Punekars, Russians, Ukrainians & Flamingos!

 

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“What is a fish without a river? What is a bird without a tree to nest in? What is an Endangered Species Act without any enforcement mechanism to ensure their habitat is protected? It is nothing” … Jay Inslee

Jay Robert Inslee is an American politician, lawyer, and economist who has served as the 23rd governor of Washington since 2013. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Sometimes I wonder about USA as a society & not just as a most developed country (self-proclaimed though) because if on one side they have people like Jay Inslee & many such who always are vocal about environmental issues then on other side (realistic one) USA is main culprit for degradation of environment at large with its huge Carbon Foot Print i.e industrialization & pollution! May be, thanks to these people who has maintained or say trying to maintain a balance or else the god also wouldn’t have been able to save the fish & the trees is a fact. But joke is, in USA they, as a society are very keen or careful in maintaining their habitats whatsoever are remaining & take extreme care (read as, show or display) in conservation of habitats with very stringent laws for the same! Unfortunately, when it come to our beloved country, we do have laws but we neither care to follow them nor the system (read as govt as well people) are serious about making these laws of conserving the habitats works! May it be not wearing helmet or mask, may it be spitting or peeing in public places or may it be throwing garbage on roads or in rivers, we just don’t care not even for ourselves leave apart for environment or some specie! I remember visiting USA first time & at Statue of Liberty, New York, there was a sign board (this is in 1996) , “Fine $2500 for throwing litter”, imagine fine of Rs 1,70,000 plus for throwing garbage on roads or in public places in our country, we all will eb beggars!

Sorry to start the sharing on such sad or negative note but truth is bitter most of the time & more bitter when it’s about damage of the environment, so be it! That way I have been visiting habitats around Pune since long for photography yet while making a film “Wild Wild Pune” for conservation of the habitats & wild life around Pune (Thanks to Jungle Belles, Nature Walk & Magarpatta City) I got to visit these habitats from the angle of conservation & issues related & the bitterness is outcome of those visits!  First & foremost, let me tell you may it be Grasslands, Patches of Western Ghats (Mulshi/ Tamhini), Bhimashankar or Waterbodies like Ujani, all these habitats are in extreme danger which once were rich with biodiversity & the sole reason is we the Punekars or say citizens in the entire Pune region & not just Pune city! Many won’t like it as they say, why we are at blame when we haven’t even visited these places (such as Ujani back waters) you are mentioning, & exactly this is one of the main reasons of the destructions of these wonderful habitats as we are so ignorant as most of us even doesn’t have time to visit these places as we don’t know importance of them! And it’s this ignorant approach towards the habitats around us (read as Pune region) which has made many species including their homes gone for ever, just the way Russians are driving away the Ukrainians at present!

Some may think my comparison of Punekars with Russians as bit extreme but we may not be attacking the natural habitats with tanks & guns & bombing them from air but we are doing a lot worse than that! Example is when I visited Ujani backwaters to click flamingos & other birds (my friend wanted to click Osprey, a hawk family water prey bird), it was week day & tourists were less yet what I noticed is plastic garbage which are worst than bombs for the water birds & species. There is no special provision to collect or disposal of the garbage generated by the tourists which come in thousands of numbers on week-ends to see the flamingos. As well no awareness boards or any such effort, neither by NGO’s nor by Forest dept is seen around leave apart monitoring the same! Agreed, the locals for whom tourism is the only source of the survival are taking some efforts but they lack two things, resources & knowledge & here is where again we are making the damage by doing nothing! Just like we visit Tadoba or Kanha & click tiger’s snaps & come back, here also those which visits Ujani dam, enjoys the boat ride, click selfies on background of flamingos, eat missal pohe or fish curry & come back, leaving back lots of garbage in the form of bislery water bottles & Lays Chips packets & wrappers of food parcels, that’s all!

If this is not sufficient when we come back to our city which is on the upstream of Ujani Dam then also we keep on attacking Ujani habitats by caring a hoot about our civic senses regarding habitat conservation. We (read as society) don’t treat waste-water & discharge it untreated, in the rivers as well we keep polluting all the natural nallahs which once were streams & all these polluted water carrying streams joins Mula , Mutha rivers which in the end discharges all our bombs, bullets (in the form of plastic waste & garbage) in to the Ujani dam i.e. a home to the flamingos & hundreds of species which survives on fresh water in the dam & which are polluting it ignorantly! At the same time, we spend thousands of rupees for our birthday parties or marriages or trips to abroad but we don’t spend or think on this aspect that how we can make life at these habitats a bit more comfortable. For e.g., places like Dongargoan or Dalaj (along Solapur highway) where there is arrangement of boats to see the water birds, here we don’t have any proper (read as safe) boarding jetty also. Right from elder people to kids, all has to hop in the boats with risk of falling down in water by using a floating iron platform, yet no organization or individual thinks of spending to build a small jetty which will make life easier for the locals as well as tourists. If this is condition of getting in to the boats itself then lesser, we speak is better about other infrastructure such as waiting areas at boating point or enough (and clean) washrooms for the tourists & the outcome is, more pollution of the water body as well less spending at these places by the tourists which itself is a setback for the locals. As do mind, when you are in happy& joyful mood then you end up spending more especially on the trip & if you are irritated by lack of proper & basic facilities on the trip then you end up spending less, its basic human psychology, & Ujani back water isn’t exception to the same!

Need of the time is, to make people (read as, citizens of Pune region) aware about this damage not to just Ujani backwaters but all such habitats & make them understand not just their duty about conservation but what can be done to undone the damage by us to these places! Indeed, there is forest dept to look after about the threats to the habitats but the real threat is from outside of the forests (habitats) i.e., from the towns & cities around these habitats! And on top of it, we have industries mushrooming around waterbodies as water is basic need of most industries & the lands around are being used for plotting as well other uses than agriculture again causing more pollution for the waterbody! And end result of all our combined such behaviour (read as attack) on the habitats like Ujani backwaters is, someday the flamingos will stop coming here & find some another place! Now you will understand the analogy between we the Punekars & the Russians, as the means of attack, intentions behind may be different but the end result for the Flamingos is same which is for the Ukrainians, right?

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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

Trust of Tata, Humara Bajaj, Pune & Real Estate!

 

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“I do not want India to be an economic superpower. I want India to be a happy country.” … J.R.D. Tata

“Our nation is growing not because of its size or democracy, but because of its outstanding entrepreneurs and hardworking people” … Rahul Bajaj

 

Two news in the media I came across in Feb 22 have been read by most & as usual forgotten soon but I felt like writing as a businessman by myself (a small one but ok); one was about Air India i.e., our country’s official (read as govt) airline finally has been transferred to Tata’s & second was, demise of Mr Rahul Bajaj! Very few names in this country have succeeded in achieving near impossible thing & that is, gaining commercial or say professional success in respective field along with popularity & yet gain respect of the masses! That too when the profession is production industry which usually is considered as “Baniyegiri” (no offense to any caste or religion, but read as money making) or say politics which is always considered as corruption, yet being in such field & able to achieve above feat is definitely needs to have some special qualities & no wonder when the name is Tata then you have such! The present heir of the great JRD i.e., Ratan Tata follows the same foot step when it comes to being successful on all three fronts i.e., commercial, popularity & respect & with successfully bidding to buy Air India once again the name Tata has proved that, life is a circle! And so was with Mr Bajaj, though with due respect the name Bajaj is equally known in every household of not just State but country & now in many outside countries also, yet the glamour (or say respect) the name tata has got, Bajaj never had & that doesn’t take away a bit what Mr Rahul Bajaj has achieved. As per me, no success can be compared rather should be compared on the scale of popularity or people’s choice but only on the outcome it has given of making the society better or surrounding better, especially when it comes to measure success of an individual! And on that scale of achievements, Rahul Bajaj is definitely at par with the Tatas’!

Ohk, coming back to the news, one of Tata group of companies buying our country’s national air-lines i.e., Air India along with its domestic arm i.e., Indian Airlines (I hope, its active). I won’t explain about Tata group as most of us in some way or other has been exposed to the name by using some product, may it be salt (Tata Namak), tea, a car or a watch or online shopping service & few of us may be lucky to experience their hospitality service under Taj Hotels which are supposedly the best five-star hotels in the country! The name Tata is linked with our lives knowingly or unknowingly on many fronts & then the second news is as I mentioned, demise of Mr Rajul Bajaj, the pioneer of Bajaj Scooters which also became sign of prosperity for most middle-class families of this country as well there are many other Bajaj products mainly related to electrical or mechanical goods though! The reason of taking cognizance of these two names is not the core of those news i.e., Air-Lines for Tata news & demise news of Mr Rahul Bajaj for Bajaj group but relation of these two groups with Pune city or say region & real estate or the way they helped changing the future of this city on a better side of-course!

Today Pune enjoys one of the best liveable cities (read as region now) where its not about just having good infrastructure like water supply, drainage, un-interrupted power supply & many such which not many cities enjoy in our developing country. I am sure many people will frown over this statement but I will ask those people to definitely visit some other similar cities in our country to know what kind of life their citizens live in & then I will like to see the frown again! And then its not just physical infrastructure which with some money & will of the “Mai Bapp” Govt, can be created in any city or town but what’s more important is, the social infrastructure which Pune is blessed with & that is Cultural, Educational & Career or say Employment infrastructure! And this is where not just city but the industry I am in i.e., real estate industry is directly related to as you can build a wonderful city with all possible infrastructure & make it connected with every major town or city but how you are going to make people around come to stay here in this city, is the main challenge & when it comes to Pune that challenge has been taken-up by these two names i.e., Tata & Bajaj!

Do mind, any city prospers by the people living in it i.e., citizens, as whatever these citizens create, spend or live, that defines the future of the city, is what the history tells us! And these citizens need a cause, first to get attracted to the city & then to be retained in that city, as the world is full of the cities which prospered at the start & in some time people flee as the cause of living in that city got lost & so the city also got lost in the time machine which is cruel!  But in Pune what we observed is nearly some fifty years back this was also a town like any other town, just a shade better because of natural water supply & greenery & access to the Mayanagari i.e., Mumbai then Bombay! It may be in the late 60’s or may be 70’s for the Telco i.e., a Tata company, Telco, got started with manufacturing of four wheelers & then Bajaj started their iconic product “Scooter” i.e., a two-wheeler vehicle. Very few could have realized back then that Tata & Bajaj, these two names are like two wheels for Pune named bullet train which was going to outrun any other settlements in the country soon, which we are witnessing today!

For the country or say investors, Tatas’ & Bajajs’ indeed have contributed by revenue & returns, in the form of huge taxes & profits they made as well got many products in the range of buying capacity of average Indian middle-class family & made their life a bit easier. But what these two have contributed for Pune is lot more than just making life comfortable rather they have helped in actually building lives of the millions here! Back then in past, as I mentioned Pune was just a social cultural city which is considered as Pensioner’s Town i.e., post retirement what Bajaj, Tata made this town is to make it as Career City where people come not for retirement but to earn & build their career so they can later retire happily, & I think this is the biggest contribution (read as gift) these two names has made in making of Pune! As with Telco & Bajaj came along jobs & money & avenues of trading, business, production via ancillary units & service providers & what not, all of which has helped not just real estate but every other profession or business rather overall society! Which later the Education & IT industry thrived on here, as the students were getting absorbed in local units so educational institutes grew here & IT is a parasite branch (no offense) as technology upgrading is required to make finer products & at cheaper cost but for that we need the production houses in the first places which were here! And like a chain reaction in an Atomic Plant, then every development kept happening (read as multiplying) on better side with the Midas Touch of Tata & Bajaj here in Pune, fruits of which has been most enjoyed by the real estate!

Agreed land is immovable & in parallel to the gold investment yet owning land in some form is a dream of every Indian but you can’t buy property for investment or for living in deserts of Rajasthan or in the mountains of Himalayas or amidst the forests of Madhya Pradesh, right? You buy land for investment or a home for living where your investments will grow (is what you think) or you can make a decent living, there only you buy your home & so become Pune a dear destination for every person around Central India to have some property here & the trend is still on!  PCMC i.e., Pimpri Chinchwad is classic example of what just two industries can do to the society as the entire PCMC came out of the farm lands & fallow lands just because of the employment generated by tata & Bajaj here, what more you can expect as a success of some business house! The real estate all across the world thrives on three things i.e., employment, education & culture; the starting push of employment has been given by Tata & Bajaj & culture was already present, so education followed & so followed the growth of the entire society in & around Pune region! This is why the real estate of Pune region should be grateful to Tata & Bajaj as or else most of us would have still been worried for their own career had these two not started their ventures here half a century back!

Today JRD Tata has left long back while Ratan Tata is unofficially retired & Rahul Bajaj also departed this world but what they have blessed us with will n be always with us & its not their products or their industries here in Pune but its their vision about the society & their way to reach to the destination they wanted to be! These are the true gifts for the real estate industry, if Tata name is other side of Trust, then Bajaj stands for Vision & Hard work! And if we combine all these three i.e., Trust, Vision & Hard Work then no hurdle is tough enough for stopping us; it’s a Mantra which the real estate (read as, every entrepreneur) should recite & act all the time as that will be the right tribute to Mr JRD Tata & Mr Rahul Bajaj, as then only they will Happily rest in Peace, wherever they are!

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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

Valentine's Day; "Apana Time Bhi Aayega", Lol !!

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14t Feb, it was usual morning & just out of habit I checked the cell phone WhatsApp icon, & it's full of red & pink greetings , mostly forwards & I realized its Valentine's Day. With some free time (and free mind too) at hand I could afford to remember this day decades back in my college time. At that time celebrating Valentine’s Day means watching other people i.e. boyz & girlz celebrating it because for a boy coming from Marathi medium & remote parts of eastern Maharashtra, I never knew in the first place that such day exists in this society! And with no fellow girl student in civil diploma at Amravati Poly & with just five of them in MIT Engg Pune (no offense) all of them were & are still good friends, how could you expect someone to feel the vibe of this day! On the evening before Valentine’s Day, Archie Shop at Deccan decorated in all red & pink ribbons used to get full with queues outside to enter. We also used to visit the Archie shop, not to buy something but just to get the feel of the day as people used to spend hours searching through the greeting cards full of poetry! The today's genre which lives in the virtual world may consider this as a waste of time but I still feel the power of the words in written form of a greeting is much more than a forward or a download, maybe that's what you call as "Old School'! 

 

And on the Valentine's Day, boyz in "kadakks" ie dressed up-to-date carrying roses (which used to get sold at Rs 10 a piece when doda in vaishali was Rs 15) , cards & chocolates & giving them to the girlz & vice-versa which again was a cultural shock as back in my town even a girl talking to the boys in the class was considered as a taboo! And this way Valentine's Day used to end with the thought, boss, "apana time aayega"! That "apana time”, never came for most of us actually & life kept flowing, so passed the years! Today all those moments came alive with the forwards & the writer in me thought of penning down feelings about Valentine's Day for my genre, here it goes....

 

 

Only for the generation, which is on the wrong side of 40's!!

 Valentine Day 2022

“When the world was learning alphabets, she was a poem already”...

 Dear....

Well, I haven't written the above words as they are too beautiful & deep to ever enter in my logical or middle-class mind but thanks to your presence in life I can at least respect, appreciate & admire when these wonderful words I came across in my life! And that's why I think even though they are not written by me I can use them for you on this day to start penning down my feelings about love & relationships! That way my genre (shall I say our genre, lol) grew up just admiring (read as, jealousy admiring) some lucky boyz & girlz, gifting each other roses & chocolates on Valentine's Day! Reason was, we had none of the three i.e. no money to spend on roses & chocolates & no Valentine to spend for, so the Valentine Days came & went & so went our age but somewhere deep within, each of us secretly (well, we all have our own dark secrets) kept thinking or wishing for one Valentine Day where we can share these feelings at least with that person whom we would have wished as our Valentine! Roses & chocolates are still not possible as if earlier the money was constrained then today money is enough but timing & society's eyes are the constraints but that's ok as our genre is used to live with adjustments! 

The silver rather or say the pink lining is, today I can hold my Valentine's hand, (virtually) & tell her that you meant a lot to me & you have given a purpose to life which in itself is the best gift I could ever have on a Valentine's! Today I can buy any gift for you which the money can buy yet you can't accept it, such is the situation life has put us in, but I know you love this thought of mine & that's the most important gift actually, for both of us! No more I am jealous of looking at boys & girlz or men & women, celebrating Valentine Day openly by holding hands & looking in each other's eyes over coffee, as I have lived my Valentine's Day, in my way or say in our way, which will always be very close to me & will cherish it forever! As now there may not be lunch outings openly or booking a dinner table decorated in all red & pink with heart shaped balloons but there is this feeling or say understanding that somewhere someone cares for me as well happy with the thought of being with me & so do I; Happy Valentine!

To conclude, long back have watched Dev Aanand's Gambler movie & kishore"s famous song दिल आज शायर है's lyrics, "दुनियासे जिते  पर तुझसे हारे, यु खेल अपना हुआ";  for years I used to had that feel about this day but now I don't feel defeated, as some victories are not to be shown but to be celebrated with our own self, is I have understood!!

 yours

xxxx

 --

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

Jungle Belles, Wildlife & the World Bank!

 

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“I want my children and my grandchildren to live in a world with clean air, pure drinking water, and an abundance of wildlife, so I've chosen to dedicate my life to wildlife conservation so I can make the world just a little bit better” … Bindi Irwin

Bindi Sue Irwin is an Australian television personality, conservationist, zookeeper, and actress. She is the elder of the two children of the late conservationist and television personality Steve Irwin and his conservationist wife, Terri Irwin, who is currently the owner of Australia Zoo. And no wonder with such background she can dream about the future full of wildlife for her next generation but unless we all join hands for the cause & right way, this dream will be just a dream for sure! Yet there are people like Bindi & that’s why the hope for the future of the wildlife is still alive in the minds of wild lifers like myself! In one such initiative which is join effort of Jungle Belles (Aarti karve & hemangi vartak venture) for creating awareness about wildlife in urban women, Vinod bartakke, an IT professional who has dedicated now his life for wildlife & Anuj Khare of Nature Walk joined hands to make a wonderful film about wildlife around Pune, Maharashtra. The film was financially supported (very important aspect) by Mr Satish Magar of Magarpatta city dev & none other than Hon Sharad Pawar, MP, Pune, announced the launching of the same on youtube! During the event we came across Mr Maninder Gill, IAS, who is at present working with World Bank on its Environment & Social wing & to our delight asked us about what more can be done for conservation for wildlife especially around urban cities like Pune!

Here is what we shared with him, though this is my version & inputs has been given by Vinod, Anuj, Hemangi & Aarti. The version which Jungle Belles has sent to Mr Gill is more refined & professional & that’s obvious considering the official position he holds! I myself happened to play some part in making of Wild Wild Pune as a script writer & adviser, so I am thinking of penning down my views about wildlife conservation proposals as why just the World Bank, anybody here can come forward & play his or her role in it, is what I feel, here we go!

 

Sustainable Wildlife Conservation:

 

We all speak about wildlife & mostly everybody agrees something has to be done, but what, how & who are the three questions where the trail ends, is what mostly happens! Here is a small effort to make people know that the right approach with a holistic thought process can answer all above three questions about wildlife conservation & Jungle Belles is happy to provide & work on the solution rather than succumbing to these questions! We suggest that the solutions which we will applying to two pilot locations, one is at Kadbanwadi, a grassland habitat near Pune, Maharashtra & another is Jununa Buffer gate of the famous Tadoba tiger reserve, Maharashtra as there has to be a scale to measure the outcome of our solutions & above two can be case study for the same as later we can make replicas of the same as well it will help us in understanding lacunas also in the solutions. We need to understand that wildlife conservation is not some engineering formula which can be cut pasted from google or worked in some R & D lab, it has to be studied at ground & needs to be tested with trial & error, though for that also on paper a system must be in place with proper study of the onsite situation! 

We have identified three verticals of the wildlife conservation aspect; one is awareness & education. Second is, comfortable coexistence of man & wild animals i.e., avoiding conflicts by accident or by purpose. Third is strengthening the infrastructure for the protection. I don’t say this is a perfect plan but somewhere unless you don’t put the things on the paper you will be able to make a proper plan, was the thought behind this exercise!

 

WILDLIFE CONSERVATION THROUGH AWARENESS AND EDUCATION

The goal of this program is to raise awareness among the general public on the importance of Nature and the threats it faces. It aims to create tangible actions and solutions to face those threats that will inevitably impact all of us.

There is no doubt that human activity is hugely responsible for damaging the environment. The fact that concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased by more than a third since the industrial revolution highlights our impact. Therefore, it is our responsibility to improve our environmental awareness and change our behaviour.

Environmental awareness is an incredibly important part of our lives. In order to protect the sustainability of the planet, everyone needs to commit to becoming more environmentally aware.

It is especially imperative to teach children about the importance of environmental awareness, to ensure that the lives of future generations are secure. As things stand, it's the future generations that will be most affected by our actions. Therefore, we must equip our children with the tools necessary to behave in a responsible and informed way towards the environment.

Activities proposed:
1) To build an interpretation centre

The centre will have the following facilities:
  a) Exhibits of photos of local wildlife and related landscapes(habitats).

  b) Material explaining the importance of these habitats for the preservation of wildlife

  c) Not all photos can be printed and so remaining photos can be displayed using a digital                Monitor.
  d) We can make a dedicated film on the grasslands/shrublands of Karbanwadi. It will appeal to the local when they see familiar places/people (interviews of locals + forest staff) and animals
  e) A small library of nature/wildlife/conservation related books

Through the screening of environmental films, we wish to promote awareness and discuss with the audience on various themes that resonate with the local context, ranging from deforestation to plastic pollution.

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MAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT & MITIGATIONS TO BE UNDERTAKEN

Man-Animal conflict can be defined as any interaction that results in negative effects on social, economic or cultural life of Humans and on wildlife conservation or on the environment. Animals & Humans have shared planet for hundreds of years. The historic forms of conflict started with predation on ancestors of prehistoric man, followed by crop & livestock depredation. These interactions are however, becoming more frequent, serious, and widespread and thus pose a significant wildlife management challenge.

The rise in man-animal conflict has been attributed to several factors, such as the expansion of human activities into wildlife habitats, recovery, and expansion of a few wild animal populations, and large-scale environmental and land use changes. Human-wildlife conflicts are complex and defy easy analysis and solutions. Considering the nature of its complexity, Govt. has implemented multipronged, holistic and interdisciplinary strategies to reduce or minimize negative human-wildlife interactions. Maharashtra has the highest rate of ex-gratia payment in India for human-wildlife death/injury by wild animals, compensation of crop damage, cattle depredation and has implemented schemes like Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukharjee Jan Van Vikas Yojana. To reduce human-wildlife conflict.

We plan to propose the following projects in two of the areas which can be our pilot project.

Proposed Action 1: We have also set up Rapid Rescue Units which are providing very effective. It has been observed that most of the deaths of animals are caused because of the animal felling in the wells. These wells are unfortunately not closed and animals are on the run to chase an animal fall into this, gets injured, and exhausted and many times it leads to death. So, one of the focuses of our project will be to identify the wells around areas which has good wildlife. Construct raised parapets to wells, cover to siphon wells, livestock protection sheds to avoid conflict and accidental deaths of wild animals

Proposed Action 2: It has been also observed that during summer, temperature rises and natural water shrinks due to the high rate of evaporation. Animals move in search of water and unfortunately enter some of the villages located on the fringes of the wildlife areas. This is when the conflict began. The plan is to build artificial waterholes and supply water through water tankers / bore wells. This is mainly required during summers. But making available food inside the areas will definitely help this issue.   

Proposed Action 3: Conduct wide publicity campaign & awareness creation on Animal-Human conflicts among local villages.

 

 

Scope of area:

A.    Pune Wildlife Division is home to some of the best non-protected dryland habitats in the country. Kadbanwadi is one of the areas we suggest. The habitat is home to various key wildlife species such as Indian Grey Wolf, Four Horned Antelope, Striped Hyena, Rusty-spotted cat, Chinkara etc.; some of which are globally threatened. Apart from wildlife, this habitat is also a key component of human lives and livelihoods. Many pastoral communities like dhangars are directly dependent on these habitats for their livelihood. These areas also form watersheds that maintain ground water levels in these arid/semiarid landscapes. Thus, it is safe to say that these non-protected landscapes are not merely biodiversity wastelands, but important socio-economic landscapes that need nuanced management and protection. However, given the lack of legislative protection, these near-natural habitats are always one step away from losing out to short-sighted anthropogenic impacts.

B.     Tadoba Tiger Reserve: India's leading Tiger Reserve is Tadoba. It’s located in Maharashtra in the district of Chandrapur. The park is spread over an area of 1725 Sq. Kms and has a great diversity of Flora & Fauna and a very high population of Tigers. It has 20 entry gates out of which 6 are core and 14 are for Buffer. Thousands of locals earn out of the tourism held in Tadoba. This area holds a great population. There are a good number of villages located on the fringes of this park, hence chances of man-animal conflict are very high in this region.

Why these 2 areas:-

1.      Our team of Jungle Belles have been already working in the above 2 landscapes. We know local people there and we have a good understanding of that area.

2.      We already are doing some work with Forest Department, so it will help to co-ordinate and execute the proposed Pilot Project

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Infrastructure to Wild Life's Protector's

Most important aspect which is missing in wildlife conservation is indeed ignorance about wildlife but that can't be considered as an excuse because can we apply the same logic to human accidental deaths or destruction? Answer is no, as when any human life is involved in the fatality or even an accident then the law doesn't accept that you were ignorant about traffic rules or any such & become reason for loss of some human life so you can be excused & exactly this is why people fear or respect khaki uniform of a Policeman but not that of a Forest Guard. Outcome is people don't consider the life of wild animals as important as humans! Agreed it will take time to change the law but till then we can strengthen the infrastructure provided to personnel which are involved in protecting the wildlife risking their own lives in doing so! In recent times many incidents have happened where forest guards which have to patrol the forests on foot as well the forest ground level staff also have become victims of wild animal's attack as well of poachers & they have nothing to protect themselves in doing so, making their morale, real down! 

 

This is where we can help forest protecting units by giving them special suits to state of art kits which will have lifesaving equipment as well medicines. To illustrate what a small help can make a difference here is a small initiative we have done, in Kanha forest a few years back we provided safety light weight rubber shoes of knee high & it reduced snake bites by nearly 70% to the forest labours which are involved in post monsoon clearing works along the forest roads! Thinking of providing battery operated vehicles to making for them safe sleeping bags sustainable for all kind of weather, to medical kit lanced with antivenom of snake bite, so many things need to be looked at because to stay 365 days in the forest is not something even a diehard wildlife lover can do without any support from the outside world!  

 

Friends, whether the World Bank will fund or help Jungle Belles venture is a different aspect yet each of us can come forward & can contribute any of the above aspects in wildlife conservation. It's an unfortunate fact that in a country with a population of 130 plus crores, when it comes to wildlife or nature conservation then very few hands come forward to assist & that’s actually the biggest hurdle in wildlife conservation! Only if even one tenth of the population of this country contributes to wildlife conservation, then the dream of Bindi can come true for every Indian, as this country is the richest with wildlife treasure which we only can preserve from getting vanish into the thin air, literally!

 

Plz, do watch “Wild Wild Pune” on the link below & do share, that will make you also a hero in conserving wildlife, for sure!

 

https://youtu.be/J7_pKK0QAqI

--

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

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