Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Magic Show Named, Melghat!

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it... Roald Dahl

Well, I do believe in the magic though I don’t expect turning a man in to a mouse ( How I wish) or pulling a rabbit out of a hat yet there is magic around us especially when we are referring to the magician named nature & when I visited Melghat recently my belief in magic got strengthened! Well, for the poor innocent (ignorant) souls who don’t know what Melghat is for them, its name of region which is part of Satpuda mountain ranges & is on North-east border of Maharashtra State along the boundary of Madhya Pradesh & its spread across three districts i.e. Buldana, Akola & Amraoti. Its covered by all possible flora i.e. trees, bamboos, creepers, shrubs, grass & what not & is home for thousands of species of animals, birds, insects & reptiles! And the Dahl's words fits perfectly to describe this region named Melghat i.e. Magic as in the world of humans yet this nature's heaven has survived is itself a magic! By the way I am lucky to have taken birth in a town named Khamgaon which is on the western border of Melghat but that’s what has made me part of this magic since my school days! Right from visiting Chikhaldara for school trips which is a hill station for Vidarbha from British days, Melghat I felt like is my home & is one of the main reasons for my bonding with wildlife! Ok, it’s not about me but about Melghat & thanks to Aarti & Hemangi, my friends who run an organization Jungle Belles to make city women aware about wildlife; it’s nearly after a decade I got the chance to visit Melghat that too in winter when forest is at its best in Central India!

The reason was, present Field Director of Melghat which now is a protected forest as well a sanctuary, Mr Shriniwas Reddy was guest on one of the webinar arranged by Jungle Belles & in that webinar its decided that JB will try to provide some support in the form of sweaters to the guards as well guides which works for the forest in Melghat & that’s how I landed in Melghat & it’s always a happy landing when you visit your home, so is Melghat forest for me. I have visited many forests & consider myself lucky on that front of life as not many people have that luck (or wish or will or need, whatever you call it) & I have told my friends that the Melghat I remembered was something they will never forget though I warned them not to expect tiger sighting which is the main attraction for every forest (sanctuary) visitor & reasons are two or three. First is the spread of Meghat, its far bigger than any reserved sanctuary or project tiger, nearly spread of some five thousand sq km & covering three districts from our State as well MP & that does gives the tiger huge space for its movements. Another is the landscape or habitat of Melghat, as all the time you are either driving up or riding down such is the geography & it provides lots of places for hiding for the tiger. Then it has thousands of water bodies which take care of the tiger's water needs & as the tiger doesn’t not have to come in open for cooling itself like it has to do in Tadoba or Kanha even in summer. And lastly the thicket of undergrowth, ever green trees & grass which grows taller to hide even an elephant makes it impossible to see the tiger unless it comes on road or in a patch which is clear of any vegetation which are very less! But none of these things matters if you are a wildlife lover & if you are not one then there is every chance you will become one once you visit Melghat such is the power of this place! And this is very important region as Melghat’s spread acts as a corridor for movemnt of the tigers & many animals from one forest to anopther all across Central India.

Right from leaving the town Akot behind (if you are coming from Pune or Mumbai) all you see around is greens & more greens in every possible shade & shape! If that is a boon for the wild lifer then it’s the curse for the locals who are mostly the tribes as nothing under the name of development has touched this place & that makes life very difficult here. In the stretch of some hundred & more kilometres while you travel from east end to west end of Melghat, there are no signs of the urbanization such as hotels, industries, shops, buildings & not even schools or hospitals ( sorry Mai Bapp Govt but that's a fact), I mean proper schools or medical facilities. But then wildlife lovers will say that’s how a forest remains protected what we want to do, get all these things which will need roads, railways also & destroy the last of the best habitats! Well, no, what I meant is make a balance of both as all the humans living in this region has to sacrifice many things to make this forest survive (including forest dept staff) & they do deserve good life with basic necessities, if not luxuries like Malls or Cinema halls & we are not giving them the basics also for their survival which in was making life of the people who are supposedly protecting these forests actually difficult! Indeed govt is trying but as usual the efforts doesn’t match the speed which is required to fulfil the needs of the residents of the Melghat which are pending for years rather decades! Outcome, there is unrest among the people here & time to time it surfaces from incidences, as just before the lockdown started there was huge outcry from the tribes & the locals over the shifting or relocation of the villages which are coming under core areas of the forests. Agreed we need forests but it’s the people in & around them are only going to make them survive is we should not forget. Forest dept is trying their every beat but that one dept won’t be enough for this herculean task for the volume of the forests Melghat has. We need top bosses who sit in Mumbai-Pune to get awaken & make funds available as well special policies & send man-power to assist forest dept on two fronts, first to protect existing forest & second to relocate the villages as well to protect the humans residing in Melghat!

The earlier part is easy ( I mean on a comparison scale) but the later part is very hard & difficult as animals are easy to handle, humans are worst as our needs are far more than animals & people from Melghat are no exception for this rule of the nature. We need to make the people survive by providing them jobs as well basic infrastructure without damaging the forests around them. And for that we must use the forests itself as tool of income i.e. right from house hold industries like making bamboo made utensils to promoting tourism which is the best way for giving jobs to the locals, many things can be done. But again that will need infrastructure as tourists will come here only if there are facilities which includes accommodation & proper (read as faster) means to reach at Melghat. The curse of being the best forest is, to reach at this place is difficult part in compare to its competitors i.e. Tadoba, Pench, Bandhavgad or Ranthambore & then in the tiger centric wildlife tourism Melghat takes a backseat for the reasons I have shared above! So, the challenge is, to make city people know that tiger everyone likes to see but what better than to see the home which gives shelter to the tiger in it as if that home survives then only the tiger will survive & for that we must visit the home, that much we can do for wildlife if we consider ourselves as wild lifer, right?

Coincidence was just after we returned from the Melghat after delivering the sweaters to many happy faces there, on the very evening on KBC (plz don’t tell you don’t know it, its Kaun Banega Karodpati) show the Big B was hosting & the guests were none other than Dr Ravindra & Smita Kolhe who has dedicated their career (now their son also) for making lives of the people of Melghat a shade better by offering their service in a small place at Melghat. Well, how much prize money the couple won is immaterial as they are already wealthier than many Karodpati's we know as it's not the earning in rupees decides your wealth but the numbers of lives you have helped to make able to live does & on that count Kolhe couple is richest! And there is Nirupama Deshpande who runs a bamboo hastakala teaching centre at one village amidst Melghat but such names are few rather just two in nearly four decades. What Melghat needs is not roads or industries but helping hands & govt (if it feels) can arrange doctors, teachers, skill trainers to come here to give their services to the people of Melghat & for that pay all such professionals four times what they can get in a city as not all are Kolhes & Deshpandes to offer their knowledge at charity! As well Melght officials can promote what they have to the urban folks & for this Melghat can tie up with various associations as well clubs such as Turf Club, PYC or Deccan Club in Pune as well Rotary & Lions types social organizations as through these initiatives many willing hands can contribute only if they know what & how things are required at Melghat!

One best part was the young brigade I meet with at Melghat in the form of the forest officers under leadership of Mr Shriniwas Reddy i.e. Navkishore Reddy, DCF, Vinod Shivsagar, DCF, then there are rangers Mr Bhailume, Mr. sunil wakode, Dinesh Walke & even the guards like mayur sanap were very enthusiastic about forest & tourist & was eager to try every possible way to conserve Melghat & its people; this is what I call, Hope! And it’s hard job out there, with nearly four different sanctuaries to manage with people, animals & forest in them under one umbrella i.e. Melghat! Lastly, apart from the tigers, Melghat offers probably the best bio-diversity in this country where you can come across absolutely anything right from a leopard to sloth bear to a cobra to porcupine to hyena to some of the rarest plants with medieval characteristics or a wild-flower which blooms only in Melghat & the list is endless! Like I said in a magic show you never know what next the magician is going to pull out of the hat & that’s what makes the magic show interesting, isn’t it? So, what are you waiting for guys, visit the Nature’s best Magic show which is on, all 365 days of the year & while you enjoy the magic show, you can become a saviour also for protecting this magic named Melghat!

You can email us for more info about Melghat & how you can help the forest there, at...

Hemangi/ anuj/aarti junglebelles.pune@gmail.com

Myself, sanjay smd156812@gmail.com / sales@sanjeevanideve.com

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

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https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-good-home-is-good-deal.html

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