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“The only biodiversity we’re going to have left is Coke versus Pepsi” … Chuck Palahniuk
“Perhaps COVID-19 will prove to be a wake-up call. We now have the most selfish of reasons to save biodiversity -- our own welfare.” … Dan Saladino
“We don’t want tigers, if you love tigers then take away all tigers from our village & keep them in your city” … Comment on an Insta Post about the Tigress attack on villagers near tadoba, 22 May 26.
“A tiger is cursed by nature in such a way that for him, every other species is either prey or enemy” … Me.
The sharing was supposed to be about Bandhavgarh forest which is one of my most favorite forests & I could have tag it with Sanjay Dubri piece but one, Dubri sharing went quite long (Dhurandhar part 1 types) & it would have been real punishment to make people read so much at one go & second when I started to write about my Bandhavgarh trip, two saddest of news about wild life came, one, a tiger named Pujari got killed in territorial fight in Bandhavgarh & a tigress killed (sorry, wrong term, as killed is outcome & not intention) four women villagers near Tadoba ; both these news really made me numb & I thought sharing my views (read as feelings) with Bandhavgarh only. And I am not man of much sentiments, as well I am well aware of practicality of forest & wildlife where emotions needed to take backseat, yet we are living being that too so called most evolved once & we have emotions, feelings, & thanks to social media’s algorithm & AI tracking, my cell was flooded with images, posts about both incidences to such extent that I lost few nights sleep over them! I was sad yet I knew the sadness is the outcome of the frustration or helplessness about not being able to do anything for Pujari or the tigress in tdaoba & her cubs as well as for the women who lost their lives, so this sharing!
Ok, first some good things as visiting Bandhavgarh always makes me overwhelmed & this was a trip with foresters (my group of like minded friends for wildlife) & we were staying at Tiger Den which is right in Bandhavgarh town’s (as no more its village now) main road. I remember this main road nearly twenty years back with hardly few eating joints Dhaba types on it & some grocery shops & as the sun sets the village used to be silent & you could hear alarm calls on this road as some two meters on its left side (going towards umria) the forest core zone starts. Today with modern eateries, posh super shoppees, even saloons & wine shop is there now. The Tiger Den has old charm as it’s one of the oldest establishments & has directly fronted on this main road. The hotel team greeted me with a smile & two Alsatians dogs were there to shoo away the monkeys jumping on to roofs of cottages as this property has got many old trees which are home to birds & monkeys of ages & we are the intruders actually. The sight of gray languor jumping around & dogs barking to chase them reminded me such sight of my own home town Khamgaon, in Vidarbha & even in Pune’s Kothrud area I have seen monkeys on trees in early 90’s, now the monkeys has gone & so are most of the old trees! It was indeed heartening to see the monkeys here in Tiger Den! And from the next day morning we started exploring Bandhavgarh with mercury rising with every passing hour though with green patches especially in Magdhi & tala zone, the summers here are better than tadoba (read as bearable)! I have stopped mentioning or counting tiger sightings in Bandhavgarh as one, it’s a forest which offers a lot more than tiger sightings & two, because of its size the movement of tigers keeps changing except in the deep core zone. Means, on all four sides of Bandhavgarh there is forest & villages, so barring the dominant tigers which can hold their respective territory, the tigers keep moving in & out of the tourism area making it difficult to keep count of them even after sighting! And in recent times, post Covid, wild elephants also have made Bandhavgarh’s magdhi zone mainly as their home making things more interesting here. The signs of wild elephants can be seen from broken branches of trees, to mauled grass patches to trenches dug all around the forest chowkis (to prevent elephants from attacking these chowkis at night), though we didn’t see much of elephants this time but their presence can be felt everywhere!
The major problem of increased numbers of tigers is, females leaving their cubs early is when they are hardly eighteen or twenty years old which is why the incidences of attacks on humans or death of the tigers is increasing in & around major forests in India & Bandhavgarh is no exception to this phenomenon. As forest dept can protect tigers in protected forests but it is helpless (like a toothless & clawless tiger) out of protected forests & here also situation is tense most of the time. Every other day there is news in dailys, of leopards or tigers entering human settlements, or attacking humans or getting killed. Its race for survival for everybody in which the tigers are bound to lose is a sad fact unless we sit together and find a solution for the same. Another aspect is parks facilities from the tourism aspect as we want tourism but we don’t provide basic facilities like clean toilets inside the park. The top bosses can provide budget & get the washroom facilities built but it’s the ground staff which must maintain them & sadly it’s not happening, projecting very poor (read as bad) image of our country’s tourism on the world map! In Khitoli zone there were beautiful washrooms built but were locked as no water supply was there & at another place water supply was there but tanks were not filled, the outcome is, all the restrooms inside the forests were in very bad condition. We can appeal to the local hoteliers to sponsor manpower for the same & use that for maintaining toilets, all the forest dept has to do is give these humans passes to enter in the forest just the way the solar panel maintenance team does for solar water pumps. It can be a big plus point on the service front for the safaris for all the factors! Hopefully, this will reach to someone who can act & will as I saw nearly forty percent tourists were foreigners who already tease our country on the cleanliness front! I think in every park there must be a committee with all stakeholders representatives on it & every month there should be a meeting with agenda & points involving betterment of forest/wildlife at large by which many policies as well issues can be resolved. At the same time the park management must have a regular dialogue with tourists about their experiences as well as suggestions as many of these tourists have experience of travelling across the globe & their right suggestions can be thought of implemented. One more aspect (read as hurdle) of visiting many forests in MP is connectivity as if the forests are a boon for wildlife, then they are an obstacle for having developments here & affecting faster means of communication such as air travel. The MP govt must make treaties with air companies (long shot) for more connection flights & at destinations near to forests, as by road it takes a whole day to reach destinations such as Panna or Bandhavgarh from many major cities in the country & that refrains many tourists from visiting these locations! As well this must be part of the system & not for some officer who has interest in all such things which is main problem with our govt bureaucracy!
Though for me just being in Bandhavgarh & explore its vastness is a joy which doesn’t get reduced by any such obstacle which I did enjoyed to the fullest. Best part was a heartwarming encounter with tigress Raa & her sub adult cubs & to watch a mother’s care for growing kids as well keeping distance from them too, to make them able to survive on their own! As well whenever I used to see a bund along any waterbody, I used to think someday I can click a tiger standing on such bund & the frame will be jungle behind & water ahead but every time either the tiger is already in water or has left & I have never been able to click such frame, till this trip! The male sub adult cub of Raa tigress suddenly approached from behind bund while we were waiting at a waterbody & had there been any bigger tiger it usually doesn’t linger on the bund & immediately enters water but as this was sub adult tiger & its mom must have taught him to be cautious always, it waited a while on the bund giving me full chance to click it & then slowly it entered in the water body. I smiled at myself for the way the forest gifts me opportunity to tick my wish list, every time in some way! With many such incidents I left Bandhavgarh, oh yes there was an interesting incident which as usual was hot cake news media & digital media in Bandhavgarh while we were there. An Innova vehicle which doesn’t have a permit to enter the national park entered in tala zone & went inside right where a tiger sighting was on, causing enough hohalla in park management as well as the media. Apparently, the car’s driver put google location of Vishnu temple which is inside park & didn’t know about entry rules & the guard at the gate was a lady & new entrant in forest dept & somehow, she must have thought it’s a govt vehicle & let it in by making entry. These things do happen but social media is so fussy about forests such as Bandhavgarh that they take this as threat to wildlife & such & the poor guard got suspended from service! I think sensitiveness is ok but overdoing it is wrong especially with wildlife, be rational & practical as that’s the way to achieve the goal of conservation, is what I feel!
Now coming to the sad part of sharing, it’s about the death of a very handsome & big male tiger named Pujari in Bandhavgarh in territory fight & one will say, that’s a natural death which is but too many natural deaths in territory fights is something I want to point out! And then in one of the most shocking incident of man animal conflict, a tigress attacked a group of tendu patta collecting women villagers near Tadoba forest in Maharashtra & killed four of them on spot! Exactly a year back near very same place i.e. Gunjeawahi Taluka Sindhewahi, three women were killed during tendu patta collection but it seems we don’t learn anything out of it! You won’t ever imagine the panic, anguish among the villagers at Gunjewahi where in one go four humans are killed & we could have avoided it! The common factor between Pujari’s territorial fight death & the four unfortunate women’s deaths in tdaoba is, our success of increasing numbers of tigers & our failure on the front of giving them their rightful space, is my subject of sharing! Immediately responding to public cry, the govt machinery moved & till today the tigress in that area was captured with one cub as she was with cubs & has attacked for their protection & search for other three cubs to capture is on, God bless them! Here I won’t bother you much with my views but will share my Insta posts about these both incidents & appeal you all (the readers) to act, raise voice, share your feelings as there only is some hope for the tigers & humans living around them adios with this warning! …BTW, interestingly (read as, sadly) the day four women got killed in that tigress attack was when we were busy celebrating World Biodiversity Day i.e. 22nd May!
My Insta posts…
https://www.instagram.com/p/
Thucydides Trap, Pujari & D1...
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Khitoli range of Bandhavgarh forest!! Though one look at Pujari & nobody will believe this size tiger can get killed by any tiger, even of his size leave apart D1 which is 3/4th of Pujari's size, my guess!! The only logic is, D1 was fighting with one motive, that is kill Pujari! I am not a tiger expert but I have seen both these tigers & it would be a fight which must not have last long as or else Pujari would have seriously wounded D1. As well, big size if is a tool to dominate then it can be your weakness in death defining fights with D1 directly going for neck of Pujari & caught him of-guard with fast speed as he must be knowing if Pujari gets even one chance to counter attack then that 250 plus kg mass would hit him like a tank & battle may be won but with big damage which could have been fatal even for the winner. Just the way what happened with CM alias Chota Matka in tadoba & younger Bramha, with later one died but CM also got seriously wounded resulting in his regime ending in captivity. What happened between D1 & Pujari now is those only know & the forest around which was witness of fight but one thing is sure, repeated territorial fights especially of male tigers are outcome of reducing forest area making two or more male tigers needed to share single territory & numbers of tigresses in it. Agreed, it was core forest but if enough area is available with food & mating options then these fights will be fewer is a fact though tiger especially males are individual species & wants their dominance around yet we are failing to provide them their deserved space is a fact & in future such Thucydides Traps we will be seeing more for sure may it be tigers or nations like USA & China. Sorry Pujari, we couldn’t provide you your space & couldn’t save you, RIP;
#thucydides #pujari #tiger #bandhavgarh
#wildlife
We are Sorry...!!
We are sorry captured tigress mom for taking away your freedom & ur cubs along with it, & We are sorry all four women for not being able to save your life & we are sorry for villagers around our forests also, for making you live under fear of tigers, sloth bears & such animals. We are sorry villagers for not making you self-sufficient so you don't have to go to forests with tigers for some rupees & we are sorry for all tigers for allowing humans to come in your forests, we are sorry for every that thing which we could have done to avoid loss of life of humans & tigers but we didn’t!! Yet, we won't give up, we will try to strike a balance where tigers & humans will live together, as accidents will still be there which they happen in our comfortable concrete jungles also but we don’t give up living, right?? We will be working for making tigers able to live in a way where they won’t accidently bump on humans & humans won’t be needed to bump with a mom who will attack them thinking they are enemy of her cubs!! We take this pledge, as that’s the only right way...
team Sanjeevani & Jungle Belles
#gunjewahi #chandrapur #tigress #savemyhome
Victims of Uncertain Fate!!
4 human lives gone, and a family of tiger gone along with those lives, with mom tigress captured, with 1 cum & rest 3 cubs’ fate uncertain. I have all sympathy for the lost lives of 4 women as their kids also must be waiting for their mom to come, just the way this cub is waiting for his mom!! Only difference is, as humans we have a family to take care of our kids while this cub will have to spend his life ahead in jail along with his siblings, only if they are lucky to get captured or else forest will take away their life also from them...!! When will we be able to make a balance & how many more lives from both sides we need to lost!! We want tigers but we don’t give them their space, to open all forests for tourism is the only way as then the locals will be aware of tigers & earn some money along or else this is just beginning of a silent war between wild & human which has only one end, death of all other species than the humans...
#tadoba #coexistance #savemyhome #chandrapur #modi
News about Wildlife Tourism is Botheration for Wildlife!
foolish news about tourism is botheration for wildlife rather, only tourism can save wildlife now and humans also... had there been tourism in sindewahi range, the tiger or tigers who attacked and 4 unfortunate women got killed would have been noticed that there is tiger moment and there are cubs or they are in mating and the locals could have warned and they would have been careful or avoided that part of forest!! rather all forests should be open for tourism so we can give earning to the locals & keep an eye on tigers & such animals.. Sanjay
#wildlifetourism #savemyhome
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Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
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