Government, Gunthewari & House- Maid's Dream of a Home!

 

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“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” …  Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Well, I respect Maya for her wonderful clarity about the terminologies like family, home, togetherness & bonding, all such are getting rare by day & that’s why I have been grateful to her wisdom which has helped me on many of my sharing about home! This one is no exception & thanks to Maya once again for her wonderful description for home & the reason for this sharing is three different news or say incidences & all of them are linked with real estate i.e., home!

First there was a news about “Mai Baap” govt i.e., Cabinet Ministry (who else) itself clearing a supposedly illegal structure or say building in Thane city (does it matters where is it) & waved fine which is in Crores of rupees which has been levied on the said project or builder by the local body i.e. Municipal Corporation. In plain words the govt has regularized the so-called illegal building without charging anything to the builder. Second, there was news in media about regularizing Gunthewari & conditions necessary for the same by the local bodies which in our case is PMC i.e. Pune Municipal Corporation & the buzz it has created among the concerns i.e. builders & people living in such projects or say homes! And third, my house maid was requesting me if I can look out for Rs 5 lakh loan to her as her present room’s (in some chawal, again illegal building) owner has asked her to vacate the same & she wants to buy a home for herself nearby, needless to say I stay in central part of Pune city. So, I asked where she is getting a room or home in Rs 5 lakhs in nearby location, she named area of a slum along Sinhagad road & it will be assured well-built one room with attach toilet & will be on her name but she wants a loan for that & no banker will give loan to a housemaid with no salary certificate or documents about income was her concern! And every day I come across this question by my drivers, peons, housemaids, watchmen of the buildings, how they can get a home of theirs in the central part or suburbs in the city & who can arrange loan from them!

And then I was asked by some builder friends to write about this Gunthewari thing & hurdles as well as regularizing other illegal structures, as if some buildings in Thane can be given clean chit then why not others as well! If Gunthewari can be legalized till 2020 then why not every such home can be cleared. Though no maid, driver or peon asks me to write about their problem of getting a legal home in their budget as first, they may not be reading what I write & second, they don’t believe that such writing can make any difference in their situation!  This last part even I wonder yet I keep writing as that’s all in my capacity, is what I feel & so here it is!

About the first incident of news, let me be clear, I am not a judge to decide what is legal or illegal neither I am taking any side about being wrong or right, I am just analysing the scene on the front of affordable housing as well real estate, which happens to be my work zone!  So, this Thane project which was going through a legal battle where the said developer has built a few floors without sanction which is violation of law & the local body was asking for fine which runs into some cores of rupees & which the developer eventually successful in waving it from govt itself! Ok, the builder has political background so it was obvious ripples it causes in social media as well concerned circles but let me put very clear, when it’s about violation of law & deciding on fines or waving of fines regarding buildings then the govt holds all such rights, so again speaking about legality this is no offence. Now speaking about application or use of the rights of the govt then comes the question of morals which I think is pointless when the scale of politics is applied, right? As even in case of murder or any such gruesome crime the Hon President has right of waving out the punishment of death which has been verdict by even the Supreme Court! Only thing is why & how Hon President uses this power to give relief to some criminal is the matter or can be the matter of discussion, which is the case in Thane building regularization!

In second incidence i.e. Gunthewari, first lets understand what Gunthewari means, as many people know this terminology just they know about GDP or Sensex but never know what it actually means! One Guntha, means a piece of land measuring approx. 1000sft. When you buy any land, however small a piece of it, there are some laws & rules which are supposedly to be followed for getting this piece of land to come into existence such as the plan of such plots needs to be sanctioned from the local authority. In nutshell, it’s like difference between a child with legitimate birth certificate & a bastard (i.e., a child without legal parents), same is applicable that you have a plot of your own but without any legal documentation & a home built on such plot is illegal as the plot itself is illegally created! Now thousands of such plots have been created in & around only Pune city & the Govt is in process of regularizing it by making policy with respective local body & here is where the PMC has made a list of documents which makes it impossible for such Gunthewari home dwellers to comply with & there is a huge cry over it as what’s meaning of regularizing if you can’t comply the documentation!

Ohk, again I am not judging but true if you can’t make something possible to execute then why you make such rules but here there is moral side of it as any such authorization even by the “Mai Bapp” govt which has been used immorally can be challenged in the court & that’s what Govt is playing safe on Gunthewari front! As on one side govt wants their millions of the voters which are living in these thousands of Gunthewari homes (read as illegal) to be happy by making their homes legal but on other side the govt don’t want to get stamped as immoral & illegal in doing so, right? So, what govt does, simple, declare something which won't ever be possible to execute & keep the issue dragging, that’s what it has done by making local bodies to face criticism for making the rules unworkable for regularizing the Gunthewari!

And that’s why I can’t ignore the plea from the builders who has done irregularity in constructing their projects & now expects the govt to regularize the same by paying minimum charges because if the govt can make every illegal thing legal or regular then why differentiate between the proposals, is logical question which the govt can’t escape from answering!  At the same time one newspaper has urged or appealed organizations of developers to challenge the decision of the govt to waive the fine in the Thane matter as its directly in contrast with the developers who builds their projects going through the grind of getting hundreds of NOC’s for getting one project sanction however small or big it may be! In nutshell, there is complete chaos on all the fronts of real estate & that’s bound to be the outcome when you don’t have a clear definition of wrong & right & keeps it changing as per your convenience, which exactly the “Mai Bapp” govt is doing!

And on all such backgrounds I see the face of a maid & hundreds of other faces who have nobody to answer their simple question about a safe & comfortable (and legal) home of their own! As is the case in the tiger-human conflicts around reserved forests, when a tiger moves out of a reserved forest & enters in nearby unprotected forest or village, it doesn’t understand the difference between such terminologies as protected or unprotected forests as they are made by humans & not the tiger, right? Same way, a legal or illegal home, is not defined by the people like my house-maid or peon or watchmen & many such. All they know is they need a home of their own & which will be affordable in their limited fixed income as well it will be at location to take care of their commuting to respective workplaces & basic living needs & where luxury is not at all the aspect of living! And when they get such a home, they don’t know (or care) whether its legal or illegal but the unfortunate fact is we the so-called superior humans who make laws & policies can discount the tigers for not understanding the human laws but not to our own fellow humans for their needs! I repeat I don’t support or in favour of illegal homes or construction but to condemn them isn’t enough as that doesn’t take care of millions of homeless humans who deserve their own home!

Need of the time is to control our greed, some logical planning & a will to make the real estate industry for the masses & not for just bunch of lucky or superior few & when I say “our” it includes every segment associated with the real estate, even the present buyers as when we buy a home at premium rate with all luxuries of the life, do mind somewhere around millions are living in the situation worse than the hell!  Here is where real estate, govt, policy makers as well media should come together & work out solution for affordable home to every segment of the society or there will be a day (which is not far away) that we will have to abolish the term “Illegal Home” itself as no one will be following any law for building his or her Home; if we want this scenario as our future then so be it, amen! 

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

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

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life

Budget 22 & Dream of Home Buying! (Pre-Budget)

 

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“The simplest definition of a budget is "telling your money where to go.” … Tsh Oxenreider

Tsh Oxenreider is an author, podcaster, travel guide, and teacher. No wonder a combination of teacher & travel guide only can make the definition of a concept as complex as budget in so simple words! With due respect to Ms. Tsh, sometimes you can explain life to others in very simple words but to make it live isn’t that easy, & budget is just like the life! And when somebody else is telling your money (or deciding) then more difficult it is to digest, right? On the background of two successive years of virus, pandemic, lockdowns & what not I really feel pity for our Hon Finance Minister while she will be delivering this year’s budget as already a country of some 130 plus crore population under whose expectations even the god will get stressed & all of them expects they as respective business fraternity as well as an individual must get something out of the budget (read as, gain), which of us can do this miracle possible, I certainly can’t! Yet she has to make a budget for this country as the country needs revenue which has to be collected from the pockets of each person out of those 130 plus crore population only. As its from that money only the roads, waterlines, public transport, medical assistance, education, agriculture, drainage line, power grids & many such things will be possible for these 130 plus crore people only yet each of them thinks the money should not be taken from his or her pocket but from rest all the people as he or she is more needy than others, that’s what everybody’s expectation from the budget is!

Well, coming to our real estate, builders are no expectation to the human psychology (though the society doesn’t consider the builders as humans, that’s different story) & they too expect from the budget which most of the times goes in the vein, is what the history says. But again, if you read the pre-budget expectations (a dear subject of the media) & post-budget reactions then I rarely have found an entity or say community or fraternity (I am not referring to an individual) which is happy with the budget. Yet time & again real estate has been neglected on not just budget provision front but on most financial policies, is a hard bitter fact. If you think it’s because a builder is writing this then, well, for a change the news media this time has covered expectations of common people or say aspirant home buyers also about the budget. And I just happened to read few of them & one reaction was very interesting (needless to say from a house-wife, as who better than a house-wife can put in clear words true needs about a home from the budget), the lady said “the govt should make such budget that, I can save some money to pay the loan instalments to buy my own Home”!  Madmaji, God bless you for these words, whoever & wherever you are, as this is what the builder fraternity should ask to the govt than asking for anything for themselves or for real estate industry from the budget!

There were other citizen’s comments (expectation’s) also & thankfully for the first time nobody was blaming the builders for making the homes costly or unaffordable but expecting the govt should do that!  Indeed, govt don’t make homes or sale them directly (they think so, though) but high time the govt should understand the fact that if they don’t build the home by themselves then they should not expect the builders (read as blame the builder) for making the homes unaffordable as the govt’s policies towards (read as affecting) the real estate, is what actually makes the homes affordable or unaffordable & not the builders! For e.g., right from neglecting hundreds of demands of the real estate may it be GST or Income Tax or Finance Interest Rates, nothing ever has been positively considered which are key factors for any business. Here are few unique policies for e.g., and do mind, I am not any finance expert but an engineer who can understand the illogicality in them, sorry for the term, but the govt & the experts can enlighten me if I am wrong (fool I am, that I know)!

1. Real estate is the only business probably where there is no GST on finished good i.e., ready possession homes but there is GST on in making product i.e., ongoing product! So how I recover the GST, I have paid on construction material & labour if I don’t collect any GST that’s unanswered.

2. Real estate is the only business where you have to pay income tax even if your product is ready but unsold! Means ready possession homes even if are unsold they are added in your income.

3. Real estate is the only industry where the product buyer gets assured & cheaper loans than the product maker. It means if I am a builder then first, I won’t get any loan (read as easily) then my rate of interest is 15% with loads of documentation & a collateral security of ready possession property equal amount of loan, needless to say the project is entirely mortgaged already! But my flat buyers get loan at 7% interest & for 15 years times span while for a builder its maximum repayment period is three years!

4. One more joke, probably only in the real estate, while giving finance to the project, land cost is not considered which is biggest cost incurred actually but the bank giving loan for just construction costs mortgages the land also!

5. There is TDR available of all types as well Paid FSI & Metro FSI but the planning authority decides which the builder should use & the builder has to pay by the rate the planning authority decides means the govt! Its like you are allowed eat in the hotel but the hotel owner will decide what you will eat & in which sequence!

6. In Pune city we all get electricity by MSEDCL (MSEB) i.e., a govt agency. If MSEDCL is laying the cable & cutting the road for same then rate per running meter to be paid to local body i.e., PMC/PCMC is Rs 3000 / meter. But if the builder is laying power cable which is job of MSEDCL & as MSEDCL don’t have funds so it makes the builder, do it & later takes possession of that infrastructure via legal agreement yet the local body charges the builder at the rate of RS 12,000/ meter i.e., four times that of MSEDCL! Same scene is with water lines & drainage lines all of which is responsibility of the local civic body & which is forced on the builder’s head!

Now tell me, who will be carrying the burden of all above added taxes, premiums, fines whatsoever you call it, the builder or the flat buyer? And, above are just few jokes which are outcome of the policies of the govt which every budget the real estate expects to be corrected but instead there is addition of new jokes! Outcome of all such policies is the major earner is govt, the homes get unaffordable & the builder ends with tag of culprit for making the homes costly! Indeed, there has been times when land rates were less, the landlords were illiterate, supply was less of the homes & builders did make huge money & that was different times as then even Fiats’ & Hindustan Motors’ & Bajajs’ & Firodiyas’ has also made huge money when we have lesser players in the automobile markets, but are they ever tagged as making automobiles costly for the end users?

And on top of this right from poor public health, to poor public transport, higher fuel costs & costly education, all of which burdens the pocket of home buyer thus reducing the buying capacity of him or her & the builder is shamed for making the homes unaffordable! Hon. Finance Minister (read as Prime Minister too), as a builder I personally don’t want any relaxation in any tax or free finance from you in the budget, just treat us a normal business fraternity & make policy which are logical & see that they get implemented & that’s enough for us! A home is a basic need of not just humans but every species & its only possible when all of us unite for the cause & for that first we all should be on one platform first, that’s all our request for the budget; do I need to explain in more words!!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

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

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Real Estate, Homes & Journey ahead in 2022! (The Conclusion)

 

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“In an era of stress and anxiety, when the present seems unstable and the future unlikely, the natural response is to retreat and withdraw from reality, taking recourse either in fantasies of the future or in modified visions of a half-imagined past.” … Alan Moore

Alan Moore is an English writer known primarily for his work in comic books including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Batman: The Killing Joke and From Hell. Regarded by many as the best comics writer in the English language, he is widely recognized among his peers and critics. And how true her words are as just when my last sharing about the year ahead in Dec 21, I concluded with “good times are ahead’, come January 22 & again the dark clouds of uncertainty started surrounding on our heads! The scene is like London in World War 2, where every night after night German bombers keeps hovering over the head of the city & you never used to know which night will be your last & yet the city not only survived but regained its glory! This is the need of the time for real estate as one thing is sure (till now) the third wave of virus attack may be larger in volumes & faster in spreading but seems to be less vicious & by now we are mentally as well infrastructurally much more prepared for the attack!  Yet the real estate should always must brace itself for the impact as we make the costliest product among all industries which is equally essential too as a need! So, how we are going to face this future (or present) as already even when the situation was improving by the year end of 21, then also cost of construction due to major hike in materials as well labour prices has already gone sky rocketing is one side of the coin. Then expatiations of the customers from the builders on negotiation front has also gone way high. Here I remembered a joke about bargaining ion Delhi’s famous Palika Bazar market where “bargaining” is the key word to shop, it’s as below…

A boy went to buy a jean pant for himself in Palika Bazar on his own for the first time. His housewife mom advised him that in Palika Bazar the traders are cheaters, so whatever price the shop keeper will tell you of the jean pant ask for 50% of it! The boy remembered this advice & headed for Palik Bazar. After visiting few shops, he like a jean pant of one of the shops & asked the shopkeeper its price. The shopkeeper said its Rs 2000 only! Adhering to the advice of mother the boy said, bhai, I will give Rs 1000 only for the pant. The shopkeeper first as usual made lot of fuss hearing this but agreed & said le jao i.e., have it at Rs 1000. Hearing this the boy said, ab Rs 500 hi dunga i.e. I will give now Rs 500 only (as shopkeeper has said Rs 1000). The shopkeeper got surprised & after lots of arguments said ok bhai, I will give the pant at Rs 500, khush i.e., happy? Now the boy said he will give Rs 250 only for the pant (Mom’s advice of 50%). The shopkeeper got amused & jokingly said chal bachha, de diya ye jean pant tuze freemen i.e. I will give you this pant free of cost! Hearing this, the boy immediately said ab do lunga i.e., if you are giving free then I will have two jean pants instead one!

The joke ends here as no reaction at the end of the joke that of the shopkeeper is available, but this is the scene in real estate at present! The story much more resembles to the scene in the real estate & to add spice (or say rub salt on the wound) here there is a mediator also along with the boy & he asks for a scarf free with the two jean pants as his commission for the deal! Well, it was just a joke so no offence please, as i.e., the Channel Partners or Agents are also now an inseparable part of the real estate deals (most of the deals, I meant) because many clients prefer to deal through the agents than dealing directly with the builder (courtesy, reputation of the builder fraternity, they themselves have built around)!

And if this is not enough for the real estate then on the third front i.e., apart from construction cost & customer’s bargaining, there is Mai Bap Govt to tackle with! On one hand its weird policies like No GST or sale of ready possession i.e., post completion certificate from competent authority, not thinking about rebate for already paid GST for the construction of such projects etc then on other side there is Advance Tax to be paid on ready possession but even on the unsold units too! And then the routine local level sanctioning policies delays & confusion continuing on the sanctioning process & with all this burden, the banks are as usual turning their backs on the builders on funding front! Never real estate players (read as builders) has find themselves in such a fix, just like Abhimanyu situation, as they knew to start a project but how to finish it & sale it, that’s the crux of survival!  And exactly post second wave when things were seeming to be streamlined and sales (with reduced margins) were improving again we have to face the third lockdown situation which morally breaks the buying mind set of the prospective clients!

This is how the New Year has welcomed real estate yet look at golden side of it, here is a product which doesn’t perish or it’s shelf value never reduces (like other commodities). With two lockdowns experience at the back, more & more people are inclining to have a home of their own & if uncertainty for some is a cause to hold their decision, then for some it’s a tool to push their decision to go for the home as early as possible. And thanks to our 130 plus crore population, even 50% of such some people makes it a huge number for the home buying in the urban areas! This is why the real estate should be happy as with every low tide there does come high tide & may be the pandemic situation is a boon for real estate especially for having an own home for many, is what the end user i.e., a home buyer is thinking! Agreed investors may not be much interested but then any movie become a hit on the genuine movie fans & not by the sale of black marketing of the tickets, right? Fortunately, till now the third wave though has hit us fast & massive in numbers yet thanks to the vaccination drive of our country the fatalities are less & so is the panic which again is very much important aspect for buying mentality of the clients! The challenge with real estate is to make the costumers confident about they are getting a right deal as repeatedly I am saying its never about good or bad scale when you are looking for a home, its just a right or wrong choice depending up on the needs of the customer! Because when you say something as a good investment, its when it fetches you good returns, right? And when you call something as a bad investment, its when you lose money or the investment goes in to the drain, correct? But when you buy a home, it will always be with you & never will go to drain, it will serve you as your shelter from where nobody can ask you to leave, you can rent it out for some money always, it won’t deteriorate like any other goods neither its insurance costs will keep on rising the way it happens with best of the cars. On the top of it you can consider it as a gold as it will fetch you decent money when you go for sale: agreed it may not get sold overnight like gold but then unlike gold, nobody can theft your home from you, is also equally true making the home most of the times a right investment. So, what I meant by wrong investment in buying a home, it means, it’s from the use aspect, for e.g., you want to start jogging then you won’t look for a formal or leather pump shoe, right? You will buy a sport shoe & again in the sport shoe you won’t buy a shoe for playing tennis or indoor games but will ask the shop keeper to show you a shoe which you can use for jogging & that to the one which fits perfectly in your feet, not too loose or too tight, this is how you buy a right shoe, right? Same way, while buying a home if you define your criteria correctly by understanding your needs of living by considering some future time span, then you will always end up in buying a right home for you which is a right investment also. And only if you chose a home by just going with a price tag (the cheapest) or a location tag (paying over- premium price) ignoring your needs, then it will be a wrong investment, as such home won’t serve you properly & it will take time to get sold if you want to sale, it & that isn’t the fault of the builder or the home but of your wrong choice only!

The role of the builders is equally important in these times (it always was, actually) & the builder as well his or her team should be transparent with the prospective as well existing client. Try to get connected with every client on one-to-one basis, keep discussing with them, share whatever information, knowledge you have & try to gain knowledge about the needs of the buyers than just trying to sale your homes to them! Make your clients understand their needs, make them aware about right & wrong homes & then let them choose your home or others, that’s how you will make the entire buyers confident & at comfort while they strike deal with you or your fellow builder, ultimately, it’s the turnover of real estate which will take us ahead together & that’s the surest way of facing the hard times, right? Dear builders & home buyers, do mind a right home is never an accident, its outcome of transparency, understanding needs, keeping away greed, trust, dedication, commitment & above all togetherness; so, go ahead & build a society & not just buildings, that’s sure way for a wonderful future together for the real estate of which both i.e., the builders & home buyers are inseparable part of!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

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

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below..

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Understanding a Tiger! (Final Part )

 

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“There is nothing like the thrill of walking through the jungle looking for a tiger and knowing they could be watching you already” …. Ashlan Gorse Cousteau.

Ashlan Gorse Cousteau is an American entertainment journalist. She is known for her work with E! News, Discovery Channel, and Travel Channel. And I can very well understand the excitement which Ms Ashlan tried to explain about seeing a tiger in the wilds. With due respect to her sentiments, it's easy to say these words by sitting in the comfort & safety of a vehicle among people & looking for a tiger to click its photographs & make a film or documentary about it (even I also do that, no offense)! But when its living in a mud hut adjoining to the forests where a tiger roams freely & you have to go in the open in the pitch dark night for nature’s call or to patrol the woods on the feet for protecting the tiger itself as well other wildlife from the humans, while the tiger can't differentiate you are a protector or a hunter, at such times sure you won't find looking for a tiger so exciting rather you will wish all the time you don’t end-up looking up on one, in the first place!

Well, coming to second part of my write- up (sharing) about the post-mortems (I mean, analysis) of the incidence of a lady forest guard got killed by a tigress at tadoba which is a tiger reserve, I found this quote apt as it shows difference of approach or say unawareness about the ground realities with the tigers & the habitats they move in! Because ask any tourist, guide or gipsy driver at any tiger park (where tourism is allowed) & the only question you will get is , “dikha kya or sighting kaha chal rahi hai” i.e. have you seen the tiger or is do you know, the sighting of tiger going on, anywhere in the forests!

And I don’t blame them as that’s what our wildlife tourism is all about, tigers & again nothing wrong as nothing better sight than seeing a tiger walking towards you in the open forest, that’s a life time experience for most & every time it’s as exciting as the first time, I can vouch from my experience! All this is as a tourist, from a vehicle, on which till today never a tiger has attacked (thankfully) & from a safe distance. But when you are a forest guard in the very same forest or a van-major (forest labour) or you reside in a village near by such tiger project & has to walk towards your farm & in all such situation the only means of commuting is, on your bare-feet & you know you can confront a tiger any time; will you like to see a tiger in such situation, answer me truthfully!  Well, my answer is a big “No” as I have been part of teams which has to walk in the forest & mere the thought that from any direction the tiger is watching me but I can’t see it, has made me very nervous, just the way the thought of appearing for M-3 (Maths’s paper in 2^nd year engg) still makes me so! Reason is very simple, the tiger doesn’t know I am a forest guard & my job is to protect him only nor he cares if I am a farmer living as his neighbor; for the tiger, I am a human & an intruder, I may not be his food but he thinks I am a threat to him, as he doesn’t know me or understands me! So, when we say tiger sighting is the most exciting thing then do mind it's not a truth or fact for all those who are associated with the tiger, it’s in what role & situation you sight a tiger, makes the difference in your perception!

Coming back to the incidence of the guard getting killed by the tigress Maya, in a recent survey nearly 135 plus tiger deaths have been recorded in the calendar year 2021 & even if 50% of them we discount as natural death or by territorial fights yet nearly 70 numbers of tigers have died because of humans & in comparison on the scale of population of both the species ( read as human population & tiger population) then it makes nearly few crore of human deaths because of tigers, if worked reversely! While in reality the total numbers of human deaths must be nearly matching to total death numbers of the tigers, do I need to explain anything more, who is a threat to whom here! This, I am not putting forward to justify the death of the lady guard, but just to make us know, high time we should understand & respect the tigers as well entire wild life as then only we both can live safe & happily by giving each other some space!

This is exactly the cruck, because a tiger won’t ever understand us or our intentions leave apart our needs but it's we the humans, which must understand what a tiger needs or say try to understand the tiger, if we want to live in a coexistence with a tiger, right? It’s the understanding which finds a way even in human interrelations, here we are talking about the relation between two different species, one of which is supposedly the most developed brain amongst all the species, indeed our responsibility is more in the relation, is what I want to put forward! Recently I got an opportunity to discuss the tiger (read as wild life) conservation aspect with tadoba field director, even his concern was the same, it’s how we are going to accommodate the tigers & not in the reverse way, that is only going to decide the fate of the tigers!  

In my post about the tigress attack incident, there was a comment on one of the snaps I shared where a tiger is walking at close range with forest labours & villagers in tadoba & someone commented it's morphed. That image has been clicked by my friend & is on FB! Actually, no need to morph such images as in tadoba such scenes happen regularly. I wrote back, I myself have clicked a tigress on foot on main Chandrapur road when I was standing on that main-road at a tea stall, which is allowed & tigress came out of foliage some 30ft from me & crossed the road, see the image below. There are still villages in the core & buffer where tigers cross everyday at close range with villagers on the road! And 99 out of 100 times the tiger doesn't bother the humans!! Guys, the core & buffer & private forests or unmanned forests all are terminologies as well the boundaries set by humans, a tiger is free to move wherever he wants to go... we the humans should respect its movements & keep distance, is the right way! Here is the image & I shared the Image of tigress crossing the road with this tagline, Give me my space, I give you yours! Yet there were many comments which showed people’s concern about the tigers & the forests and misunderstandings as well the need of awareness about entire wild life thing! I am using few of them with real names & words cut pasted from FB (No offense please) ...

Sushama Varma

We have encroached on their territory, taken their space away and then we complain that they, tigers- leopards come into our space. Where can and will these poor displaced persons (yes, for me they are real persons) go? That they walk along their own paths quietly ignoring humans is good. But if their habitats are destroyed, taken over and they do not have the animals to hunt and eat, they need to attack and satisfy their hunger somewhere. Let us think about it.

Sanjay Deshpande

Author

Sushama Varma guys, the core & buffer & private forests or unmanned forests all these are terminologies as well the boundaries set by humans, a tiger is free to move wherever he wants to go... we the humans should respect its movements & keep distance, is the right way!

 

Trevor Rego

My dear sir if tigers emerge from the foliage and cross over to the other side of the road regularly then they will lose their wildness and when one sees such animals it’s the same as going to the zoo. And another thing I have observed people come to see these animals in ordinary vehicles with the hoods down and if the tiger is having a bad day, then its curtains for all and unless the forest guards have a weapon on them which I doubt

Then you will be a breakfast lunch and dinner for the tiger and his or her family which will result in the tiger being put down.

Why should there be such a scenario let them have their space.

 

Sanjay Gangwani

Same is seen n experienced in n around Gir

Varsha Sathe

म्हणून मूल रोड जंगलातून जातो तो बंद करावा असं वाटतं दोन्ही बाजूला घनदाट जंगल आहे

Sanjay Deshpande

Author

Varsha Sathe how many roads you will close , is the question! Best way is learn to live by understanding animal behavior which actually many forest people & villagers knows & do live by that!

 

Mukesh Raizada

Beautiful   click, It is Supreme Encroachment of Men on FOREST of Tigers as it looks.where to go Tigers n

Other Wildlife.

 

Carol Pea

This reminds me of when I went to Bhandavgarh. I arrived by train early morning and just missed the game drive when I got to the jungle camp, so I decided to go for a stroll before it got too hot. I asked the camp staff if there were tiger or leopard nearby and was it safe to walk. No no ma'am, very very safe they said. I noted the very big bouganvillea next to the camp to help me find my way back later. After 200 m I came to a wall, which I followed for a way and then went back to camp. 2 days later we were watching B2 at close range from the jeep near to a low wall that seemed familiar. I looked over and noticed the very big bouganvillea that I had used to navigate a couple of days earlier, less than 100 m away. oops! So I decided that maybe next time someone tells me no no ma'am very very safe, no tiger, maybe I should take that with a pinch of salt. 

Rajeev Singh Sisodiya

this is dangerous for human and wild life both. Authorities must look into matter to secure forest reserve.

 

Santosh Mannooparambil

May be we should start erecting "Tiger Crossing Road Sign"

 

Above are few more comments but by reading all these we have understood one thing about humans if not about the tigers, that there are many humans who care for the wild life but most of them don't understand just caring wont work, we need to make right things to survive wild life & reduce the conflicts. At the same time there are lot many more humans which doesn’t bother or are ignorant about the wild life & its this lot is the major threat for the wild life not because they are bad but because they are ignorant & it’s this ignorance of the humans regarding tigers & wild life at large which is major cause of the conflicts of humans & the tiger (and other species too) & outcome is, most of the time it’s the tiger which has to lose its life! Apart from awareness we can do so many things, such as building safety walls around open wells near forests to making series of water bodies along fringe area of core forests to fencing the settlements around the forests & building attached toilets to every hut (home) near forest the list of to do things is endless which can avoid accidental deaths as well accidental conflicts between humans & the tigers (read as wild life)! This is where NGO’s, Forest Dept & the humans who have understood real needs of the tigers must come together, join hands & right from conducting awareness programs to making life of the humans & the tigers a bit comfortable as well safer for which the sky's the limit, is all I can say! This includes opening every part of the forest for proper tourism as then only more & more people will see a tiger (read as wild life) as that’s the best way to understand a tiger (read as wild life) & if we can understand a tiger only then we can hope to save it, right? Adios, with this thought!

--

Sanjay Deshpande 

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