wells, canals, excavated quarries which are death traps for wild animals & we do nothing about them. And as there is no tourism so wild life is no means of earning, making jobless youths of these forests falling prey for easy & fast money from the poachers & we do nothing about it. As well speaking about tigers, their problem is, for them the bigger threat is inside of protected forests in the form of existing dominant tigers which drive the newborn tigers out of the protected forests over territory fights & these tigers are easiest pickings for the poachers if they survive other death reason as mentioned above & we do nothing about it! And certainly, forest dept with its limited authority & funding alone cant be held responsible for their inability to protect these tigers though agreed it's forest depts job. But when you expect someone to win a war then you are supposed to give that someone enough ammunition to fight the war in the first place, is we are forgetting!

Now if you (read as media & judicially & our rulers) have understood the basic problem & accept it then we can come to the point of what can be done to reduce the death of tigers! First is, identify the exact death spots of tiger deaths & start working on solutions at these spots. For e.g. Ballarsha Chandrapur railway track is responsible for nearly 20% of deaths of tigers, sloth bears & leopards so first start barricading this track if we can’t stop or change its course! Next is to plan & make provision in the budget for making underpasses on this track so wild animals can safely cross this railway track. Identify & then start building secured boundary walls to all the water-bodies in & around forests which are deep & makes it impossible for tigers to come out of them if they have fallen in them! At the same time increase patrolling on all such roads & increase fines for death of wild animals because of speeding vehicles & all year long awareness drive for the drivers in cities as well towns for caring wildlife while your drive is a must.

Make enough water holes with the right water supply inside the forests so in the summer a tiger need not have to come out of the forest in search of water or its prey doing the same. Make laws for speedy & right compensation for damage of life or property by wildlife & see that they are same anywhere in the country so there won’t be disputes over whether the farm is inside or adjoining to project tiger or not. Because if a tiger kills a human then it doesn’t matter whether it happened in a sanctuary of right outside of town or city. Just the way a murder is a murder wherever it happens in the country but sections applicable are the same! This will make people assure about loss of their property or life of their close ones being compensated & they won’t go after killing the animal involved in such incidence. As well think of insuring the residents around forest areas & their farms against damage by wildlife.  And start tourism everywhere wherever it is possible as that’s proven way of protecting wildlife & needless to say in controlled manner, come out of age-old thinking that tourism disturbs wildlife! Well, it may disturb a bit but surely it won't kill the tiger which is happening right now because of the absence of tourism! At the same time, run awareness campaign with the help of NGOs in all the areas around the forests to accommodate wildlife & learn to use it for our living in the right way. We can target schools & nurture coexistence right from this age in the kids.

Last, poachers were there & will be there always, just the way crime exists right in the cities like Pune even with numbers of police in place but what we can do is amend the laws so more numbers of poachers get acquitted & give enough firepower to forest dept to catch the poachers before they commit poaching! Network of informers & money for them is one sure way to tackle poaching as well jobs for youngsters around forests is one main aspect which forest dept can achieve with increased funding & power. There has to be wildlife awareness workshops for media reports as well as for judiciary also, so they too will know the facts about it & can contribute for the cause in the right way with their powers! Friends, just the way we need space for our living wildlife (read as tigers) also need the space & they can’t build their homes but can only accommodate whatever nature provides to them. We can’t increase the forest cover with increasing numbers of tigers & they too need space. The only way is, to accommodate the tigers in our life & live in coexistence & for that we have to change our approach towards wildlife & that’s possible only by opening our minds as then only there is hope for the tigers & for us also, adios with this warning!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

 

Champions Trophy, Team India & Confronting our Fears!

 

--

“In India different religions don't pray together but they play cricket together.”
― Amit Kalantri.

Above quote by Amit Kalantri, writer of “Wealth of Words” is enough to describe the importance of this game to we Indians! And after a long time I am writing about cricket, i.e. after the T20 world cup win of India & its time of different format, different tourney which is Champions Trophy. No, we haven’t won it yet as the final is three days ahead but my reason of sharing about cricket of late was never about winning a cup or tournament, just the way now I don’t write about tiger sightings when I write about forests (fortunately it’s not tadoba, don’t worry), same way it’s about the experience some games give us (read as me), such is this sharing. Those who are ignorant about format & tournaments of the present-day cricketing world, then three formats are played internationally in cricket, test cricket which is a five-day game, one day cricket which is a fifty overs game for both teams & T20, which is a twenty overs game for both teams. I won’t explain rules of games & such details as if you don’t know that then you can stop reading right now!

Ok, Champions trophy is played between the top eight teams in the ranking in one day format of cricket & at present its going on at the venue Pakistan & Dubai. India & New Zealand have qualified or say reached in the finals which is to be played on coming Sunday i.e. 9^th March 25. My subject of sharing is just one match in this tournament which was Semi-final & was played between India & Australia. On the way to the semis' India beat its arch-rival Pakistan (arch-rival only because of political & religious tension between two countries) & for me it's just a game between a far superior team vs an average team, which India won easily. The story of the semis is different as here the rival was Australia, present world champion of the one-day format & more than that recently has a history of defeating India in knock-out rounds & taking India out of competition, which is the reason for my sharing! I know many people in this country think cricket has been over-glorified & there are other games yet fact remains this game connects people of our country more than any other game & money will flow where people are! And this is equally true with inspiring stories of MSD (plz google) & many youngsters who made fortune via IPL (again plz google) millions of kids & their parents can now dream of making it big by playing cricket which no other games do! So, going ahead with this particular match which is subject of sharing but before that will take you through another such rivalry & its present scenario just to understand the importance of the India Australia match in semis’ of the champions trophy.

18^th April 86, team India has won the world cup of 83 & was on track of becoming a major power in one-day cricket but on this day in Sharjah which has become new battleground for the two age old arch-rivals i.e. India Pakistan, Javed Miandad named Pakistani player hit a six on the last ball of the match & pulled an impossible victory for Pakistan! There are defeats in every war & game but some are so depressing that it takes a lot of time (and courage) for the defeated team to put that defeat behind & become able to play a normal game against that particular opponent! This is what Pakistan did to team India that day with that one sixer, such was the impact of that loss that for years there after barring ICC tournaments Indian team used to always lose any match against Pakistan & add in it the hype built against rivalry between these two nations! But slowly the new blood came in & attitude towards the game changed & so did the outcome of the matches between these two teams. Now the media does create the hype before any match between Pakistan & India but recent history of last decade shows the Indian team has buried the Sharaja last ball six demon of Pakistani team & play fearlessly as well as professionally beating Pak team comfortably in many encounters!

While team India has overcome Pakistani fear factor but at world level another nemesis has been born for them in cricket & that is Australian team. Right from the beginning Aussies are a team of hard-core professionals & if they lack in natural skill & talent then fill that vacuum by sheer their fitness as well determination & aggression! One sign of a champion team is it delivers its best when put in a do or die situation which is a qualifier in any tournament. Barring 2011 ICC World Cup where Indian team beat Aussies in quarter finals, in the last fifteen years everytime Aussie team has beaten team India in the qualifiers & showed us the way out of the tournament. And just not that every time there is some single player which has done the damage of defeating single handedly pulling the game away from team India. When such things happen repeatedly then you start doubting your capacity to win, which was happening with the Indian team is my subject of sharing! May it be semis of T20 or World Cup or Test match Finals, Aussies regularly has denied Indian team the final trophy or way ahead to finals & joke is in the very tournaments the same team gets defeated from Indian team but in rounds! So, it was battle of nerves or say temperament actually & not of skill which is my object of sharing.

This time also the scars of the wound from the world cup finals from the Aussie team haven't healed fully, though the Indian team has won the T20 championship yet we didn’t play against Aussies in the qualifiers there & defeated them in round games only. That’s why when this time in the champions trophy we were put against Aussies in the semis though the media hype was not like India-Pakistan yet for me this was a more crucial match from the pride or let’s say temperament point of view! A day before my friend who doesn’t follow cricket much asked me, what do you think, who will win tomorrow? I replied, logically team India should beat this Aussie team comfortably as their three main bowlers are not playing in the tournament for personal reason & this Aussie team has weakest bowling squad, yet this is Aussie team & they are known for rising their game in death matches, so I give 51% chance to Indian team. The additional 1% is for the changed attitude & professionalism team India has acquired recently! All the Indian team has to do is know that they are a far better team now than the Aussies & believe what they know about themselves & play, which team India did & beat Aussies in the semis, showing them the way out of the tournament! In doing so, we may not have won the champions trophy yet & we may also lose to New Zealand in the finals but for me what team India has won by beating Aussies in the qualifiers is far more than the trophy, it has won its self-confidence about being able to defeat their nemesis! And they haven’t been dependent on one or two players in beating their hardest opponents or others but everybody now plays some role in the game is more important. No more the fan’s faces show clouds of worry when some Virat or Rohit gets out a bowler like Bumrah has been ruled out from playing the entire tournament, yet we beat Aussies & are in finals, is the best outcome for team India!  Not only are they playing like a team but they believe they can beat anybody in any match. This is the team which doesn't bother to hit three sixes in a row when even one wicket can shift the game, which they know wont shift & keep hitting, is my subject of sharing!

To conclude, I won't bother to write about the runs or records made or wickets taken, as Virat Kohali has said after the match, “I don’t think about the numbers or the records, that's a byproduct. I believe in spending more time on the crease & making my team win & what happens in the process may be the records’! This is today’s team India; they are thinking like & playing like professionals & in the process they have learned to handle their fears & overcome them. We all have our fears & enemies too, which sometimes can be even faceless but are very much in our minds. Our fears are the worst enemies we can have as they stop us from believing in our capacities to deliver & if team India can overcome their fears, we also can, is my take away from this match! Though there is a lot to improve for team India, especially on the fielding front as in this match also we dropped nearly five chances while in the group match with New Zealand, that team converted two impossible chances into wickets; but then perfection is an ever-going process, right? So, go ahead team India, I am loving your swag (plz google for meaning) & thanks for making me understand life a shade better every time I watch you play the way you are playing now!

-

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Traffic Named Cancer but where is the Doctor!

 

--

--

“The way humans hunt for parking and the way animals hunt for food are not as different as you might think.”

― Tom Vanderbilt

“Traffic congestion is caused by vehicles, not by people in themselves.” ― Jane Jacobs

While no need to introduce Jane to our readers (one of the greatest urban planning book writers), Tom T Vanderbilt is an American journalist, blogger, and author of the best-selling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do. Though I have decided not to write about Pune’s traffic yet because of a column in a newspaper made me do so as it said, doesn’t anybody think about doing something right for Pune traffic!  My first answer was, that’s the only problem, as in Pune there are many who can actually think, & many more who think they can think, but very few who act, that’s the main problem for Pune traffic! And then three news made headline on consecutive three days, all related to traffic (in some way), one was a senior minister made statement in press release (though in Mumbai) that govt is thinking of trying Air Taxis (pd cars) as solution of traffic congestion in cities like Pune & Thane. Second news was Hon CM, announced a project of making tunnels joining kharadi to katraj (South East suburbs of Pune) of Rs 4000 crores, saying it will make life of millions of vehicle owners easy by saving their travel time (the later part is important) & latest was High Court dismissed a public petition of making a road connecting Pashan to Kothrud (western suburbs of Pune) which was (is) supposed to cut a biodiversity rich hill in Pune. I thought it’s too much, at least I must write for myself as that much I owe to this city. One thing, I am a civil engg with background or environment & planning but I am not an urban planner, though there is no such thing you can teach as urban planning by reading some books & this statement I am making with due respect to all big names in urban planning! What you need is, some common sense, understanding of people’s needs (todays & future too) & a balanced approach towards life! I have that a bit because for decades I have been working as a civil engg, living in this city, have seen few other cities & am a wild lifer to retain my connection with nature!

Ok, first about traffic, then I am not needed to be Aristotle to tell that traffic is caused by vehicles & vehicles are the outcome of our poor urban planning & weak public transport infrastructure. As why in the first place we need to use private vehicles, if we start looking (read as planning) at the problem of traffic from this angle then half of the battle is won! And then comes our attitude towards life which we call life-style, as all over the world, public transport of a city may be the best yet no Metro of Bus can come to everybody’s door-step & you have to walk a bit to use public transport which Punekars are not ready to accept, is another cause of traffic jams. Ask any Punekar, how much he or she walks everyday to reach the workplace, then most of them walk from the parking lot to their respective visiting place, may it be office or home, so private vehicles are now as inseparable part of our life as our cell phones! And with too many cell phones in use at the same location even the signal gets jammed & we are talking about vehicles, what else you can expect but traffic jams!  So first & foremost Punekar’s start walking a bit & plan your work schedule in better manner is what as a citizen we can do if we don’t want traffic congestions! I know, this may not go in good spirit with most readers as that’s the problem, we want solutions where we won’t have to do anything special or face slightest of discomfort may it be water conservation, tress conservation or traffic jams, it's always somebody else (govt usually) has to solve the problem for us, which wont work, is what I will tell! As govt & so-called public-bodies which collect taxes are definitely responsible but, on that front, also as citizens, what are we doing, is I want to ask Pune’s citizens! Have once we jointly ever gone to some public body or our elected member as a procession/ march for our traffic issues, the answer is, No! And for that first we as citizens must start respecting basic traffic rules as right from not wearing a helmet for our own safety to jumping red signal, driving in wrong lane we end up breaking practically every law of traffic & yet we expect govt to streamline our traffic, great!

Now coming to the govt (Urban Development, PMC, PCMC, PMRDA, PMPML, Police etc) aspect of traffic problem, the most important aspect is, coordination between all these depts of govt & taking responsibility for solving traffic chaos! For e.g., traffic police are at signals but signal controls are with PMC. Traffic police can fine vehicles parked illegally on roads but vehicles of footpaths they won’t act up on! As well CC Tv are there on many signals but maintenance of these TVs’ nobody owns! At the same time when its about road making then the road dept can only make roads but land acquisition for these roads or bridges comes under different dept & giving TDR of land under road again goes with another dept at PMC (or any public body). If any road is built then next day digging is started by drainage, water or MSEDCL dig that road for their purpose, thus list of such chaos is endless & eventually all these contributes to chocking of carriage ways of the road resulting in traffic jams! High time to define one single entity which will be responsible for traffic management & that only will be looking after every traffic issue. Rather high time considering the chaos (read as importance) we are experiencing on traffic front of most of the Metro cities, a new dept itself must be there which will have representation from all depts & experts too which directly can deal with the traffic issues with authority & see that traffic remains smooth.

Obviously any such type of idea takes decades in this country to become a reality, till then make someone from the existing system controller to handle the present scenario, it may be PMC, Collector, but not traffic police for sure as they can’t be loaded with this burden! As all over the world, traffic police’s job is not to control traffic or manage traffic but just punish the people who are breaking traffic laws, except in our country, where traffic police are supposed to handle everything related to traffic with no powers to act on it! I myself have witnessed a traffic police sub-inspector getting scowled by none other than our guardian-minister (don’t ask who & when) as he was shouting at drivers of wrongly parked vehicles which unfortunately happened to be Karyakartas(supporters) of the said minister! So, what you can expect from police at such times as right from processions blocking roads to illegal parking to not allowing pay & park systems on roads, traffic police are helpless! At the same time, seriously, high time not to allow a single vehicle (except cycle) to park on any road without being charged for the parking, or else we won’t be ever getting rid of the traffic congestion issue! As the govt which keeps on increasing taxes in every budget on Cigarettes, Tobacco products & Alcohol(legal sell off course) because they are supposedly hazardous to health of the citizen the why the very govt is not keen on charging for parking on public places (roads) as increasing number of vehicles of all sorts are like growing cancer cells for the city roads & the way overgrown cell kills the human body, same way these vehicle named cells are slowly killing city roads & entire environment & the traffic jams are just one sign of this cancer. Slow speed of vehicles is not just loss of time & fuel but it creates more carbon monoxide making our lungs weak & all these vehicles need physical space so the trees has to give away to accommodate driving & parking space for the vehicles so less oxygen, in nutshell slow poisoning for the citizens & we all are responsible for this cancer of traffic!

Public transport strengthening is another way which again always takes a backseat on the agenda of any govt as one Metro won’t be solving all problems of traffic.

And last but least, is our increasing human population because Dubai & Singapore like cities also have the best public transport but concentration of population makes their roads also crowded with vehicles, yet with two-fold therapy of charging for parking & increasing public transport infra these countries are keeping vehicle cancer at bay!  Finally, our urban policies, which are focused only on TDR & FSI consumption, making the city centres or some regions grow more densely populated & add on parking for these developments while the roads are of same width, which only going to make the city roads die faster! We may build more tunnels, flyovers, missing links of roads, use river for transport (one more joke) & even air-taxis but unless & until we don’t plan to reduce private vehicles’ use, they won’t stop growing, so the urban planning must be focused on humans & trees than cars; then only there is some hope or else the future of our city is smoky for sure, adios with this statutory warning!

--

Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/