Bureaucracy, Aristocracy & Democracy!

If you're going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy; God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won't….Hyman Rickover

Hyman George Rickover, also known as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy", was a United States Navy Admiral who directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of Naval Reactors. And many of my friends who are good bureaucrats must be smiling to themselves after reading the quote though on face they will show their displeasure. Yet the facts remains as what Hyman has said is every common man’s opinion about the bureaucrats i.e. we call govt servants! Many from the govt service won’t agree to this yet when you look at the applications came for the class four posts in govt service may it be a  peon i.e. “chaprasi” or even a forest guard, there are candidates which are post graduates, then one need to believe that there is something magical in govt service! Mainly two things one is assured salary & another is even the gods can't remove you from the job however way you perform!  These two things give a govt servant the present attitude i.e. they are untouchable to common man. And another major aspect is monopoly in most of the day to day matters involved with common man’s life. For e.g. if I want to get my projects plan sanction there is none other than PMC who can do it or if I have to make my land NA i.e. non agriculture then only Collector can do it or if I want a electric connection then except MSEB no one else can do it or may it be a driving license then I have to get it done through the RTO last but least even I have to transfer a piece of land on others name then only Talathi who is lowest rank of the revenue can do it.  Leave apart these entire things, even if I want to registrar sale of my property or marriage registration I have to get it done only via govt registrar! And the list of such works is unending & may it be a school teacher or a millionaire businessman each of them has to surrender in front of some govt representative which we call as a bureaucrat! Agreed all these are supposed to be giving service to common man but ask that common man is he happy with the service from bureaucrats? This is because of the British system where the purpose of giving security to govt servants is they can perform without any fear or interference & serve to the public. But unfortunately after British left somewhere this basic aim of giving security to the govt servants got lost & now what remains is an attitude that a bureaucrat is above the god & whatever he or she does is the final word!

This was going fine till last two decades i.e. up to 1990 & the bureaucracy ruled may it be Country level, State level or even Taluka level but then some where the so called aristocrats i.e. people’s representatives came in to picture. These are elected members who have been chosen by the people & they too come in many forms i.e. from MP to MLA to Corporators of local bodies. Slowly this specie realized that the so called bureaucrats are supposed to be servants of the public & they conveniently took that we are elected by the public so we are public! Nothing wrong again as that’s what an ideal democracy is for; on one side bureaucrats will be doing their administrative role & aristocrats keeping control on them that they are on right track & all this for the interest of the end user i.e. the common man!

For those who will be confused about the zest of this write-up, well recently I read very interesting news regarding a case in our beloved Pune city. I won't go in to the details of the case as that’s not the essence of our sharing. It’s about one of the buildings of which some floors have been illegally constructed & now it comes in to light that the institute who has been owner of the building has done it without any sanction & started use of these floors. Obviously as usual what happens in such matters that now everyone is pointing towards everyone & trying to justify how their department isn’t related to all this illegalities. But again as per the unwritten rules in bureaucracy, “for every mistake there is a scapegoat! So keeping in tune with this rule inquiry has made by the senior officers of PMC & outcome is few of the junior engineers has been suspended (not removed) from the service & few others promotions has been stopped. On prima fascia this seems usual to any common man as a crime has happened so someone has to be responsible from the system whose job was to check that crime before it happened & the one who failed in doing so needs to be punished & so he or they has been punished! Here is where the whole matter took a different turn as when a bureaucrat or few of them have been punished then the hell broke loose as how this can happen! The self proclaimed untouchables getting under guillotine! Its not done & the news was in this context only. That so called associations of all such bureaucrats gathered together & they have appealed to media as well to their bosses that they are not guilty but the aristocrats i.e. the elected members who pressurized them to ignore the illegality of the said building are the real guilty & they too should be punished!

Wow that’s real cute of our bureaucrats that now they are feeling some species can pressurize them & they are not untouchable after all! Again the common man will say what new in this? Rather this time the particular matter has come in open so these two i.e. elected members & govt servants are pointing towards each other but then who has stopped the bureaucrats to take the names of the elected members which has been pressurizing them to ignore the illegality of the building? Had this case hasn’t came in lime light & few of the officers not been punished then would these people have made such allegations? So many illegalities are happening around us all the time is it every time the bureaucracy is pressurized so they are not taking any action? Last monsoon two people lost their lives due to electric current got on the water which has been clogged on a suburban road in Pune. As usual inquiry has been set but nothing, no mseb officer has been known to punished neither those who allowed water clogging as every year millions of rupees has been spent on rain water arrangements yet every year the water get clogged all around the city! The new roads get dug & many accidents happen, who is at blame for public money getting wasted? The Mumbai-Bangalore bypass has no service road which is mandatory & each day thousands of two wheeler commuters’ travels over it under the threat of death due to accident from heavy vehicles; so who is pressurizing the so called bureaucrats from making the service road? What about all the legal works which needs to be taken care but are being ignored, why they need pressure for these? This is very easy stand that ignore the illegality as per our convenience & when get caught then point the finger to the elected members as under their pressure we ignored it!

Not that the claim isn’t true, so called representatives of the people too are known for indulging in all such sorts of acts but then they are for people, aren’t they? They will think that whatever public wants give them may it be regularizing illegal construction of may it be hawkers blocking the street, they know only one thing deliver what public want! And we are a country where self interest is above everything so every law is a hurdle for us!  So our elected members never pressurize the govt servant for good things which are largely in public interest but only where some ones individual interest is at stake! Look at another case about road cutting for MSEB power cables in city, when the administration has allowed mseb power cables to lay at reduced rates as its essential service to the society. Here all the elected members came together & stayed this decision, making road digging for power cables a costly affair; for which citizen only have to pay more! Many such examples are there, where bureaucrats or aristocrats individually taken stand against each other’s when its public interest at stake against their own interest & putting a show of being rivals. But when its personal interest then they immediately gets along forgetting their rivalry! Many of my friends who came from both the categories & may not like this sharing but what I have put forward is what people think & feel & nothing personal. As the profession I am in is also not being spoken with high regards, yet I have to accept it as my opinion need not be the fact or what society thinks!

Coming back to sustain the pressure from elected members, this is why the bureaucrats has been given security by the system so they shouldn’t succumb for doing wrong things even if coming from representatives of the people but seems they conveniently forget this security when its order or call it as a request from elected members! And why not as right from the promotions too transfer at so called cream postings everything is under control under the aristocrats, so it’s in benefit of both to watch each other’s back unless some fool opens up a scam like above news & the partnership gets broken between the both categories!

It’s the high time the common man should realize that bureaucracy & aristocracy i.e. govt servants & our elected members are two sides of one coin; a coin which is supposed to be act as a currency to make our lives comfortable but unfortunately it’s been working for each others interest & at cost of us only!

The news which made me write this sharing went unnoticed & by now must have forgotten from the memories of even those few who read it but it is an eye opener! It showed true face of these untouchables that yes they too can get pressurized even for wrong things, so why not pressurize them for doing right things! And the persons who can pressurize them are none other than our own elected members, so now it’s up to us only to understand our power or else in the nexus of bureaucracy & aristocracy it’s you & me are getting killed. Today some unknown person is victim of their negligence & untouchable attitude, tomorrow it could be anyone from our family & then there will be too late to act! Before that lets act & pressurize these both cracy's to deliver for the purpose they exist or else the day isn’t far where the common mans i.e. democracy's existence itself will gets eliminated & for that we only will be responsible!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

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

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

Smart City, Dumb City or Dead City?

“Dull, inert cities, it is true, do contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else. But lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and needs outside themselves.”… Jane Jacobs

Jana Jacobs was an American-Canadian journalist, author, and activist best known for her influence on urban studies. Her influential book The Death and Life of Great American Cities argued that urban renewal did not respect the needs of most city-dwellers. And the book is all time great for those who are related to urban planning. This is one of her many quotes which describes city life in depth realistic way as well in philosophical way too!

Recently my journalist friend Barnalee who works for a city fortnight paper asked me as they have started a column which will feature common citizen’s views about his/ her surrounding problem  as citizen he/she face in day to day life. She asked whether I can write few for the said column. Well for a writer in me it’s like we say in Hindi “neki aur puch puch!” means what better chance I can have than express myself as we Punekar (after spending more than half of my life in Pune sometimes I conveniently considers myself as Punekar, though I am not one tenth yet) just love to find problems everything around us! Agreed we are to right most of the time but it’s said that a diehard Punekar can find imperfections even in perfect of the specimen! And here is someone asking me problems around my own surrounding. That way when millions are living in slums or illegal structure, with no proper water of any of public health facility or access to proper education, leave apart public transport types luxuries, I am far better placed. As I have my own home in a fairly good locality & I have my own vehicle as I need not have to depend on public transport. With my fair income I have good medical services available to me & my family & my kids go to better college for their education. Am I a happy citizen, which I should be by normal definition but, is it all? As a citizen this question I often ask to myself as what about other so many hidden hurdles in my city life that too in the city like Pune! Agreed we are much better off than many of smaller villages & towns yet the kind of taxes we pay & the outcome isn't worth! And as a citizen my duty don’t end just being happy & contended with me, myself & my family but the entire surrounding & people who are part of it also should have a better life & it’s not responsibility of just some municipal corporation but mine too! And many things can be easily taken care, it’s just as no one cares so no one does anything! And most of these problems are for entire city & not just for one locality!

Take example of the area I reside in, its central part of city off Karve road & peaceful as its close by to river & a green belt! But the green belt is being used for all sorts of purposes like marriage lawns & exhibitions & hotels, defeating the very purpose of making it green! In addition to that traffic jams due to parking of all the visitors to these places on roads & processions in high pitch volume DJ with speaker walls! Why the local body can’t ensure that the purpose for what the green belt has been reserved is being used for the same? Or else then convert it in commercial zone & then allow these uses by following the norms for parking & many others! Repeatedly the residents around have complained to all the known authorities but no response! And in addition pollution of sound as well environment due to fire crackers all the day along! This indeed is problem not for my locality but for entire city as thousands of restaurants & commercial establishments don’t have enough parking spaces or whatever is there has been encroached for other purposes & all their visitors park their vehicles on the roads which are already choked with the millions of vehicles!

Then the road from Mhatre Bridge to Rajaram Bridge is like 

Formula 1 race track, such is the attitude of people driving vehicles on here! The road is in good condition but what about the road users & their civic sense of driving! Police are there but just to check helmets or license but no speed offences ever registered! Why can’t be there speed breakers & dividers is another question I ask as at-least in last seven years seventy odd accidents has happened in this stretch yet PMC says its traffic police's call & traffic police says its PMC's job! Speed breakers is something like a laughing stock as if you see the designs then in Pune will get you all sorts of them! Some are built in such a way that one has to look for them & some are built in a way where the passer by driver is worried that not only they will break the speed but the vehicle also! And then speed breaker signage’s are rarely there so the driver himself has to look for the speed breakers & most don’t ever get judgment of the same, making speed breakers themselves a cause of accident! Yes as a citizen I consider this also as mine as well for all those who ride on the streets as a big problem!

There is a Nallah right behind my building which once used to carry rain water & had dense foliage of various plants along its beds which were home to many birds like king fisher & mainas. But it’s now has been been concertized killing all the biodiversity around & now it’s been home to mostly drainage water & garbage & pigs as well stray dogs roam here! Same is with the river which is also part of my locality & the same river flows through most of our city! The river water is so much polluted that it only attracts kites & crows & mosquitoes! Why can’t we have a clean beautiful river as Pune is blessed with longest riverfront within the city but it’s a curse to neighborhood than boon! I consider this as a problem of entire city & not just mine!

And then always over flowing garbage bins is another unwanted scene around. No timely lifting of garbage is there. You go to any part of our city & you will found heaps of garbage around the corner of any road or at any open place adjoing to the road! Every society is supposed to treat their wet garbage within their premise by vermicomposting & dry garbage only to be collected by pmc. Yet its citizen like us only who throws wet garbage also in the bins or just in open along the roads & it’s our municipal corporation only which doesn’t have any solution for the same! This is problem of my city & I too am responsible for the same!

The domestic animals like cows & buffalo's is another story as they roam all along the footpaths & cow dung can be seen all the stretch of the road, no one takes any action on the owners of these as its their responsibility to keep the footpaths clean if they use these paths for their animals!  And courtesy our rulers as they are hard paving every single inch of the roads , footpaths so there is no soil cover where this cow dung once used to get mixed with & used to get disposed of naturally! Now it remains there for days stinking & making the surrounding unhygienic. In the rains scene is far worse as the cow dung makes the surfaces of footpath so sleepery that no one dares to walk on them & poor pedestrians getting exposed to more accidents by using road area to walk. Nobody ever even addresses this issue & by me it’s a big dent to our city’s hygiene as well aesthetic & so it is a problem of my surrounding! Same is story of stray dogs because of river around they have shelter at day time along river bed & at late night & early morning these dogs roam around the DP road making life of road users miserable!  Stray dogs is a menace all around the city & no one has any solution for them is a truth. At night these dogs chase every two wheeler & poor riders have to face threat of accident to avoid the chasing dogs. No statistics is there for how many actual numbers of such stray dogs is there in city & what kinds of measures are being taken to curtail them.

Road digging is something now which seems to be part of our city life. One road is neatly paved with tarring on some day; here also while tarring or concreting no space is left around the existing trees along the road blocking all chances of water seepage around its stem which is totally wrong. And then on next day the same very same road digging starts, some time its gas pipe lines or its optical fiber lines or its MSEB’s power cables anything but a question every citizen of this city has why they can’t put whatever they want under the road before tarring it? No one has answer to this question & needless to say it’s our money which is going in that digging. After digging is finished the post road surface making is like a fraze in Marathi “bhik nako pan kutra aawar” i.e. “the medicine is worse than the disease’; such is the way they make the patch work of the damaged road. That too digging is done in single day & the repair goes on for months which become cause of again many accidents by vehicle sleeping due to dirt or excavated material which remains unprotected along the road!

Public urinals & toilets is one more problem where all are turning a blind eye! Either there are no such facilities at regular intervals & if there are then they are in such condition that even a blind, deaf & senseless person also won’t dare to use them. Rather under whose control these public toilets are maintained is a question no one answers! What I feel is all the local elected members as well officers of pmc should made compulsory to use public toilets as well lavatories under their wards or jurisdiction each day at least once, so they will know what kind of state these facilities are! There are no signages in any locality showing locations of public toilets making people use footpath or road side open spaces for their natural call, making the city dirtier! The citizen living around these public toilets are equally at fault as neither had they put pressure on the system to keep it in useable condition, nor they themselves come forward collect some money & maintain them!

My kids have never played on any open ground as there is no ground around my locality; I mean public ground which isn’t there right from deccan to kothrud. All they can play is around the side margins choked by parking of vehicles or risk their lives by playing on roads. Why can’t we have public play areas large enough to accommodate the residents of any neighborhood?  Again no answer by anyone!

The list of day to day problems in the city is endless & my brain gets tired by recollection of the problems we face yet we keep on calling ourselves Pride Punekar! DPs i.e. Development Plans are made, gets lapsed & again we make new DP’s but what about simple day to day living issues? Why we need a policy or any DP for providing clean public toilets to the people of this city? We can’t maintain the existing roads & new plan new roads or think of widening existing roads! We can’t make use of existing green belts for greening & we make new reservations for biodiversity which eventually will become new slum diversity! It’s not just one ward or some part of the city but entire city is suffering  rather bleeding is the perfect word & everybody is either blaming somebody or ignoring the bleeding as if it’s none of his business!

The media does keep on shouting on many of these problems but never consistent or is busy in showing it’s their news effect if at all some action is taken! What’s need of time is a platform where the pressure will be created & put on the concerned system & let the system perform or get punished!

On one side we are talking about becoming a smart city but the bitter fact is we are a dumb city when it comes to serving the citizen. Somewhere this dumbness is going to make pay every industry in this city, majorly the real estate! As gone are the days when people would have come to stay here considering Pune as best living option. With the reputation of a city having numbers of problems unless we accept reality & start working to remove the flaws we will be dead city soon from the dumb city status! But then looking at the approach of the citizen we may be alive as our heart is beating but seems our senses & mind has become dead towards our city! As we call us Oxford of East but here half of the city population even doesn’t come out of their homes to serve their basic right to vote; no wonder we will soon have a dead city as that’s what dead bodies deserve!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/02/story-of-toilet.html
http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/
Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

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

http://www.punecorporation.org/GRS/Complaint/LaunchComplaintCitizen.aspx

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Tadoba; not just tigers, a lot more!

It’s not what great shot you capture of a tiger in the forest but it’s whether you enjoyed those moments is what matters most... Sanjay

Its mid march morning & the famous heat of tadoba is yet to start, as soon my gypsy entered from moharli gate we hear a barking dear call on jamunzari side & took the road taking turns through haze of bamboos, all four pairs of eyes scanning the thickset around for yellow & black strips which gets camouflaged very perfectly in the forest & suddenly saw a black mass was walking ahead! Hearing the gypsy tires it stopped & turned around; my breath too stopped for a while, as its full grown male sloth bear! Sticking to their weird behavior pattern the sloth bear instead following his track turned around 180 degrees & started walking towards us, a head on shot of male sloth bear was beyond my dreams! Started the click click of camera shutter matching to my heart beat speed; my tadoba trip has started with a bang as what better you can expect when something you haven’t even dreamed has happened! But then tadoba forest always has something first time not for me but for every one, all we have to do is a bit patient & alert to grab it when it comes! The next moment was like making the sloth bear sighting nothing & it came soon!

Friends I am visiting forests since last many years but it hasn’t stopped throwing surprises at me! At pandharpauni, tadoba we were as usual waiting to see the outcome of a call, a unusual chirping rather painful shrill caught our attention; it was coming from a small piece of grass behind us & two jungle crows were fighting over a tiny object which seems to be the origin of the sound! A closer look from the lens told me that its unique drama happening & we focus all our attention to the crows; it was a small bat, I couldn’t identify the specie of bat , was being eaten alive by the crows & the poor chap was making his last efforts of escape which couldn’t happen as jungle crows are devilish predators with their sharp beak! Even the guide said in his fifteen years of forest roaming, he too was seeing such scenes first time, a bat being eaten alive by crows! Cruel it was but then its nature, all we can do is admire it the way it comes to us! All this wasn’t enough so the forest threw one more & real big surprise to us!

Our gypsy was en-route from moharli range  to kolsa range & suddenly driver slowed down seeing a full grown bison laying down on road, it didn’t took us even a sec to realize who has killed it! One lone gypsy standing opposite side frantically gave us lights means the killer is nearby & then a tigress came in frame; what followed was a marathon race of eating the prey as well her full efforts to pull the kill in thickset along the road, so has it will be hidden from eyes of scavengers but it was too heavy for her! For next thirty minutes it was camera shutter sound click click, in pin drop silence, the entire show was dream for any wild life lover though surely not for the poor bison which lay there with lifeless eyes! That’s what tadoba forest is for a wild lifer, making the dreams come true, one need to be ready to see them! Vikram Potdar my friend & ace photographer was with me, who is a far better photographer than me & he too was thrilled with the scene! What is more important is there were three gypsy’s standing opposite side, I could have avoided them in my frame of camera but I deliberately had them in few frames so as let people know that it’s not only professional photographers who gets such scenes but even common first time visitors also can be witness to such memorable sights in forests. Ultimately forest is everybody’s & not of some privileged visitors!

This is what made me to use my own quote to start the sharing as what we see & experience in forest is something no camera can catch & it’s those moments when the time just stops around us & we get engrossed in the scene happening in front of us, that’s the magic I call forest! Well that way each of the trip is full with many such stories & those of us who have visited the forest must have similar experiences yet each of them is different. When I post my snaps on social media like Face Book, there are comments like how lucky I was or how they missed such scenes, well no one is unlucky in forest. All I will say is some are more lucky & again each such moment is different & unique in its own way, what’s important is we need to understand forest is not just tiger but a lot more & this is what Tadoba teaches us!

To give some background before further sharing, I was in Tadoba with my world class photographer friend Vikram Potdar on a specific purpose & it was to promote the Tadoba! Agreed Tadoba is famous enough already but what we have observed is most of the tourists visit tadoba, see tiger, click snaps, celebrate their tiger sighting & leave, that’s all! What we feel & discussed with officers who are playing key role in protecting tadoba is let the visitor understand the real tadoba & its importance to entire society as well what individuals’ responsibility towards the forests like tadoba is. And for that to put forward the tadoba the way it is, is most important. What has triggered this thought is during my last visit a young officer Gajendra Narvne told us about the story of a guard who has been attacked by sloth bears & was seriously injured & the expense for his treatment was huge. So I casually asked why this hasn’t been put forward to people who visit tadoba as they can surely help for such cause & this triggered of the concept as right now there is no link between tadoba & why tadoba any forest in State & the tourists. Once a tourist left the gates of forest & heads to his concrete city life he forgets everything about forest & the joy it has given to him. If we could by some way be in touch with every tourist then not only they will be able to help the forest issues but they will try to conserve the forests in every possible way around them, was the essence of the discussion. So we discussed these issues in front of senior officers like Mr. Garad, Field Director, Mr. Kalskar  as well Mr. Moi Pokkim, APCCF which in short words is boss of all forests in eastern Maharashtra & they have taken it positively asking us to work on the details of the concept. Our trip inside tadoba was outcome of these discussions as best way to know a forest is to be in it!

In four days we were moving through different zones of the tadoba forest clicking flora & fauna as well topography, habitat & people who are associated with tadoba. We spoke to every segment that is in some way or other associated with tadoba. To maintain a forest of size of tadoba is huge job & needs lots of infrastructure which includes making roads for the tourists too welfare of all the ground level staff such as living arrangements inside forest for guards & forest labors & all this requires money. Agreed there is provision in Govt for all these works but then it should be made available at proper hands & in proper time. What’s happening is somewhere some link is missing between the ground level working team & superior bosses, is what we realized after speaking to many people in forest. Each organization has communication problems amongst the hierarchy but when the organization is forest, the disparity between the living conditions is too much. As I always say, to visit forest in a safe gypsy, click snaps & get back to our safe & comfortable abode to relax is very easy job but to live inside these forests twenty four hours that too three sixty five days in extreme weather where mercury rises to 48 degrees & heavy rains as well cold, then you start disliking the same forests. That’s why in lower cadre postings inside tadoba are considered as punishment is what they spoke to us resulting too much of shuffling at ground level staff. This shows a lacuna in the system as if we want to promote tadoba in front of the world then these things should be straighten up first.  And then like the injured guards story in bear attack there are so many ways outer society can join the hands to help these people who are actually protecting these forests for us! Many people are ready to help/assist forest related issues but if we ask them to pay to govt directly for that, they won’t as a bitter truth is common man don’t believe govt. But if we ask them to pay directly to the services fort forest then they do as they can see the actual result coming out of their money. Like kolsa range needs bore well with solar pump, so we can finalize the agency & let people directly pay to the vendors & get the job done under forest department’s supervision. We can think of a name board mentioning the same at bore well to encourage such donations. Recently in kanha forest we have donated safety shoes to forest labors in kanha, such many activities can be funded from society. This is one more reason we need to market tadoba in front of visitors in proper way!

Actually marketing won’t be a proper term but making people know what real Tadoba is the essence what we wanted to put forward. As right now it’s popular as a tiger land but is it all? Every year thousands of people come, click tiger snaps & went back happily in their concrete jungle & forget tadoba soon!

What we need to do is not only they come back again to tadoba but remains in touch for ever with tadoba. This is for those who have visited tadoba & then those who haven’t ever visited, so we need to make tadoba first of their list of travel plan. We can take tadoba as pilot project & then the pattern can follow for boar, pench, melghat & many more in State forest! Here is what we have proposed on a primary level…

First of all make a separate wing of just two good personnel who are internet & computer savvy & important is a thrust fro top level like Garda sir & Pokkim sir, which is there already. Second is act fast with a proper plan in place. Few tips can be helpful which I am sharing here…

1.    Make a booklet of tadoba, with visuals as well write-up which will make people understand tadoba's importance for the world we live in & not just for tigers. They should know places like tadoba are natural gifts to human mankind but its needs far more than just salaried persons than to preserve this god gift. The booklet will cover messages from all senior forest officers as well illustrate infrastructure tadoba needs to survive & every member’s contribution for that. It will be in very simple language as well illustrations & then images by vikram. This booklet people will carry as souvenir while going back from tadoba & we will make it part of park fees as well schemes like making it free of cost is 3 safaris or more! We will also make one exclusive booklet which we can make available for sale at gate. This exclusive one will be even revenue generating also for the park.

2.  We have all the data of email addresses of people visiting tadoba. Let’s make a group on Gmail & then we can make an e calendar which will be sent to all these people every month featuring best image of that month in the park as well things happening in tadoba. This will be e calendar as well e news letter. Director & other people also can have their inputs here along with social/welfare activities we conduct. Difficulties we face & how we overcome them in conservation. It will be short but to the point.  This will make the visitors in touch always as now with smart phones mostly everybody is having mail access anywhere. Sending a link of one such e calendar of an ngo..

http://www.oikos.in/pages/year2015/FebruaryCalendar2015.htm

3.  We can also share what happened in tadoba during this month in tadoba on social front as well appeal people what & how they can contribute to the park. As this is important, many people will like to support but they don’t feel confident about their money getting utilized properly. By keeping in touch & updating them about our activities they will feel confident that their money/help is in right hands!

4.  We will make a 40 minutes presentation about functioning of tadoba & highlights of the forest here & its importance for the State, Country & World! It has to be an absolute art piece with lots of visual slides, messages from team tadoba & statistics of flora & fauna as well the challenges park faces to maintain the eco system. We will then send a team of two people in Metros & display the same in schools, colleges. That will be making people know about tadoba insight especially the younger genre. We will start from Pune for trial run & then with help of wild life wardens at each district & magazines’ like Sanctuary Asia’s net work along with kirloskar foundation type ngo's, to reach out to all the major cities in country.

5.  We will make the presentation to leading tours & travels companies like Kesri, Veena World & appeal them to join hands to promote tadoba at world stage through their tourists’ as well international network.

A lot can be done but for that we need to have a good data visual as well written form as well making the same available & being in touch with the visitors is what key. Park is already popular now we need to make people understand the efforts of people behind it as well take it to the next level in minds of every tourist as well citizen of the State first & then country!

6.  Making FB page of tadoba, where people can share their experiences as well images & contributions to tadoba!

7. We can have two categories of guides at gate & guides are link between the forest & the tourists. And with lots of foreigners as well people from non Hindi states visiting in more numbers to tadoba, its high time we provide them with guides who are good at English. We can pay these guides at higher rates & charge the clients so. All over the world its standard practices i.e. to have special languages speaking guides, especially where tourists visit more & language is a problem.  This will also make more & more local boys to get educated & English literate for getting better wages!

8. We can think of short trips of one & half hours covering main road from moharli gate to tadoba lake & en-route telia back. This will be for school kids & via canter bus at very affordable rate & such trips can be planned all day long except the noon time when the park is closed. This will make more & more school kids can see the tadoba as in future these kids are going to be protectors of forests.

9. There has to be an interactive interpretation center with good toilet blocks at the gate. This centre will have space where visitors’ as well professional photographers’ images will be displayed. It will also have display of local village life information with snaps. An open theater with self displaying movies related to tadoba also is a must.

10. A neglected issue especially about tadoba is hygiene of the village moharli, as all the morning rituals are being done in open & along the main road making the entry to park extremely dirty which surely isn’t making any good to the image of an international tourists spot. Same is about the garbage generated around the park as all is being dumped along the road side low laying land & is very harmful for the park biodiversity.

Above are some of very basic things & once we start working on these lines finer issues which will evolve in the process can be dealt with. What is important is the forest should reach out to the people as there are two types of people , one is who has visited forests especially reserved forests like tadoba & other is who haven’t seen forest ever in their life. Again in first category, there are who haven’t seen the tiger in forest & other is who has seen a tiger. It’s easy to make people understand about their responsibilities who has seen a tiger as the specie has that power but aim should be more & more people should visit forests & develop sense of responsibility towards preserving them. Tiger is like brand ambassador of tadoba but there is lot more beyond the tiger in tadoba. Right from smallest of birds too butterflies too color changing ghost tree, forest is full of life & understanding this side of forest gives new vision to us while we look around! What tadoba should give the tourists is not just joy of tiger sighting but a sense of belonging to the nature as once its developed then each of us will be ambassador of the forest & what better thing than this can happen to the tigers of tadoba!

At ending note sharing something very personal about my tadoba visit, at the gate there stood a canter i.e. an open bus in which tourists moves in the forest & on that bus poster of a snarling tigress was put! It looked extremely familiar & then I realize it’s been clicked by me only! Well how one counts happiness? Simple, one don’t count it as it’s not just some figure which you can measure on any scale but it’s a feeling which one has to feel by oneself! Was very happy to see that image of a tigress I have clicked was being displayed on a bus for tourists at tadoba! Such small things gives us great joy & I think that’s why we must keep doing small things however foolish they might look & nurture whatever we like to do & outcome is sheer joy! I think thats best gift places like tadoba gives us & for that one needs to be there!

--

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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