Monday, October 30, 2017

Wild Life Without Wild Lifers!






“If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched. Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they love.”... Steve Irwin.

Stephen Robert Irwin, nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist and television personality; he is the man who made common people all around the world to love wild life by his exceptionnal shows on Nat Geo channel & what an irony that he met his death during shooting of one such show by Sting Ray fish! That's dedicating life for wild life conservation in true sense & its people like Steve whose death also has contributed to wild life conservation & that’s exactly his above words about making common man aware regarding wild life is what made me use his reference to start my sharing. Like some reality TV show come October & that’s new season for wild life in India as the parks reopens for tourism post monsoon & as I have already shared, forests in Central India are probably at their best, fresh with monsoons effect! Though I never need any reason to visit forests yet when the reason is doing my little bit for ground staff at forests then visiting forests become more beautiful as well meaningful. This time we provided 125 winters wear for Pench MP forest guides as well gate staff & 175 such for Tadoba guides as well gate staff. AT both ends the sweaters were handed over to the guides & gate staff in a small cozy function with help of respective officers at both parks!

Seeing the joy on the faces of guide & after hearing praise for my team for donating sweaters, speaking at both events I told to those men who are actual savers of the tiger, that it’s not big thing to give & it’s not donation but its sharing for us, & what I wanted to share is a feeling that in the tough job of saving the forests you are not alone! This sweater is like a memento which will tell you that your job is most important & someone outside the forests who lives in comforts of city life understands as well respect your job! Because if it’s difficult to save a tiger then it’s more difficult to show a tiger in the forest, as it’s the only intention with which most tourists visits forests & to stand to their expectation of showing a tiger is very difficult job which the forest guides has to do all year long, that’s the job of a guide in forests! And as I always said on one side entire wild life tourism of States like MP or Maharashtra or Karnataka is revolving around tiger sighting & then when the tourists comes to the forest, spends handsome amount as well time (this aspect will cover in detail) & if he or she don’t get to have a glimpse of tiger then how you are going to make this tourist like the forests, & then how you are going to support to conserve something which you haven’t liked in first place? 

Now coming to sighting (sighting is commonly used term for sighting of a tiger), I did nearly eleven safaris; seven at Pench MP & four at Tadoba, one safari is one round of forest which is in morning 6 am -10.30 am & in afternoon 3 pm -6 pm & in all eleven safaris all I got to see was a tiger cub crossing road, that’s all speaking about the sighting of tiger! Imagine the time, effort & costing involved & one has to wake up at 4.30 in morning to be at entry gate for morning safari. I have seen enough tigers by now & don’t visit forests just to see a tiger though the sight of those yellow & black stripes is always a welcome thing. What I wanted to put forward is harassment of the tourists (many my forest officer friends wont like the word harassment) in the name of tiger conservation. I don’t know who is at blame or fault or even my perception may be wrong but look at the hefty charges forest dept is applying per safari as well the other costs incurred such as gypsy charges & on the top of it getting a reservation for the safari & the procedures for entry in the park, you feel even getting in Pakistan is easier task! For e.g. take Pench praks entry seen, first you have to get online booking which gets full at the moment the booking is open. Then you need to be at the gate by 5 am even the gate opens at 6am because even you have got online booking done the verification process takes nearly an hour, god knows what the dept verifies when mostly all details can be done online itself! And then its double check at the gate also as even you get the entry form in print only after producing valid ID proof for each member of the safari yet again there is second gate where all these ID’s are checked by another official!

At Tadoba case is more stringent as every member in the gypsy has to make her or his hands up as the guard calls out for the name. Also system of allotting gypsy or guide is equally messy making drivers as well guides wait at the gate from 4.30 am in morning. The worst part is even if the online booking of a safari has been done on one name by paying full charges & in one safari six people can go, then all six the names should be confirmed only at the time of booking which is nearly three months in advance. Now when its students group then how can we assure names so early & behold, if you want to change the name or add some name at eleventh hour then you will have to pay Rs 1000 per name in addition to all the charges you have paid for safari! And then there are camera charges per camera as well guide charges on top of it, making wild life tourism only for super riches. Reason given by forest dept is tickets are black marketed by tour operators & sold at higher rates but then what about all the genuine tourists as well school kids trip organizers, why the majority has to suffer because of few wrong doers, is the question I will ask to the authorities? As we all have witnessed a black marketer finds ways even in this system as the one who is ready to pay premium he won’t mind paying even Rs 1000, to add the name but in the process its middle class which gets hit & deprived from seeing these forests is a bitter fact.  Then the entry rates have been increased nearly ten times in last ten years, one reason is because of Hon Supreme Court’s order, tourism has been restricted to only 20% of the forest area, causing curtailing of entry of gypsy’s by 80% & to cover these loss rates of entry has been increased by local authorities! Here I will ask, what is govt’s job, to make money or to assure this nature’s treasure gets available for every common citizen of this country? Same is with the charges applied for the safaris, why not all the National Parks in the country has one single charging system so it will be easy for the wild life tourists to plan their budgets as well trip. For e.g. take full day safari charges which varies with every park & not that it’s been doubled in just one year making forests accessible to only super riches of the country because a full day safari will cost nearly Rs 75,000 per day, imagine how many Indians can afford this amount! On this background, will like to share some information about USA’s national parks; there four national park’s entry permit costs just $80 which makes Rs 5600/- & this is for multiple entries valid for one year! Agreed USA is a rich country but they earn money from other avenues & not at the cost of depriving common citizen from nature conservation. High time our MOEF i.e. Ministry of Environment & Forests take cognizance of these facts & guide State Forest depts for doing needful.

When all the labyrinth of entry formalities are complete &  once you are in the park then the new sets of rules awaits for you, with due respect to forest dept’s intentions as well I too am a avid wild life lover yet lets understand, people come here to see wild life (read tiger & leopard) & we need to make policies by virtue of which the tourists will get to see what they want to see. As then only their interest in wild life will increase which is the key to make them aware about importance of wild life conservation. But the rules which welcomes us in the forests makes different story, speed limit is 20km/ hour, who designed it god knows! For instance you can’t get down the vehicle anywhere in the park even for nature’s call this I can understand considering safety of tourists from attack of wild animals. But there are no restrooms at all in many parks; rather in Pench park there is just one rest room at Alikatta (center point). When a tiger sighting is expected & if any tourist has to respond nature call then it’s at the cost of missing the tiger sighting as the poor fellow has to run back to a place where rest room is located! In my recent Tadoba trip similar incidence happened with none other than a Hon High court judge who missed tiger sighting because of nature call! I don’t say allow tourists to get down at anywhere in the park but at least we have numbers of forest guards residents all across the parks, why can’t we provide safe rest rooms to the tourists so they can enjoy their ride with some comfort?

One more issue is regulations (restriction is proper word) on the drivers as well guides. In Pench I came to know even on two way route you can’t take a U turn unless it’s a tiraha or chowk (a place where three or four roads meet). Means if a tiger or any photographic incident is happening behind your gypsy then you can U turn even keeping safe distance from the animal in sight but drive strait till you get a tiraha or chowk & then only turn back, ridiculous isn’t it? And then the latest development is all guides have been provided with GPS in their mobile to keep control on the speed of vehicle as well you are not supposed to stop more than fifteen minutes at place where tiger sighting is happening, is what few guides told me! And then ever changing routes as well blocking of the routes where tiger is being sighted regularly is one more popular game of forest dept or say park management. Also why we keep park close in monsoons; take example of main road of Tadoba which is in very good tarred condition, so let’s allow the tourists to use this road, which was open till last monsoon, but is suddenly closed from this season. Imagine with fear of getting fined as well getting banned in the minds of guides as well drivers, how they can show tourists the beauty of the forest with free mind, which is their main job! I am not in support of speeding of vehicles in any way but then the gypsy drivers also knows their responsibility while driving in park. Just look at the statistics in past & tell me a single incidence of accident of any wild animal in park due to tourist vehicle as every driver knows if such accident happens, that will be his last ride & that he can’t afford! Then why burden driver’s mind with GPS type gadgets, what are we running a park or a jail! All such things damages not just tourism but entire life cycle of thousands of people who are solely depending up on tourists as the gypsy drivers were practically on streets this monsoon for earning their wages due to park closer. And this is just one example, as with the reduction in numbers of safari permits as well high entry fees the only tourists which comes for here more than two or three safaris are from rich class & this has killed middle or lower budget hotels at all national park destinations across the country. Only the high end hotels are doing well which most people can’t afford. Rather we should try to keep open all our parks as much we can is what my opinion is because if we are not keeping people in & around forests comfortable by our tourism which is only way of earning for them, then these people are the best baits for poachers!

What are we heading at, is the question comes to my mind after experiencing above aspects of the national parks. As better here after we allow people to see a tiger or any wild life creature in the zoo only instead making visiting national parks so difficult that too after paying all possible charges. Agreed that forest dept’s intentions towards wild life conservation nobody doubts it’s the way which is a problem. We need to make every single person of this country understands importance of forests & contributes his or her best to conserve the wild life & for that we should make wild life accessible to every citizen as then only they will understand what to conserve!  As I mentioned I had eleven safaris without single tiger sighting yet I love forests & being in it but to reach this stage I have spent enough time & money in forests & has eyeful of tiger sightings in past. And it’s this exposure with forests which has taught me that being a wild lifer doesn’t mean just going to national parks, clicking snaps & uploading on FB & get likes; it’s what you do to conserve forests is what makes you a wild lifer.  I penned down my thoughts as somewhere someone in the system will think & act as that’s last hope for the common wild lifer as well for wild life in itself of this country!

Sanjay Deshpande 
Sanjeevani Dev.

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Sunday, October 15, 2017

Celebrating Wild Life Week; Where is Wild Life?






“Every creature was designed to serve a purpose. Learn from animals for they are there to teach you the way of life. There is a wealth of knowledge that is openly accessible in nature. Our ancestors knew this and embraced the natural cures found in the bosoms of the earth. Their classroom was nature. They studied the lessons to be learned from animals. Much of human behavior can be explained by watching the wild beasts around us. They are constantly teaching us things about ourselves and the way of the universe, but most people are too blind to watch and listen.” … Suzy Kassem.

Suzy Kassem is an American writer, poet, philosopher, and multi-faceted artist of Egyptian origin. The granddaughter of a well-known sage in 19th century Cairo, mysticism and wisdom run through her blood just as the water of the Nile flows through her veins. And her words about wildlife, shows her approach of learning from the nature, no wonder her words flow so easily & tells us about importance of nature in the form of wildlife! Actually come October & updates from my Facebook group’s like Sanctuary & Claw makes me aware that parks in Indian forests are open now & it’s time to visit wilds. Though one need not have to go all the time to national parks to be with wild life as where I stay i.e. Pune has ample of biodiversity around in the form of Western Ghats though no tiger sighting here as you get to see in Central India! Yet when you want to be with nature for learning even you terrace garden can teach you a lot is what I have observed. But again when something is very near to you then you often miss to see that thing, is exactly what happens with me when speaking about biodiversity around Pune. In my cabin at office I have a digital photo frame on which all my wild life captures keeps on rolling all day long, whenever I get tired of my concrete world I look at this frame & it takes me in the wilds. And it’s not just tiger sighting but some of the clicks brings back memories in wilds which made me learn not just about animals but even made me think about human behavior, here are few such…

1.    In Tadoba forest on a dusty noon as usual chasing for tiger & following alarm calls of chital, we saw a huge spider feeding on a grasshopper even bigger than it. My wild life friend Atul Dhamankar then showed us something unique, a small red spider on the back of bigger spider. No, it wasn’t spider’s cub but it was male spider which can met only when female spider is busy in feeding herself or else she will eat the male spider only! Nature is strange as this taught me how in nature, every specie finds its way out to survive!

2.  Then in one such round at kanha forest, we saw a herd of chital approaching water hole. It’s this time when the animals are most susceptible for getting hunted as their back is towards forest & nostrils submerged in water, so they can’t see the predators like tiger or leopard coming from rear. But nature has taught them what we the humans haven’t learnt; the leader of the herd watches the forest & the rest of the herd drinks & when they are finished then the leader i.e. a male chital goes for drinking water! What a leadership attitude & courage from a deer, as not that it can actually fight with tiger but at least he will see such danger & make aware his herd to run away, is what it must be thinking! This whole scene made me think about our leaders who wants to fill their pockets first & cares a hang about their followers empty stomach; well, we are real fools to accept such person as our leader in first place, is equally true!

3.  Best part in forest is when you stop at some place just to listen the forest sounds, mainly to check any alarm call for tiger & at such times the forest guide or gypsy driver which are mostly natives from surrounding of the forest, share their stories about forest & their encounters with many funny situations in forest as well their beliefs or say superstitions which are very common among the tribes around the forest. One such is sloth bear tickles the man if it caught any in the forest & then rip of its face so that the man won’t be able to identify the sloth bear! Very funny indeed not for the persons who has lost their eyes & damaged their face for ever due to slot bear attacks & which makes sloth bear most feared animal in the wilds. Fact is sloth bear has very sharp & long nails to dig in termite houses & eat termites; as well it has very poor eye sight but a strong sense of smell. So when accidently it meets any man in the forest (which mostly are forest labors), when a sloth bear stands on its hinder legs  the it stood taller than average human height & if it just swings its paw as act of defense which exactly hits at the face of unfortunate person standing right in-front of the sloth bear. And just one swing at your face is enough to tear all the flesh from your face as human skin is too soft for those sharp nails which can dig in termite home!

4.  The comes one more story how the tiger hunt the monkeys which are expert on climbing up high on trees & tiger due to its heavy structure cant climb on the tree like the leopards does. Monkeys as we all know are curious lot & that does make them land in danger often. Whenever a  group of monkeys sees  a tiger they starts shouting in a very different sound, it’s more like scratching than their normal hoop hoop! At the same time they start looking down & their eyes follow all the time the tiger & its movement. The tiger knows this & starts circling the tree on which the group of monkeys is looking down & instead leaving that area, which monkeys can easily do from the top of the trees, the monkeys also starts rolling their eyes & neck to cover the tiger movements around the tree & one of the monkey faints due this movement of eyes & falls down & then becomes food for the alert tiger below! Though no one has actually seen this happening but tiger’s strategy does make sense & that teaches us even if we are unable to master some skill, like the tiger doesn’t know to climb on the tree yet he can achieve the kill of a monkey which sits high up!

5. The on one such ride in Bandhawagad forest our guide took us at a lake & told us to watch around. It was quite noon in forest & clear blue sky & suddenly a flock of bats came & started hovering above the water-body. One by one the bats started diving towards the surface of water body, first I thought they are hunting fish which was new to me but the guide asked, “sir aapne kabhi socha hai bat pani kaise pita hai?” i.e. how a bat must be drinking water? I accepted I have never thought & then it hit me, how difficult it must be for a bird to drink water which can’t even stand on its leg! So the bats were not hunting fish but they were drinking water in flying mode as that’s the only way they can drink water! So many times we see some phenomenon in nature around us & don’t just bother about it! From my childhood I am fascinated by bats, which were a normal sight after sun down in the sky. But now the poor specie is getting driven away from the towns & cities as even after sun down we have flood lights & honking of millions of vehicles that keeps the bats at bay as well pollution & in addition our passion for fire crackers, all this is helping to make bats extinct & then we hardly have clean water bodies left in the city where the bats can drink from, while its flying! But then who cares if some night flying mammal bird if we don’t get to see, as who has time to look at its flight from whatsap, FB & thousands of channel on TV while its dark outside!

6. One such interesting specie, with loads of myths around is wild dogs, called as Whistling Hunters also, because of their unique way of communication. Many won’t know but wild dogs which live by packs (wild hunters like dogs, jackals in group are called as pack whether as deer in group is called as herd) are most feared animal in the Indian forests, even tiger keeps distance from them, such is respect for their hunting skills! And the wild dogs don’t bark but they communicate with each other by soft whistle, a very rare way for dogs as they are very less studied specie till recent. Wild dogs are a classic example of “size doesn’t matter but performance does”. As they take on much bigger prey like Sambhar deer just by persistent chasing it & don’t give up till the prey fall down with sheer exhaustion & then eat it alive as they can’t kill the prey in one go like tiger or leopard does! I have been lucky to witness a wild dog’s chase by myself in pench forest. A poor chital was running from pack of wild dogs & jumped in a lake for survival. The wild dog’s pack literally circled the lake & blocked chital’s way of coming out of water. Poor chital gave up swimming after one hour of effort & then the dogs entered water & killed the chital. They were with all the patience & confident that the chital will give up!  This is what we should learn from wild dogs; never give up attitude till you achieve what you are after! But this wonderful specie is under threat of getting extinct as because of their size’s limitation & the way they hunt, they need lot of forest to survive & that is something we are fast encroaching on. Loss of habitats is main cause of many animals getting extinct & each of us should do our best to keep wild animal’s homes intact!

Forest is full of such stories & like one famous paint companies tag line, “har ghar kuch kahata hai” (every home has a story to tell), on the same line we can say, “Each specie has some story to tell” in the forest. Not just that but every day brings more such stories in forest that is why a forest is ever alive! It’s not just tiger sightings but such stories of which you also can be a witness, is what makes forests interesting & our life too! But for that we should not forget our responsibility along as every day we read some or other specie has vanished forever. On the occasion of Wild Life Week which is celebrated in October, I came across an article in a news paper with a heading, “Have you seen them?” It was featuring animals which were common sight few decades back around towns but now they are not being seen even in reserved forests & the sole reason is loss of their habitat due to our greed for building more of our homes, offices, roads, factories, malls & IT parks! 

Friends, as we work for making our comfortable homes, we must work for other specie’s homes (read forests) also, or else one day all we will be left with is just stories of wild dogs & sloth bears, whereas the heroes of such stories will be long gone forever from this planet! And just by celebrating some Wild Life Week & giving advertises in new paper we won’t be able to save forests as well wild dogs like species but we need to understand what we are going to miss, if every single wild species gets extinct; as well we need to control our needs which are actually greed! Instead planning our so called Smart Cities lets first plan for Smart Forests & then plan our cities around them, that’s the only hope for wild life & as we consider ourselves Smartest Specie, we are solely responsible to make wild life survive!

-- 
Sanjay Deshpande 
Sanjeevani Dev.

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Friday, October 6, 2017

Understanding Diwali Within!




Friends,

It’s Diwali time again & really we Indian’s are festival loving people, that makes us forget all bad things happening around us & we are blessed with so many festivals for that! But amongst all Diwali is something great as I remember my childhood, Diwali was the only time when we used to get two sets of new clothes & get to eat sweets for strait four days! Today’s genre won’t ever imagine what joy such treats meant for us as now with online shopping sites & apps like Siwggie delivering all sorts of food at your door step, joy of all such things has long gone. Yet Diwali has its special place in our life because, one is it brings along vacations & second as Diwali is celebrated across all classes of the masses, entire mood of society becomes festive making it truly nation’s festival & not of some caste or religion! The term Diwali has been so synonymously connected with prosperity that whenever someone is seen spending heavily then people asks, “is it Diwali time for you!”

Well, just do mind, all are not lucky to have happy Diwali times as for millions of people in this country even Diwali cant make them able to have prosperity, so all I will say lets understand the Diwali first & then decide how you will be celebrating it! As a leader of my team ( I never like to call myself owner) I felt like writing my views to my them & I am sharing with you as my Diwali wishes, please do go through & share with your close ones…

Happy and Green Diwali 2017!


“However good we may think we are, yet we can definitely be a better person”… Disney Movie, “Moena”.

My dear team Sanjeevani and friends, wish you all a very happy Diwali! You all are aware of my fascination for cartoons and to be honest, its cartoons, super heroes and the ideology behind them which has a great influence on my journey so far. I have used a quote from famous Disney movie Moena to share my thoughts on the occasion of Diwali, as I feel this is the gist of what I want to share with you all. And any ways what else do we do when we wish someone a better life? We wish each other prosperity, and those who count prosperity in terms of money haven’t understood real meaning or let’s say joy of living itself! Recently in a casual conversation my younger son once told me that he wants to earn so much that he could do anything he wants to. I smiled and asked him, what exactly do you want to earn my son? He replied, of course lots of money! I was not surprised with his reply, as it’s a way of life that from childhood till we become grownups, it’s imbibed on us that to earn is something related to only with money. That’s what every school & college teaches us, get education to earn more money & in the process we lose real meaning of living our life!

Friends, money is definitely important aspect of life as so many things for e.g. to have good education to health care, we need money for most of the things around is a fact. Ask a small kid who does not even get food, leave some decent cloths to wear on Diwali but needs to stand at signal in front of a mall as a beggar and who sees people carrying bags full of shopping, for him money is the only medium to celebrate Diwali and be happy. But what about children or even grownups who don’t have to stand at traffic signal to earn their living, how could they too relate happiness to money? I asked this is to my son and I am also sharing my views with you all, that if you want to earn anything then earn knowledge, earn goodness, earn people & even you can earn good health; as, if you earn all these things money will surely follow. But if you earn only money then there is no guarantee the things mentioned above will follow, in fact you may lose many of them forever. Take example of our industry i.e. real estate, what we are witnessing has happened to those who entered in this business merely with the purpose of earning money? But we survived in toughest times, as our aim was not only to earn money but also build good homes. In this difficult situation people with whom we had developed a strong bond supported us; its outcome of our positive thinking and good deeds & commitment towards our work, that’s our real earning!

I always feel if you want to know what is good, you first have to experience what is bad. Once you realize this truth, then nothing remains bad around us. In-fact then the bad times becomes an investment to achieve good times. Finally it depends on us only whether we learn from a difficult condition and try to achieve a good one or keep a status-quo. As Moena says this journey on the path of goodness has no end. How much good can one be; the answer is, it like the sky, which is infinite in all dimensions & surrounds everything, same way your goodness will surround everyone around you! Remember one thing, goodness is the most valuable gift you could ever give, not only to everyone around you but also to yourself. Take example of “Swachha Bharat Abhiyan”, if everyone decides that he or she will not litter and will not allow anyone to litter, do we need any one else to collect garbage?  Similarly if everyone decides to behave in a good way, there will be no badness left in this world and many problems world is facing will be solved automatically.

So from this Diwali let’s resolve to be a better human being than what you are, it will be the best Diwali gift you would give to yourself. I am too not an exception, because if I consider myself your boss as I am better than you then it also makes me most bad person too, amongst us & so I would start working on myself to get rid of that badness within! Also remember goodness is a responsibility, as if you want to fight badness there is no better weapon than goodness. And do mind don’t use your goodness only for your own benefit, also share it with those who are as lucky as you, will you please try it? You could achieve this through simple way, like I mentioned above, this Diwali, think of that small kid standing begging at signal with dirty tattered clothes & looking at you through the glass facade while you were busy in shopping for yourself & your loved ones, just when you buy a shirt for yourself from mall, at least buy a chocolate for that boy. Try this please & then you will realize how your celebrating Diwali this way can make lives of many others really wonderful, beyond your imagination! 

Lastly I would like to quote a beautiful sentence I read recently, “if you want to burn, don’t burn as one of many torches illuminating some palace, but burn as a tiny candle which drives away darkness from a small hutment which has no light, even your burning will be meaningful’’, & we here we are talking about living life!

With this note, I wish you and your family a very happy and enlightening Diwali!

Sanjay 

------------------------------------------- 
Sanjay Deshpande 
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U Tube link below..

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani !
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