Every Forest Has a Story!

 

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The entire Party, the whole army, and all the people should conduct a vigorous forest restoration campaign to make the mountains of the country thick with forests… Kim Jong-un.

Kim Jong-un is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's second supreme leader from 1994 to 2011, and Ko Yong-hui. Well, the man must be known to all the world for his eccentrics as well as cruelty yet when I came across his above quote, I felt still there is some hope & the man must be some humanity alive within him! Or else not even the so-called sane rulers of the world outside S. Korea can think of such things to act on the front of the forests. Actually, the biggest enemy which is knocking our doors is not some uniform wearing army or drones, it's we ourselves against the entire nature which is in the form of forests or such habitats & on such background Jong-un’s words carries great message which is why I started my sharing with them!

Its mid-summer & already the April month has been declared as hottest April month in last 122 years from the central India where my outing was & needless to say in such period to visit forests for even four days it such a tough thing then imagine about the people living all their lifelong in & around these habitats & with bare minimum means of earning, rather the only means available at many of these places is wildlife tourism & that too with restricted numbers, so your income ways are fix not your needs though!  And my, this particular trip was mainly to see the places which are not much known on wild-life maps of central Indian forests or are recently making their place on the map & two of them are Umred Karhandla wildlife sanctuary & another id Boar sanctuary. Actually, both these places are hardly two hours driving from Nagpur airport or railway station, same like Pench or tadoba but as for most of us (even for the govt’s) wildlife tourism mean tiger sighting, so unless a place gets famous for tiger sightings (read as assured) the tourists don’t visit & UKWS as well Bor too are not exception for this law of wildlife tourism! Rather on my very first hour in the gipsy the guide told me, “Saheb, yaha ka jungle bahot khunsurat hai par tiger dihneke chances kum hai isliye tourist jada aate nahi aur aap bhi bura mat maniyega dikha nahi to” i.e sir, our forest is very beautiful but we don’t get many tourists as tigers’ sightings are not frequent here & you also, please don’t feel bad if you don’t get to see a tiger, is what he told me. I was really touched with those innocent words like they say something deep within in me got shaken, the simplicity, helplessness or call it sincerity, as the poor boy knows every tourist (read as most of them) comes here by spending money (lots of it) to see a tiger & if they don’t get to see one then the frustration must be getting poured on the guide only & that’s why right in the beginning, he must have shared this fact about the forest to me! That Guide’s, above words are the focus of my sharing & not just the forests or habitats as we can't change the approach of the tourists towards wildlife tourism overnight but we can change the people in the system which we call wild life & of which guides are the backbone actually! One more aspect is very much important & neglected & that is the stay during your forest trips. Because visiting forests is a hectic thing with time schedule which urban folks are not used to wake up early i.e., 4.30 am & then with extreme summer & winter in central Indian forests spend nearly eight hours in rough gypsy ride, all these can be dealt only if your stay arrangements are comfortable as you need proper rest. And if your stay arrangements are not good (I am not saying luxurious) then it directly reflects on your rest & later on mood which gets reflected on your patience while you are looking for a tiger & if you don’t get to see one then it gets converted in to frustration & the guide is the only victim of that frustration! This aspect is what we (read as forest dept & travel cos’) must take in consideration especially while promoting the home stays around forests. I repeat, I am not saying give five-star facilities as when you are in a home stay or at some remote place in the forest. It's difficult to maintain such a facility with no trained staff & uncertainty of income yet some basic things are a must & they are understanding the needs of the wildlife tourists. I will share my own example (rare thing I do) at Bor sanctuary where my friend has booked me at a local homestay as I reached at odd hours of night (11 pm) because the person at home stay guided me wrongly & I missed the road delaying my arrival by 3 hours, first level of frustration! And after that, the wash basin’s outlet connection wasn’t in place, making the entire water spill on my legs after I washed my face, frustration level two. Then there was no mirror on the wash basin though there was glass on the ceiling with a bathtub in that toilet, so I have to use my cell phone on selfie mode for shaving, frustration level three. Then the air conditioner was leaking, making the entire bed mattress wet & kept me awake, frustration level four. Lastly, the caretaker, though, promised morning tea at 5 am, but didn’t himself wake up & I had to get in the gypsy without even a cup of tea, final level of frustration! Only because I have been in & around the forests for much longer time, I didn’t let my frustration out on the guide as he has nothing to do with all these my frustration tests & tiger sighting wasn’t in his control, so I smiled at him when he told me that opening dialogue at the start of safari & enjoyed the forest as usual & tipped him while getting down after the safari, which was a pleasant surprise for him! The guide said, sir bahot achha laga, tiger nahi dikha fir bhi aap naraj nahi huae or bakshis bhi diya!” ie sir, you tipped me even if you didn’t get to see a tiger & yet you tipped me, I am very much thankful, do come again! This is what forest dept & concerned people (ngos’, wild lifers as well travel cos’) make some system to train the home-stay owners & not just the guides or guards of the forests about the services as well wildlife tourism needs! A committee may be to review & take regular training as well the concerned officers also can visit home-stays in their jurisdiction, have a dialogue with the tourists as well as home-stay owners as we can't expect them to know what an urban person needs, even basic, right? Like there was AC but servicing was a problem, there was best of the company make commode , basin & bath tub but plumbing was not proper, there was a mirror but at wrong place & the caretaker was there but aspeel when the tourist needed him, all such things can be taken care with little bit of training, that’s where we have to step in, is what I feel!

After Bor & UKWS I went to Tadoba & mainly visited newly opened gates of the buffer on the Kolara side (Chimur city side) which not many tourists visit. Here the forest is wonderful & the guides are new & shy to have a dialogue with tourists as one, they haven’t ever been exposed to city people much & second they themselves don't know what to show to the tourists apart from a tiger! Like, it is summer & Mahua trees are blossoming & collecting Mahua flowers is many local resident’s way of daily earning in this time of year. These people (usually women) start early for Mahua flower picking fallen under the tree & often have to face encounters with tigers or such big animals like sloth bear & have wonderful stories of such encounters. I met one such woman who told us that just before our gypsy came, she had seen a big tiger & she ran & hid in the bushes till the tiger got away from her eye sight & she again started her work of picking mahua flowers! The guides must stop & make tourists interact with these locals as that makes the safari interesting as I bait not even 20% of the tourists has ever seen a mahua tree & knows why these flowers are being picked by the locals! Same way there are small temples with statues of Baghdev (tiger) at the entrance of Kolara buffer gate & I was curious about why they built four-five temples at the same place & I asked guides about it. The answer was fascinating, they said it’s not temple of the tiger but each temple indicates the person which has got killed by the tiger in the locality & all the statues has been tied to the respective temple walls, this intrigued me more & I further inquired about the chain tied to the neck of tiger statue. Answer I got was, (which the guide sheepishly said), “sir aap loag to wishwas nahi karoge” i.e sir, you are people from city so you won't believe the logic but it’s to keep the spirit of the tiger which has killed the respective person, tied all the time to the place to make it unable to move around & thus restrain the tiger from killing more persons! The answer did give me goosebumps as only those who has wandered in the dark nights & in total silence around the forests can imagine the terror a tiger can cause in the minds of people living around & its terror or fear which can make you believe anything, is a human psychology! By the way, I saw a marriage invite of some local family kept at the feet of one of the tiger statues & reason which was told to me was, first invite is always for the tiger spirit! What better example of coexistence can be there of wildlife & humans where a tiger is considered as respected member of the family & first invite of family event like marriage is for the tiger, this is what we need to make tourists know, this is the way you live with the tigers & conserve the forests along!

In my next safaris I listened many such stories about the places in forests, about the people & the animals & its such stories which makes your forest outings memorable as then you look at the forest with a different vision & no more just the tiger is on your agenda, this exactly is what we need to make part of the training of the guides as well the locals. The tourists also should not ask about only tigers but try to make conversations with the guides & make them speak about the forest at large & not just about the tiger sightings, is what we need to tell the tourists & for that we can make a small booklet of FAQs for the tourists with such small stories about the place & believe me every place has some story, all we need is have an ear to listen it & a mind to absorb it, adios with this note!   

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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