Vision of Life; by Sanjay: The Dark Nights of Forests!

“In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike”… Paulo Coelho.

Well, no need to introduce this name as his one Alchemist has made him known to all the world & yes to we, the Indians also! Coelho is one of our times (read as those who are in forty plus league) philosopher writer & though many doesn’t likes his style yet you can’t ignore the wisdom he has put in the words through his work & when its philosophy then how can you keep aside nature & forests which are best forms of the nature! So are his above words which echoed in my mind when this winter I visited rather revisited Nagzira forests after many years! And best thing about forest is whatever time may have passed yet when you enter in those woods & inhale the air the cool winds brings to you full of fragrance of heavenly nature, alarm calls of cheetals & chirping of birds, there you realize nothing has changed since you visited last & yet with every round you get to know the forests newly, that’s the magic forests brings to you & Nagzira wasn’t exception! All that has changed is there are few more (just one actually) small dhabas serving local food & few homes has been added which are home stays also to my delight! And mobile network was still a problem which now even it is in Pune also! At gate of Nagzira waiting for us was one insane person (read as devoted to wild life) with his wife & he is none other than Mr. Kiran Purandare, an authority on Ngazira forests who brought this place on the map of many citylite’s i.e. "Sakha Nagzira"! Some ten years back Kiran sir stayed more than a year in Nagzira forests & studied every inch of this forests & pen down all his 465 days stay, making the book an invaluable asset regarding flora & fauna! More than that people realized there are a lot more than tigers here & that is leopards & wild dogs & sloth bears! Those who are regular forest (read is Tiger Parks) visitors will know how difficult sighting of these three species is than tiger yet tiger remains center point of attraction! As neither the leopards nor the sloth bears or wild dogs have any fix territory & earlier two are nocturnal animals i.e. move or hunt at nights so their sightings are more rare. But here in Ngazira all these three species are found abundant (indeed you still need lady luck to shine) because of hilly terrain, good water supply & mixed dense forest which is green for most part of the year! And Kiran sir has given up Pune city’s concrete jungle life & settled at Nagzira, a brave decision which not many can afford to take! Now he is documenting more wild life at Nagzira & surrounding & helping forest dept in conservation as well upbringing of nearby villagers.

In one such effort he took us to a small earthen mini-dam which is on the border rather is the border between Pitizari village & main forest i.e. core. This small dam is wonderful water source for many wild animals making them (wild animals) able to fulfill their thirst without coming in the village for search of water but the dam seldom remains full even with good rains is the problem. And that’s because the stored water gets seep/drain away below the base of the dam & he was requesting someone to look in it as if this dam remains full in summer then many man- animal conflicts can be saved. I think such issues the forest dept must be authorized along with proper infrastructure to deal by themselves instead going in to Red Tapezium of which dept’s job is it i.e. Irrigation or Revenue types! As in the process seasons came & go & the dam remains empty in summer & friction between animals & men living around the forests keeps increasing & we all know the outcome of it!

Well, after discussing such issues with Kiran sir we headed inside Nagzira & this time we were to stay in the interior of the forest besides a beautiful lake in forest dept’s accommodation & that’s main attraction of this trip for me! As inside forest there you see or feel or live the wilderness in totality as after evening safari post your dinner, its just 8pm something which in city is your home coming time & here that’s end of the day. The darkness settles around you & there you understand what pitch black darkness means! You can see star-lit sky up above but down on ground below the canopy of the trees you can’t see even you own stretched hand & there you know what kind of life it must be for many who lives in that darkness for years, yes I am referring to forest dept people, patrolling guards & villagers or say farmers or even forest labors too! This darkness tells you to see the forest in night by your other senses like smell & hear as eyes are useless. Though after some time (it means months & years) even human eyes gets used to darkness but we are no match for eyes of a tiger or a leopard in night is a fact which makes you feel so vulnerable that you don’t know its watching you but you can’t see those watching eyes! And especially the city people like us get literally blind in the night at place like Nilay stay i.e. forest rest house in Nagzira but then that’s fun isn’t it? We pay thousands of rupees to visit Disneyland’s Theme parks & get scared by the roller-coaster rides there but we ignore such equally exiting experiences which are right in our backyard! This is why one should visit places like Nagzira but the hitch is the stays inside most of the forests are going to be banned by Hon SC or some govt dept’s order & soon it will be just left to our imagination how the night with the forests are! Yet we can have night safaris in the buffers (forests outside of main park) of many tiger parks now which does makes us able to explore the night life in darkness of forests & believe me it gets nature on our platter in all together different way, something one has to experience can be explained! Again there are many who will say already tourists (humans) are making lives of animals miserable by their presence in forests in day time what’s need to bother the poor fellows at night also? Agreed, but there always can be balance struck between making humans (read as tourists) & animals on one platform in a controlled manner. We are the biggest threat to the animals, birds, reptiles, fish & every other living creature than humans is a fact, so unless we make these species our friend, how we are going to understand their importance around us & from that angle we need to know them, see them in every possible way & darkness is one best platform or say exposure for that! Some moments in the darkness in any forest & trust me if there is some human part left in the person visiting forests, then definitely he or she will start loving the nature in totality more & that’s the outcome we need if we want to conserve or save the nature (read as forests) which includes us also!

I am lucky to have visited many such nature’s treasures & that’s why it’s not what I sighted or what images I have clicked matter to me now (well personal level I like that aspect of forests also i.e. photography) but more than that it’s the time spent in every hour of the day which has given me immense joy as well helped me to understand nature as well myself in a better way!

Coming back to sightings, in winters (well Nagzira was cold) Central India’s forests may be a bit disappointing on tiger sightings but the forests are at their best with lots of birds & then luck is always most important thing in forests. On one such evening the gypsy was taking turns through wooded path & suddenly a sloth bear was walking ahead of us in search of food i.e. termites. For nearly thirty minutes we were observing it from a distance as it’s a shy animal but it was so involved in its food search that it hardly took any cognizance of our presence. The way a sloth bear search & digs soft soil for termite is worth seeing & there in forest you realize hardships of life for every animal irrespective of its size & power as everything has to be hard earned by sheer physical labor i.e. no machinery or searching tools like Google maps are there to make your hunting easy! I think Nagzira is yet unexplored & got shadowed by the other tiger-centric places nearby & a lot can be done to make the villagers life better by providing tourist-centric infrastructure here. At the same time nigh safaris in buffer can be started along with dinner at native resident’s homes as it’s not just tigers & leopards which makes a forest but the people living around them are also equally part of the forests & we need to understand their life (read as problems) also as then only we can save the forests in totality!

Coming back to sightings though Nagzira refrained me from any of tiger or leopard (well our other group do got to see a leopard) but my next short trip to Pench MP was tiger treat! Two years back with my family friend when I have visited Pench in winters, there was no sighting of a tiger in nearly eight safaris making my friend doubt whether the tiger’s images I post are downloaded from web sites & this time it’s like raining tigers. Well, no change of fortune or miracle but nearly with four of the tigresses with cubs, sightings are bound to increase. This is one aspect I always tell to people who goes to forests for tiger sighting & nothing wrong in it, the animal has that magic is a fact! We should take information from the locals about zones (part of the forests) & tigers or say kind of movements happening before you plan your visit to any forest, it helps as even after all this survey luck is an important aspect in any sighting, not just tigers’ as forest is not some Netflix movie which you can run or pause at your will & that’s real fun of visiting forests! One thing I noticed in my this trip is park management, the facilities like toilets at center point in the forest are immaculate like any five star hotel’s lobby & the entrance gate & infrastructure for tourists (Nagzira, you can blindly copy it, nothing wrong in copying good things around & improvising it in our way) as these small things does matters. I think there should be more openness among the forest officials while meeting tourists & understanding their issues or suggestions as well the tourists also needs to understand difficulties the forest people has to face at such remote places & accommodate or say support them in every possible way, discipline is one very easy to start with! The Park Director at Pench Mr. Vikram Sing & his team (including one young RFO Raju Rajput) were delight to meet & interact especially!

To conclude, the trip was organized by Jungle Belles, run by my friends Hemangi, Aarti & Anuj, who are taking every effort to meet city women & this natural heavens (forests), which if on one side is like rejuvenation of our stressed out EMI-centric life then it’s also making us aware about our responsibility to support every that person who is part of making these heavens named forests survives for us!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

https://youtu.be/al0NZ-7Zhq0

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https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2019/11/infrastructure-development-real-estate.html