Forests, Humans & Fate of Sub-Adult Tigers! Part 1

 

--

“If you just watch a teenager, you see a lot of uncertainty.”…Jamie Lee Curtis

“This, teenager’s generation has given up on growth. They're just hoping for survival” … Penelope Spheeris

“A tiger's function in the scheme of things is to help maintain balance in nature and if, on rare occasions when driven by dire necessity, he kills a human being or when his natural food has been ruthlessly exterminated by man, he kills two percent of the cattle he is alleged to have killed, it is not fair that for these acts a whole species should be branded as being cruel and bloodthirsty.” … Jim Corbett

“Most common thing between a sub adult tiger & a human teenager is, both are like unguided missile” … Me

Four quotes (including mine) for a sharing, that’s something I haven’t done in recent but such is the subject of it, yes there is Tadoba (after a long gap) & there are tigers but as the quotes of Curtis & Spheeris says, it's about teenagers in the tigers i.e. sub adult tigers & trust me this is total new experience for me also! The best part of forests is they never stop to surprise me even after being in them for more than two decades & this Tadoba trip was no exception to this & add UKPWS in it (plz google), the package gets more than complete, though on knowledge front it’s never complete! If you are wondering what’s so great about it then first, I always love to visit Tadoba & central Indian forests I Feb End to March End as during this time Flame of Forests are at their best i.e. Palash trees, especially the hilly terrains around Nagpur are full of them & add Mahua flowers & ripe fruits fragrance in them, well I have never been to Kashmir but had I been a Shahen-shah then I would have said, “Jannat Agar kahi hai to yaahi hai”! I know most will laugh & said this is utter madness as where is Kashmir with all its cool breeze even in summers & tulips beauty with almond & apple orchards, & look at these 40 degrees plus grey-yellow coloured land which breaths fire, how can I even dare to compare this with Kashmir! I don’t blame all such people but beauty is in the eyes of the person & for me, these dry lands with red palash & mahua trees are more beautiful than Kashmir or any place in the world as its these lands which are home for the tigers which you don’t find in Kashmir & I am sure this is what differentiates wildlifers’ from others! Ok, sorry Kashmir lovers, no offence but specifically the flowers near Nagpur are darker in colour than MP palash & reason is more the heat darker the colour of Palash & you can’t beat the heat of Umread/ tadoba region on temperature front as well on spice front when its food! So, I was happy for the red carpet on the yellow land of palash flowers with my lungs full of the sweetest fragrance of Mahua flowers, the summer in the wilds has started on a wonderful note for me!

Ohk, coming back to our subject (finally), this was a short trip & apart from tadoba I wanted to check on third gate of UKPWS i.e. Pauni gate & while I was hoping to see some new terrain, what I got to see (read as experience) made me realize how little I (read as we) know about wildlife which is actually now in our backyard, at least for the people of tadoba we can say that! This trip I came across sub adult cubs which are like teenagers if you apply the scale of the life span of humans to the tigers. A tigress looks after her cubs ideally till they get two & half years i.e. thirty months & trust me a sub adult tiger of that age nearly looks like a grown-up tiger in size though by mind & experience its still a teen ager & its this age bracket of the tigers which we must study as well look at as if you check the death tally of the tigers,’ then the maximum tigers die when they are subadult is a sad fact of tiger conservation! And if we want to avoid or rescue it then we must look after the lifestyle of sub adult tigers is my subject of sharing! What is happening in tadoba & UKWPS, because of increasing numbers of male tigers & new younger males the females i.e. tigresses which have cubs are unable to protect these cubs from the male tigers which are not their father! For those who don’t know wildlife, a male tiger always kills every cub of a tigress it is mating or trying to mate to create its own blood line or say to show its dominance! This for many may seem cruel but that’s how nature has made the tigers & on cruelty scale humans are far ahead than the tigers so be it! So, when a tigress is having cubs from X male tiger & if that X male tiger is not dominant like Chota Matka (plz google) who eventually succumbed to these dominance battles, then the new male tiger chasing her becomes a constant threat to her existing cubs as the new male tiger is bound to kill them if it founds them tagging along with the tigress! So, to protect them the mom takes a hard decision, she cuts the training short & detaches the cubs just after eighteen or twenty months when they are in their early teens & this is the biggest problem Infront of conservation of wildlife which we are missing, is my point of sharing!

This trip was full of my encounters (in the right & good way) with sub adult tigers & if it's fun to watch them then its lots of learnings also for me about the way these young tigers are trying to cope up with hardships of wildlife on their own! First, I saw one sa tigress (sa is a sub adult) which is the daughter of collerwali, a dominant tigress in tadoba moharli range & mighty Chota Dadhiyal male tiger! These are nicknames given to the tigers by the locals while the forest dept recognizes them only by code-numbers yet I prefer to use nicknames only, better connectivity with the tigers! This sa tigress has two siblings both females but this one is bigger & bolder & not even two years old, she looks size of her mom & hunting alone. Here, collerwali tigress is being chased by another male tiger named Shambhu & locals are expecting a faceoff between Shambhu & Chita Dadhiyal soon & collerwali doesn’t want her young daughters being caught in fire in this fight so she was moving with CD or alone leaving the three sisters on their own. The sa tigress though can hunt alone yet she was looking for her sisters & calling them as it’s a big forest & even for the tigers its not easy to find their siblings & another threat is too much calling can lead the male tiger who is not your father to your location!

Then I met two sa tigresses which are daughters of another most famous tigress of tadoba, Choti madhu. These two are also nearly twenty plus months old & have started moving alone & creating their own territory. This is the tricky part as till now they are tagging with their mom but now the same forest area needs to be divided in three of them, which means less space & food. Recently a reel has gone viral about villagers (do mind not tourists) & locals are filming a tiger on their cell phones on the road & the tiger is running away from them. It's not a grown-up tiger but one of the sa tigresses of choti madhu. They have been seeing villagers & people on road since they were tiny cubs & often cross the main road from tadoba to Chandrapur among vehicles yet in search of food & territory they are wandering bear village as their mom has left them already. Both these sa tigresses gave us good time & I could observe them moving through forest & making their markings. It's these markings which are in the form of urine, and rubbing their body on tree bark & claw marks which makes other tigers aware of new tigers in the area as well this will help them to find their mate also! 

About the video gone viral, the forest dept has banned any vehicles stopping on this main road which now is frequented by many tigers but the point is, why to ban stopping of safari vehicles also which are there by paying the charges & which follow every rule, is my question! Rather the forest dept should ban any private vehicle without purpose on this (or any such) road & keep twenty-four hours patrolling along the road so illegal tourists will be curbed on all roads passing through forests. This will make tigers also feel safe as well reduce such shameful acts of humans chasing a tiger on foot just to make insta reel. As I said it was sa tigress so she shied away but had she panicked & attacked these humans then we would have declared her as a threat to humans & sent her to the zoo or killed her! And all this sa tigress’s fault is, her mom has left her without proper training because we have taken their space & on the other hand, we only are troubling her like a circus animal, rather than supporting her, is my point of sharing!

Lastly, we went to Umred Kharandala Pauni Wildlife Sanctuary where again I got to meet more sub-adults, adding more knowledge to me about this category of tigers. Here there are two tigresses X Mark & Shadow & both have sa cubs which are near separation & trying to make their living on their own. At the same time the famous F2 tigress which has five cubs, all of them have separated from her & now imagine a forest where there were two male tigers & three female tigers now there are nearly nine more tigers in the same space, what kind of mayhem must have been happening here & I am not counting other tigers existing earlier in this! Needless to say, villagers around these forests are having sleepless nights as on the very same day I was in UKPWS, F2 tigress's one of the sa cubs have killed (sorry for the word) a villager & the situation was tense. When I enquired about the incident, the deceased man was a youngster of twenty-two age & had taken his cattle to graze. One of the sa tiger has attacked his cattle & to rescue them this boy got exposed to the tiger & eventually got killed himself! This is bound to happen as first these sa tigress is not fully trained to kill in an instant the way a grown-up tiger does & then they have grown up seeing humans around so they are not that shy with humans like core tigers where human exposure is near zero. And then hunger makes you do the weirdest things even for the humans, these are just teenagers though they are tigers. And then even the villagers also need to understand, if you try to take away food from your pet dog, it also snarls at you, here you are trying to intervene in the lunch of a hungry tiger, which must be avoided! But again, the involved human was also a teen-ager, & he must have thought the tiger would run away seeing him!  Now the scene around all these forests is that you are not even getting workers to work in fields with such kind of incidences as grown-up tigers are survivors & they understand rules of survival & first rule is keep away from humans! But the sa tigers are desperate to survive & with their incomplete training & lack of strength to hunt as well to protect themselves from other bigger tigers they are bound to get involved in such a situation, for which we the humans are responsible & we only must find solution, is my subject of sharing! On Pauni road where we left the two male sa tigers just a few hundred meters from that spot village main road was there & group of village women were waiting for a bus unaware of two tigers relaxing inside the forests so close! On one hand this is a very heartening sight but on the other hand we are sitting on a time bomb as sa tigers are unpredictable & you never know what will happen with them, something we must make humans aware & trin to handle & fast!

Outcome is, as I have already mentioned, most deaths of the tigers are of these sa tigers as they are not trained to deal with obstacles which humans have made around the forests & the death comes in many ways, by electrocution, by falling in open well, by road or railway accident & if you survive all these then even by another big tiger! Some where our land policy makers must sit with forest dept & find a balanced solution as space is something even humans are fighting wars over it but for these sa tigers, the only army they have is their young body & a curios brain & we all know that isn’t enough to win any modern day’s war of survival! Only if some of the humans decides to stand in between the people around forests & sub-adult tigers, taking right steps, then there is some hope for these teen-age tigers or else I can see the darkness ahead for the young tigress which even their sharpest night vision can’t see; adios with this warning or request to those few humans!

*There is lot to share about sub-adult tigers & observing them, will do that in part 2 (Dhurandhar effect, lol) just one thing the place I was staying at Moharli gate i.e. Vasundhra has developed a small courtyard where flowering plants have been planted & it was like fairy land in the morning hours with butterflies, which are a very important aspect of wildlife & forests. I decided to make such patches in every project I will build back in my concrete jungle, as these are small acts but they can do so much nice support to nature!

-

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/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.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/

Being a Right Father!

 

                      

-

“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give to his son; he believed in me.”
― Jim Valvano

“My Dad used to tell me... You can't outrun your problems; they'll just be waiting for you when you come back.”
― Sarah Hina

“I learned many things from my Dad & few of them are, how I must not behave in some circumstances”, … Me.

Well, as the quotes says the story the sharing is about Dad/ Father (Baap, sounds better, lol) rather about father -Sibling (Dad-Son, more specifically) & I will be keeping it brief or short for two reasons, this is not my comfort zone i.e. to write about relationships & second, I myself doesn’t have got much exposure to this relation, even with my Dad! Yet the subject kept popping in the journey where I too am Dad of two grown up(are they really, lol) boys & given the situation at my home front I always try or tried to not to give them feeling about the father which I or my genre used to have! I am die hard fan of movies & there had been wonderful movies, especially in Hollywood about ideal Dad-Son relationships, starting from Godfather to Superman to Black Panther, A Good Dinosaur & then there is, legendary Lion King (plz google)! In all these movies the father has always shown very soft, gentle, humble, open for discussion, caring, mature & yet strong to the core, always an idol for the son! And he tries to show not just the right path to his son from his talks (sharing) but to make his son understand what he is, what his legacy is & how he (the son) must look at himself, instead of just copying his father! Something our Indian dads’ never used to do with their respective sons! Our biggest problem today is our aimless, under-confidence, directionless youth & they alone are not responsible for their such state of mind! And when it comes to taking responsibility for failure of a son (or a daughter) , may it be career front or character front, the father always hides behind mother or teachers & in case mother is not there, then the blame goes even to old Dadi but never the father, this is subject of my sharing!

Disclaimer no.1, I am not a bit of Hollywood father, not I consider myself separate from our Indian Dads but at least I realised what’s missing on my being dad front & I started trying to become a right one & in the process I too am learning (read as realizing) many things, or else I wouldn’t have dared to touch this subject ever! As I mentioned, today you see millions of youths cursing entire system, running away from responsibilities (especially boyz/ men) or going on wrong path of life (crime) & this all could have been avoided in many cases had the father realized that his job was a bit more than earning money for the family of which his son is also a part! Sorry for the mention (keeping due respect for the families), even the suicides of farmers & s when the susides are of students, its men/ boys whose numbers are more! Job of a father does focus more about earning for the family & feeding them but then there is one more job & that is to keep the family on the right track of life & here too his son is part of the family & for the son a father must teach him to face adversities as well to accept & overcome defeat! And this right track thing included many small things, such as while driving his son to school not breaking red signal, to not use abusive language for traffic to speak with respect or with equality to mom of you son to appreciate smallest of the efforts taken by every family member (mainly that of house-lady) & the list is endless! All such small things a man does, he must not forget he has a young son who is observing all these things very closely & somewhere in future he will be copying all these things as right now he doesn’t understand other things which the dad has to face when the son is not along! This is how you develop culture or say induce culture in your son i.e. by your own actions, is what every father must remember, is my subject of sharing! In our Indian culture a father is supposed to always behave strong & be the Boss of the family but this Boss thing comes with a responsibility is what we forget to make our son understand & that’s a failure for the man! Indeed, no father will think ill about his son & always will want him to be better than himself but he must not forget, for doing that the son need not necessarily follow the same path which his father has followed! Again, this doesn’t mean if the father has followed a right path then the son should not follow it, here the role of father is try his best to make his son understand the importance of following a right path, not because his father has followed but because it’s a right path! Here is where most Indian fathers fail as they press too hard on their son to follow their own path, that’s not following, that's copying which is not ever going to succeed! And when the son fails, then blame goes to his mom, that she didn’t teach him to follow his father or the school is useless, but reality is the dad is the one who has been useless as a dad! His time for every man to take his son in confidence & make him understand life in the best possible way & its never late, is all I can say! In one such effort I wrote a B'day letter to my dad which actually, is for my son (I hope), concluding my sharing with it as a message to all the dads…!!

----

13^th March 26

Happy Bday Baba

“ Jindagi lambi nahi badi honi chahiye, Babu Moshay”… Movie Anand

I never watched this movie, one I didn’t like kaka urf Rajesh Khanna & two, I never liked sad ending movies or say actionless movies then i.e. in 70’s! That’s why our childhood or teen-age time is best as we had a very clear idea about what we like & what we don’t & we could afford to say No to things which we don’t like, not watching Anand types movies was one such No! Well, it's weird start to write your father on his 91th Bday but then my genre was never supposed to write anything to our father in the first place, so be it! Baba, that’s the reason even the writer in me has to put his brain to work to limits whenever I decide to write to you anything & seriously, that’s how Father Son relationship was for us always! I used to wonder when later I watched movies like Lion King or Black Panther or A Good Dinosaur ( Disney & Marvel) & a father can be a friend also of the young as well grown up son was actually weird for me, because for me a father is some you don’t go nearby, mentally or physically & he never allows that if you try! Rather the only physical closeness with your father is when he slaps you, & I am not joking, that’s how my entire genre has grown up but & classic example of that relationship is in our very own movie, Shakti (Dilip Saab Vs Bachhan) where Dad & Son loves each other, respects each other yet just never express it ever!

But today let me tell you, none of these things which will be tagged as cruelty or child torture or even barbarian will make me reduce my respect (if not love) for you as a father & I mean it! As, you did in your best capacity for us what was known to you & if they say you can't fake being rich (Paishancha song Ananta yet nahi) then you can't act which you don’t know in reality & playing a right dad by books of child psychology, your genre never knew, so you couldn’t play that kind of father ever to us & that doesn’t make your sacrifice an inch less in comparison to today’s daddy friends around! Baba, just by observing following your daily routine on time & particularness in every small thing & writing down an expense of ten paisa (yes ten paisa) given to Sanjya for buying Rawalgaon Chocolate in diary at the end of the day, every small thing has helped me later in big way & today I take an opportunity to thank you for all those things, which you may feel weird but so be it! You have lived to an age which my genre won't even dreamt & my next genre don’t even want to live that long as they want all things superfast! To conclude, I will tell why I used the Anand’s quote, as I said I didn’t watch that movie but the dialogues & meaning of those words I understand much later as while everybody wants to love long then what’s difference between living long & big, I have gone over this differentiation in my mind many times & now when I look at you, I see my answers of many such questions! You have lived long & it's big in your way as long can be judged on the scale of years & by others but the bigness of your life only you can decide & that's being able to live life on your terms, which you did! This is the biggest gift you have given me by being my dad & by being the way you are, and I have no gift to give you for this advance return gift from you except trying to follow you & make my life big in my way!

Thanks for everything & being the way you are & these words are not just from me but from Neeta & my all friends & next genre too!

Sanjya, Neeta, Rohit, Paulomi, Rohan, Ketki, Nikhil, Kiran & all.

 

--

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/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.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/

 

Dubai, Unfortunate Victim of Iran-USA War !!

 

--

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
― Mark Twain

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
― Albert Einstein

“War” if reverse the alphabet becomes “Raw,” which is what we are in actuality; intelligent, educated yet very much “Raw” within, that’s why we are always eager to “War” … Me

I love Dubai & I miss visiting the city & when I started penning down this sharing which you must have guessed is about Dubai then there was a weird feeling in my mind as for the first time, I am writing about a trip at a place which didn’t happen! Well, I visited last Dubai three years back, Dec of 22, immediately after fading the effect of worldwide pandemic & even when we came back, on Mumbai airport they were making sample checkups for third wave, which thankfully didn’t happen (just like my this Dubai trip, self-sarcasm)! As I said I always respected Dubai for its openness towards the world & in a way you can call it as Ashiya’s USA, sadly the latter itself has or is on the verge of losing that tag of openness for the new ideas, which Dubai was & is ready to embrace! Most of us visit Dubai for shopping & the entertainment it provides to the visitors & nothing wrong, holidays (especially for Indians) are meant for that & all this at value for money! No wonder Dubai is first on the wish list of visiting places not just for Indians but for many international tourists & my purpose always was to see & absorb as much as I can what this city has new on its platter! And this year also I have booked myself on Emirates, which a Punekar resident has to take from Mumbai & many frowns as why to board from Mumbai when you have Indigo as well SpiceJet option from Pune to Dubai. Two things, Spice jet is extremely inconsistent & Indigo timings are ok only if you are going to stay at somebody’s residence i.e. it reaches in Dubai in very early morning while most hotel’s check in is post noon! And then on the way back Emirates terminal is a place which I like to spend time also, so be it! My flight was on 5^th of March & a merely a week before that hell broke loose i.e. USA & Israel opened war with Iran & in no time it reached the entire middle east & it’s this war as well its impact on my loved city is my subject of sharing!

First & foremost, I used to visit Dubai to widen my perspective about my own business which is real estate here in Pune & to learn aesthetics though many of the things we may not be able to ever implement here for many reasons which are our constraints, I.e. right from PMC by laws to budget of the project, yet even if we can implement few percent of what we see, it’s enough as it makes a big difference, is what I have experienced! Though the first news of war came on 28^th Feb, & I (along with many others) thought, UAE won’t be part or say affected by the war because for middle east war is as common as flue in the poor countries but this time the flue gets turned in to Covid (sorry for analogy but that’s what I felt) as first time the safest city or country in the world started witnessing fear among the citizens! The social media (Insta/ FB) are buzzing with all sorts of posts to such an extent that even the residents of Dubai started wondering what to believe & what to not, thanks to AI & Influencers rush to encash the public's attention about war updates! Thankfully, my niece & her husband who works in Dubai were giving me fair and right updates about the situation & Emirates also confirmed that, for the first-time, entire operations of worlds probably largest & best airlines has been suspended for more than four days straight! At the same time, the world's busiest airport also came to standstill for four days in its history, disrupting travel plans of three fourths of the world, this itself tells the impact of the war, which nobody, not even near perfect rulers of Dubai also could see it coming! Needless to say my trip was cancelled as even today which was my return date (supposedly) the flights are not came back to normal & Iran is keeping sky of Dubai busy with hundreds of Drones & Missiles, again source is Insta posts  as going by typical Middle East rulers the Sheikhs are tight lipped about what’s actual damage or scene of war but this is world of information (right & wrong both) & if we go by even fifty percent of what’s being shared then frankly & unfortunately the safest city crown is somewhat has been slipped from the head of Dubai, is a fact we can’t deny!

There are interceptions i.e. fired Drones & Missiles are being destructed in the sky itself by defence system but for last ten days the city which never has to fear for anything, except crossing Shaikh Zayed Road (only if you are not crossing it from signal), is needed to leave the plush localities & sky-scrapers & take shelter in suburbs in low lying areas & even there, people are spending nights in the basement. Alert messages keep your cell phone busy & sky is filled with smoke & sound of Drone interceptions all day long. Every time you are on the road you have to look up in the sky & be ready to run for shelter if a situation arises. Your flights are not certain, DXB i.e. Dubai’s beloved airport can be shut at any moment & most importantly nobody knows or not certain when this all will end, that’s the crux!  As when a city boasts of offering you safety then the biggest support it is giving you is trust in the entire system that you know what’s going to happen next, as then only you are nor afraid as people are afraid of uncertainty & that’s what Dubai has lost during the last ten days! USA (as usual) has asked its citizens to leave the entire Middle East & that includes Dubai also, which again is the first time in the history of Dubai. The attacks of Drones have paralyzed operations of many big MNC’s again nobody is confirming in open but people are whispering about it as data centres of E-Commerce companies have been hit & so has their business & all this in the month of Ramdan which is like Diwali in Middle East, worsening the financial damage multiple times, again a first time for Dubai! Here I have been a bit surprised by Dubai’s rulers’ approach as they are not giving any clear idea about what’s actually happening to their citizens & this is where they have lost the opportunity of gaining confidence of outsiders, is my personal view! Because till today when any outsider trusts some third country or city then that’s because he or she feels safe & comfortable by the treatment which that city’s rulers or governing body is giving to the individual & that’s what makes someone to trust on the city as communication is the best way to gain trust & this time may be because the rulers of Dubai themselves are clueless about war stopping, they are not giving clarity to its residents, is my subject of sharing!

Rather, they are trying to engage influencers to make them show how things are normal in Dubai, & publishing warnings to the people who are posting war damage news in Dubai. Agreed the misleading news must be stopped but the best way to deal with hoax or rumours is you yourself post what’s truth, which surprisingly Dubai’s rulers haven't done yet, maybe they are thinking it's showing weakness but that's a big mistake they are doing. People are leaving the city, work places have been hit, is a fact which you may not post in the media but somewhere somebody speaks & that’s more dangerous damage to the reputation as it's a matter of trust, which once gets lost then is very hard to recover, is something Dubai bosses must understand! At the same time the stranded tourists were helpless on both, accommodation front & commuting front as Emirates with due respect not giving any idea about refunds, rescheduling like things causing mental & financial damage to the tourists held in Dubai & outside also. In my own case I didn’t receive any communication about my tickets & cancelled travel! I can understand the limitations yet if you call yourself best then you must be at least open to communication & clear one, which hasn’t happened neither from the airline nor from Dubai govt. At the same time no financial aid of any single Dirham has been given (to my knowledge) to any Indian tourist who gets stuck in the city as that's a big financial burden for many i.e. extended stay & food in a city like Dubai. I agree, that’s not the fault nor the legal responsibility of Dubai govt but then when you call yourself best & safest city then you have to shell out extra efforts in a crisis, right? This was again a negative mark for the city from the travellers!

Coming to some lessons I have learned from the cancellation of this trip, one is always pay a little extra for hotel booking but keep the cancelling option open till the last day of your trip which I had, so I got a full refund for hotel bookings. Same way, keep travel tickets open for rescheduling by paying some extra rupees as then your claim remains for next travel. Most importantly, I was lucky to get my trip cancelled in advance but had I been stranded there, I would have to ask for insurance cover by paying some extra premium for war like situation if arise, so it will take care of room rent & other expenses for prolonged stay as well cover Mediclaim also for injury caused by war! One aspect which our Govt must think is think of surcharge of Rs 100 for every international ticket & use that money if situation arise to evacuate stranded travellers back to our country as or else that entire burden either common tax payers have to bear or the tourists has to pay huge extra money for return journey which does happen this time. One-way tickets from Dubai to Mumbai soared to Rs 75 k to Rs 1 lakh which is nearly five times higher than normal rates, again minus points for the tourists to Dubai as well as residents there! Dubai, I understand this whole war thing nobody has imagined but then again if you call yourself safest & best city in the world then first you must be ready for worst & second, don’t shy away from improving if you failed to plan in the first place, is the subject of my sharing!

Coming to last aspect of this piece; in any war, nobody gains is said but that’s book’s philosophy as business philosophy is simple, somebody’s loss is somebody’s gain & this loss of trust & fear in the minds of rich people, for Dubai (how so-ever they claim on Insta that all is well) can be a big gain for India, especially Pune & Bengaluru! As in India we may not ever have the infrastructure, duty-free shopping, or cleanliness the way Dubai has but we have one thing, that at-least for now there is no fear of getting the entire city or region, war hit! Here State as well Central govt can think of creating “D’ regions or “D” cities (D for Dubai) near Pune Mumbai (because of airport connectivity) creating infra as well taxation discounts for Data Centres & offices of MNCs’ which are ready to move away from middle east as this is encashing time & no shame in it as business stops for nobody, is something Dubai itself has taught us! Only if our govt learns some wisdom (whom I am fooling, lol) from this crisis & gears itself in the right way & grab it as an opportunity, then Dubai’s loss which may be temporary can be our big gain, though I still love Dubai as a city & will like to want to see it back to its glory soon; adios with this note!

-

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/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.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/

AI , Humans & Wildlife !

 

--

“Advise a wise man, and he will listen to you. Advise a fool, and he will make fun of you.” ― Mouloud Benzadi

“Manipulation is application of intelligence on people to achieve a premeditated outcome solely benefitting the former than latter, AI is the best example of it.” ”
― Ramana Pemmaraju

“Wild animals don’t need any AI to survive, as there are no fools in wildlife” -- Me.

Mouloud Benzadi is a British Algerian writer, translator, linguist, and researcher. Sri Ramana Pemmaraju, is an English Writer, Columnist and has contributed his works in diverse fields such as Research, Publications, Copy/ Technical documentation. Thanks to the first quote which I stumbled upon while reading a writeup in a Sunday supplement of a newspaper which makes me remember the next one & think of mine at last! What Mr Benzadi wrote must be a few years back as today he would have changed his words to advise a fool & he will forward your advice to many other fools, needless to say without meaning it! And the words of Mr Pemmaraju are in alignment with Mr Benzadi, as that’s exactly what Ai is doing today! Now you will say what’s in common with wisdom, foolishness, AI & wildlife, well, the chaos is common which is happening at present when all these come together & add social media in it, more chaos is the result, so this sharing! Here I would like to bring to your attention the announcements regarding AI (Artificial Intelligence) & its use in “aam admi’s” (Janata) life & so smitten our rulers of this AI thingy, that they are not sparing even wildlife from it! The main concern (if our govt thinks wildlife is a matter of concern) of wildlife at present is man-animal conflict, though I personally doesn’t agree with word as conflict is friction between two parties where they are equal or near equal on all scales, but when we are talking about one fifty crore numbered species(I am refereeing only our country) which are equipped with all modern day gadgets to make their lives comfortable versus some lakhs of wild animals who doesn’t have any technology at their service but what mother nature has given them, it can't be conflict, its one way conflict at the most you can say where we all know who is going to rule the game, its always we the humans!

After reading these words which does sound dramatic you may think I am a frantic environmentalist (which I am not) as I understand out of these crores of humans there are few thousands who are on wrong side of conflict i.e. they have to suffer when their lives cross path with wildlife & in this context our Mai Baap govt is thinking of use of AI to help humans & wildlife survive together!  Well, that’s one use of AI in wildlife, though its effectiveness has yet to be measured as nature doesn’t run by intelligence, & definitely not by human’s intelligence who rarely bother to care about nature & its way of living! In Tadoba (where else) AI is helping people living around villages by alerting them at night about movements of wild animals like tiger & sloth bear & reducing their encounter with humans. Again, how this can be called as AI, I don’t understand as this is a normal surveillance system but I think nowadays when you attach AI with any system, it sounds nice, which is the main purpose of rulers to achieve, so be it! At the same time a lot of research is needed to increase use of AI which will actually help wildlife also at large along with humans & for that we need people who understand wildlife in the right way or say balanced way. Obliviously, humans living around forests are in a way wildlife only as they too are part of day-to-day life of all the wild animals around & if we can use AI or any technology to help them that’s going to help wildlife only! One important aspect is, using AI for empowerment (skill development) of the locals around wildlife as if they start using technology for their own personal development then they will be less dependent on forest for survival which will be the biggest help to wildlife by AI! And for that, we need lots of research which doesn’t seem to be happening, with due respect to efforts from govt for the same. Or else, check the figures of tiger’s death in the first two months itself of the year 2026 which can be considered as a scale for success or failure of wildlife. And then, add deaths of elephants & many such species which are the outcome of whenever these species cross paths with humans or our establishments & sadly, leave AI, we are not able to protect lives of wild animals by using even the basic technology is a fact & we are talking of AI! For e.g. death of wild animals crossing our Highways, Railways or High-Tension Power lines or Electric Fences around our farmlands, & the death toll is alarming; so, why are we not using AI along these so-called “paths of progress” which are actually ways to heaven (in real way) for saving wildlife, is my question to the entire system!! As well, AI can be very effectively used to make the common public aware about wildlife, especially those who have not seen real wildlife or forest i.e. education front, which again can save many wild animals lives!

Indeed, there are efforts by which we can keep an eye through Drones on wild animals especially those whom we can’t go near such as tigers, elephants, or sloth bears or those which are very shy (wild dogs) & nocturnal (only move in darkness of night). Here, we can use AI to detect any illness or deficiency as well their behaviour pattern & from the visuals by Drone camera & it will tell us more about the species, as in wildlife knowledge is the key! As, to conserve anything we must know as much as we can about that thing & every living thing other than humans is afraid of us (barring dogs & cats) & they have their own reasons for doing & that makes studying wildlife difficult for us. And this I am speaking about only the animals or species which are on ground & visible to us as there are thousands of species which live under surface of see, fly up high in the sky & lives below earth also & then some lives in habitats where humans can’t survive in natural state i.e. high altitudes or hottest deserts. In all such situations AI can be our best rather, the only tool to study wildlife & make their life comfortable, which I don’t think is happening or any budgetary provisions are being made for the same, is my subject of sharing.

At present there is another danger of AI looming over wildlife & social media is giving it a perfect (sarcasm) platform for that danger, yes, I am referring to fake AI made clips or footage of wildlife which at present is the biggest threat for wildlife from coexistence angle & its impact is such that even the forest dept has to take cognizance of such AI clips & make an appeal on social media regarding the same. Many of you must be remembering a clip which went viral on social media where one guard was sitting on the veranda of a forest guest house & suddenly a tiger came & dragged the guard in the forest of Bramhapuri near Tadoba! That clip has been forwarded to me by at least twenty people, asking for its exact location & it was on every WhatsApp group! This clip was totally made by AI, as with a keen eye & little bit of knowledge & some logic (all of these, most don't have or use; sarcasm) one can easily make out that. For instance, a tiger never attacks any human in the open, that too sitting in the veranda of a home unless it is a known man-eater, which there is none in recently around Tadoba. Usually such clips lack specific details always of a place as the maker doesn’t know them. Unless a tiger has killed the prey it won’t drag the prey which the clip was showing & more importantly there were roars even when the tiger has held the victim with its jaw, how can it do that i.e. roar while it has held prey in its jaw! And then, no blood spilling was seen from the victim’s body, in that clip, one more detail missing! And these are very basic observations, I can write an essay about rest points but then not many people have seen wild life & those who has seen they haven’t observed the details of wildlife & outcome is they believe on every such clip or photo & forward ahead making masses panic or become enemy of wildlife, this is the worst damage AI can do to the entire wildlife than actually killing it! And then later, there were episodes of this clip where the same tiger gets a bucket of water for the guard, but the damage has been done! And if not killing of humans, then there are many AI made clips of wildlife where you see a fifty feet Python or a leopard adopting a deer fawn & the title of such clips is wonder of nature or kindness of nature, making you (majority of masses) believe the same & forward it. Such posts made with AI spreads misunderstanding about wildlife as whenever some person accidently encounters such a species, then they may react by going through such clips, & the outcome will be dangerous! Here, all we can do is whenever you get any such clip of information about wildlife then first try to look at it with some logic & take assistance from people who know wildlife & till that time please don’t forward or share with others thinking its true! And the best way is, start going to forests, read books about wildlife, watch authentic channels like NatGeo & get the right information about wildlife! Forest depts & NGO’s must start a drive about this aspect & make common people aware about wrong use of AI in making clips on social media on every possible forum & platform, is my reason for sharing this piece!

And then comes another aspect of use of AI in wildlife & that is, use of AI by the ill elements i.e. poachers, because if the right people can use technology for right things, then the same technology can be used by the wrong people for doing wrong things also, right? And this is where the govt (enforcement agencies related to wildlife & NGO’s also must keep keen eye on the use of technology by the wrong people in wildlife. History is proof that bad people are always a step ahead of good people as they don’t have any rules, budgets, approvals, type procedural delays to use technology for their interest & more than that they don’t have to bother about ill effects of use of technology on the wildlife as their purpose is different! This makes the challenge for the right people tough as nature can protect its pride creation i.e. wildlife from each other & even from humans when it’s put on scale of natural powers but with wrong use of AI nature has no means to protect its weaker siblings, i.e. wildlife from humans! Take example of nocturnal animals like Martin or Pangolins or Porcupines, they are very hard to find in the first place, even for the poachers as they move in pitch darkness, run for shelter even with slightest of danger & very sharp in smelling or listening, so to catch them with normal ways is near impossible for humans & this is why such species have survived safely. But with AI backed technology, tracking these animals even in darkness & to locate their remotely located nests or say hides (read as home) will be super easy & suddenly there is no natural protection for these species as barring their hiding skills they have no tool to survive in the open, I think research is must to counter attack this threat of AI to wildlife in advance! This is where right AI & wrong AI will stand against each other & only the humans using it who will move fast & with dedication, will decide the fate of the wildlife, adios with this warning which is not AI generated!

-

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/2025/12/pune-real-estate-in-2026.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/