PMRDA DP & Future of Pune region!

                                     

                                                        

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“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry, known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was a French writer, poet, journalist, and aviator. Saint-Exupéry trained as a commercial pilot No wonder Antoine puts importance of planning in so few words as an aero plane pilot can afford to waste time! And then no introduction is needed for the author of the first quote & I have used his above quote N numbers of the times, unfortunately our system (of late especially) is neither interested in reading nor in learning something out of it, which is the reason for using above quotes. As you must have guessed, first this sharing is not about forests (so, no tadoba) & second, the reason for sharing is news in the paper. On 2^nd April when the entire world is expecting earthquake (with all due sympathy of Myanmar/Thailand quake), I am referring to financial earthquake as USA is supposed to declares its Country First tax system for international trade, before that another earthquake happened which is though directly not financial front but on urban front of Pune region. Hon CM (who also heads PMRDA, i.e. planning authority for Pune region) announced that the draft DP (development plan) of PMRDA which was under publish or say, near finalization has been squashed, means discarded, gone, extinct!

Now, many will say what’s big deal as any way it hasn’t been under implementation i.e. yet to be approved by top authority & was under process, we will make a new DP. I am happy for all those who think it's that easy & won’t have any effect on Pune city or region & will use Jesus Christ's last words (again no offence to any community), “Forgive them as they don’t know what they are doing” (read as saying)! Because at this level if you are omitting or cancelling DP of some 6000 plus sq. km area region which is probably the fastest growing region in the entire country that too after working on it for nearly eight years then, even God won’t bless Pune! Already we have made enough of a mess of the Pune region by omitting two villages from the PMRDA DP (Fursungi & Urali Kanchan) & future of these villages (or towns) is in dilemma & now we put the entire Pune region to the same fate! If you think I am exaggerating the issue & if you want to know the reason behind it then read ahead or else go check on some idiot’s reels (sorry, frustration)! As well let me clear something, I am not any authority of govt (that’s sure or else how I can write so sarcastically) neither I am urban planner or has any separate academic training of the subject but then I am civil engg & has moved around a bit & has witnessed growth as well degeneration of this city & few others & I have some common sense left still in me (is what I believe) which is most important for urban planning, is what my opinion or say I think, which is why I am sharing this issue!

Ok, now as you are reading ahead then first understand what is a DP & then only you will realize its importance of any city, town, or region. DP is the nickname of the Development Plan which is like "Sim Sim" word for any urban growth & in simple words it defines land use of that respective region. Which means unless you make a DP you can’t decide where to build what & may it be anything, a residential building or a bridge or a school anything as all these things DP decides of a particular area or say region. Now you will know why DP is so dear and more than important to all segments of the society as in today’s world, land is new gold & DP is key to that gold as a DP decides whether your land will be gold or ash!

Here many will say, how it can be as a land is land, nobody can steal it or destroy it & I agree, nobody can steal your land but its potential or say valuation can be ruined or raise its value, with one single stroke of pen, that’s what DP can do to any piece of land! For e.g. you have a land in prime developing locality & suddenly a reservation has been put on it which is of garden, then you may get remuneration for the land as per ready reckoner (plz google for meaning) or say twice of that rate but it won't ever match with the earnings which you could have made by developing that land for any use you desired because DP says only garden can be developed on your land! At the same time lands adjoining your land have become gold mines as there is a garden adjoining to them means premium view! Now you will get a zalak (flicker) of what DP can do to lands & this is not just one aspect, your land valuation can be ruined as if on the land adjoining to you there comes reservation of Cremation ground or garbage yard or Drainage treatment Plant, in one day your lands value is gone as who will prefer to reside adjoining to a cremation Ground or H=garbage yard, right? This is what DP can do to lands & then there are roads which decides potential of TDR use on any land & the list DP can make to the land is endless! And imagine if this can happen to individual landholders what will this do to the fate of a city or a region as a city needs infrastructure & infrastructure needs planning in advance which is the main job of a DP for the city!

Now, if you have understood the role of a DP then let’s come to Pune regions & its DP as that is our subject of sharing. So, some eight years back PMRDA which is a planning authority for Pune regions has formed & that was a wise decision because Pune city & Pimpri Chinchwad (PCMC) were getting saturated & people have started looking for lands out of the boundaries of these two cities & to regulate this development PMRDA was formed. But any planning authority is incomplete without a DP in place as it's like asking a student to study without giving him syllabus for the subject, which exactly kept happening with PMRDA for years as the DP was not there & later was in making. With nearly 6000 sq. kms area under its jurisdiction, making of PMRDA DP was going to be a tough job (and controversial also) as not only about the present spread but the planners needed to think minimum 20 years ahead growth predication & needs of people also accordingly, which is the job of the DP. Here again, may it be a DP of PMRDA or of few merged villages (separate subject of sharing) the time required is a matter of concern as DP making is like treating a patient in ICU, agreed you can’t rush through yet every single minute matters but again thanks to our rulers they prefer to keep patient in ICU for not just days but years! But look at urban history of Pune & you will know, no DP has ever been completed in a fixed time span is a fact! Agreed, such jobs need time but who has calculated the right time to make a DP of the size of PMRDAs’ & who has been responsible to see that get prepared in the right way & right time span, answer is, nobody!

This exactly is the aspect I want to highlight as months, years gets passed & you don’t even bother to monitor whether DP of a region as prominent like Pune is on right track & suddenly you cancel it, what is fate of the entire region, how will it grow or sustain the people which are shifting here irrespective of your DP, have we thought about it! Funniest part is the reasons given by the govt (as per news) that the DP is cancelled because there is no point in giving permissions to the new developments as there is no road, water, drainage type basic infra in place is what govt thinks or feel (now?)! But who has stopped govt to make a DP first & then form PMRDA or first ask PMRDA to make DP & then only start functioning, is my question. You are developing MIDC, the Pune & PCMC are education & career centre of entire country, millions of people are migrating here for their better future & govt only wants them to come here but where all these people will be staying, who will give them water, where there drainage will go, where they will park their vehicles, all these question the DP is supposed to solve & now you squashed the DP itself but that is not going to stop people to come in Pune region, what about it now? Govt must now realize the importance of DP as growth is natural but development is the outcome of planning or else any growth is mere swelling i.e. unhealthy! Actually, building up a city is like nurturing a small child as with time it is going to grow but if we want the child to grow in to a healthy man then we must provide that child good food & right upbringing (we call it Sanskar in Marathi) or else the child will grow but in wrong way & most criminals are outcome of lack of right upbringing, which is job of the parents! A DP is like that right upbringing for child named city & its duty of Mai Bapp govt which is supposedly playing role of parents for the city & if they are not going to do it then no wonder the criminal part comes in which we are already witnessing all around in the form of slums & illegal buildings which is direct threat to all the legal growth or development i.e. real estate industry! At least now when the old DP is cancelled, the govt must announce an action plan for making of new DP for PMRDA & time-line to make & execute it as then only people (sane ones) will believe that govt cares for its own child named, Pune region!

After seeing all this mess over DP, has Hon Lokmanya Tilak (plz google) been alive today, who has written the famous headline editorial about the then British Govt’s actions, “Sarakrache doke thikanawar aahe ka?”, today he would have written, “Sarkarala doke tari aahe ka?”.  We miss you Lokmanya Tilak Sir, adios with this note!

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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

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Road Digging, Bridge Making & City's Growth!

 

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“The best way to develop people is to constantly get them out of their comfort zone.”
― Ziad K. Abdelnour

“You have no control over your growth or development. But you have control on the direction of your growth and development!”
― Israelmore Ayivor

Ziad K. Abdelnour is a Lebanese-American investment banker, financier, activist, and author. Israelmore Ayivor is a Youth Leadership Coach, Leadership Entrepreneur, Author, and Speaker, from Ghana! Well, needless to say Ziad is in America as mostly all finance people usually settle there only & Ayivor is from a small but mineral wise rich country named Ghana in the African continent! Though you must be wondering what these names have to do with our subject (which is not about tadoba, not even about forests) i.e. road digging & city! It's not their field of operation but the object of their quotes which made me use it as its about development & if Ziad thinks best way of developing people is to keep them uncomfortable then Ayivor thinks we have no control on our growth but we can control our direction of development & if you are still wondering where is direction of this sharing then let me explain! I read four headlines today in newspapers & all were about road digging though the reasons were difference, first was about road cutting charges (road digging) to be waived for power cable for Police colony by PMC & another news were about traffic jams causing due to road cutting & then one news was about digging being done by one agency when the road surface is being paved recently by another agency, needless to say both agencies are of govt only! And then there are always news of illegal road digging by private or unknown entities about which all are clueless, the list is endless like Hanunamamji’s Tail (plz google for meaning)! At the same time road digging in Pune are dear subject for memes on social media, right from “idhar Khuda hai, udhar Khuda hai, jaha dekhu waha Khuda hai” (keeping all good & right & respectful intentions for religion, this is just used for prank, now a days such clarification is a must) to Pune has hidden treasure underneath as or why we would be having so much of digging going around on the roads,” are to name a few which are circulating along!

Well, many readers (if they read further) will ask what’s big deal, a lot is already being printed in newspapers, as well on social media, why to write so much about it & why we should read lengthy articles on road digging like a boring subject, we have better work to do! And all such people are right as sometimes I myself also wonder why I write or think even on these subjects, as one, I am not an authority to decide on the cause or any action plan about subjects like road digging nor its going to make any difference to anybody! But I don’t think so as I write because I feel & I write as I can think & somewhere somebody can make the difference only if we (not just me) keep writing or expressing or say sharing but if we don’t do that also, then we have no hopes nor have any right to expect so! Ok, about road digging charges first, as that is directly related to the economy of the civic bodies (PMC, PCMC, PMRDA etc) as well that of businesses also! For those who don't know about such charges (lucky souls) the if you want to dig a road in city or say anywhere then you first have to take permission from the local authority which can PMC/PCMC etc & you have to pay certain charges per running meter of the length of the digging work! That’s ok, you damage the road so you have to pay for it, its that simple but, this but, is the reason for my sharing!

First is about the charges & before that why one has to dig the road & there are many reasons as unfortunately in our country development is handled by many agencies & they seldom work in hand. When you build a home (I am deliberately not saying builder or else the dimension changes, will explain about it in the last part of sharing) then you need water connection, gas connection (pipe gas), electric connection, drainage connection, Wi-Fi connection & all these comes through the cables or pipes which are usually underground. Naturally to avail these services one has to dig the road surface around your home (read as project). Similar things are needed to do even for the agencies which mostly are govt run, for their own development or expansion or repair works. For e.g. drainage dept needed to enlarge the size of existing drainage line by replacing the older line with a bigger diameter pipe & such. Here the real issue lies, as when PMC (in our case) needs to dig the road for their own work then obviously don’t have to pay any charges as well when other govt dept such as MSEDCL or Telecom dept dig the road for their cables or the work is for some govt dept such as Police depts’ homes in the news case then these charges are, say Rs X per running meter. But when a private person is needed to dig the road for same cables or pipe lines then though the supply & beneficiary is some govt dept yet just because the private person is doing it the road digging charges become Rs 4 X per running meter & that’s huge amount where the length of cabling or piping runs for more than few hundred meters! At the same time what is logic of this Rate for private entity, nobody has answer to it & in many cases where some other govt agency is involved then the redoing of road surface is not done at all properly, who is responsible for that, again nobody has answer, then why are we paying the road cutting charges!

Now coming to the basic issue, why in the first place somebody is needed to dig a road, unless to replace existing pipe line type works, is my question for the authorities! Why can't the local body itself dig the road once for all & lay proper conduits or ducts crossing the road at regular intervals so every now & then no-one is required to dig the roads & makes the mess of traffic as well redo the road surface, is my second question! And if at all the road is needed to dig then why the rate difference for such charges when providing the essential services is the job of govt only, & from the common man’s purview any agency may it be local body or state govt or central govt, all are govt itself, right? High-time our leaders must acknowledge such vital urban issues which are directly related to ease of doing business as well affects citizens (which includes individuals’ as well businessmen) mentally & financially. And another aspect of this road digging is the nuisance it causes to everybody, mostly to the commuters using the respective road & people living along that particular stretch of the road where digging is going on! As along with traffic jams, these road diggings & their repairs are the major cause of road accidents also, right from people falling in the dug section to vehicles skidding from the wrongly done resurfacing many accidents happens in the process is a known fact & all of this can be avoided with right planning of works, is my subject of sharing!

And when the subject is development then one bad practice which is growing fast in our country (thanks to politicians & media) & that is, blaming some industry for any policy or development! As in one news, in Bihar a bridge is built & media blamed it, it's built illegally by some local real estaters’ (read as builders) for rise in the land rates of their lands which are supposed to be on the other bank of that river. Well, about legality of the bridge, it must be built only after proper permissions, no two minds about it but why some private people are needed to build a bridge, this is the question I want to ask to the media! Leave the Bihar news, here in Smart City Pune also, if not bridges but the developers are needed to build roads, lay water lines, get power cables, & many such infra works on their cost; while these works are supposed to be done by the govt only, right? We want affordable homes for masses but we don’t want to build infrastructure for the same & when some ring road or bridge or water line is proposed in some area then the media makes noise about such development that it's in the benefit of some builders only! Joke is, the very same govt which wants industries to invest here in this State/ City, & promises to provide infrastructure for these industries such as water, electricity, transportation on fast-track basis & at govt cost but when it comes to provide the infra services for the homes which are needed by the people who will be working in all these industries, there the govt puts its responsibility on the builders, “baat kuchh hajam nahi hui’ (please google for translation)!

Friends, high time for our rulers to understand purpose & meaning of terminologies like “development” & “growth,’ because a city is just like our human body & if every organ of the body is healthy & fit then only, we can call the person fit or else if only hand or leg is getting bigger in size, it’s called as swelling & we all know outcome of that type of fitness, right? Adios with this waidhanik ishara (again please google for meaning)!

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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/

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

 

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“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!

 

                                         

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“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!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

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