Story of a mad man named Nandu Tambe & his Forest!

 

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“Believe in your heart that you're meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles.” …

“If you have a strong purpose in life, you don't have to be pushed. Your passion will drive you there.” …

… Roy T. Bennett

Roy Leslie Bennett was a Zimbabwean politician and member of the British South Africa Police. He was also a member of the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe for the seat of Chimanimani, where he was affectionately known as Pachedu. Well, it’s not for Roy’s above credentials but for the writer of a wonderful book named “Light in the Heart”, from which I have used his above quotes for my sharing which is about a passionate man (read as a mad) & his passion i.e., forest. I deliberately mentioned the subject of my sharing as man & the forest because they are inseparable in this case & I am referring to one Nandu (Nishikant) Tambe & the forests of Western Ghats of Chiplun, Konkan, Maharashtra State. I came to know about Nandu nearly some fifteen years back that there is a man who is trying to make his own forest somewhere in Konkan & as the subject was close to my passion, I started gathering information about Nandu & the more I came to know the more I was getting interested in his & his work! Though Nandu is not much of social media person, rather not a social person (read as with humans), yet what I came to understand or say gather information is, he had some ancestral land near forest & he realized the danger or threat to the forests around & stated acquiring lands around his land & conserving or converting these lands in forests!

This sounds simple & plain at face & I have tried such an effort in DSK Vishwa as Urban Forest but that was on just a few thousand sq. ft land & among the concrete buildings & controlled environment. Those who have not been to real forests, especially the thickset of western ghats that are at the foothills & in between Arabian Ocean, let me tell you it’s more difficult than describing someone who hasn’t been to DisneyLand or Las Vegas Strip or our Taj-Mahal. I used a manmade structures analogy because many of you can correlate with that but to describe the forest around Nandu’s land, well the Deccan Plateau ends at Patan town in Satara district on western side of State & from there starts ranges of Western Ghats & for 100 kms there is lush green cover (fortunately still it’s there), water bodies & only god knows what this green cover holds below it, such is unique biodiversity of insects, animals, birds, reptiles & plants in these forests. The land where Nandu’s forest is located is at foothills of western ghats & the forests here are the oldest by age among the entire range & that’s why it's a very important habitat! This nandu has been understood long back & that is one of the major reasons he decided to conserve it as it is as part of his mission forest. The problem with the forest is the same with the tigers as human’s population , which is ever growing, needs land for their use & the tiger can at least protest or attack back but the trees silently fall down without any opposition to the axe of humans & step back making space for human’s homes! But in this process if the humans get the land for their homes then thousands of species become homeless (and die), who cares, right?

Everyday nandu was witnessing the damage being done to the forests around his land & the threat for the future of entire original natives of these forests which includes hundreds of birds, reptiles, even animals like leopard & plants & he decided to stop it. Well, to decide something is one aspect but to get what you have decided in action is another aspect especially when the decision is related to conservation of nature. As his land was just some 10 acres & how much one man can save & what he can do against entire towns or city’s encroachment on the forest! But nandu is mad, let me tell you frankly & the world needs such mad persons as they only can dare to take on to stop the entire world when the entire world is going the wrong way! He decided to act two ways, first whatever land he has got, to conserve the forest in the way it is & make it regrow where it has been damaged & second, to acquire as much adjoining land to conserve forest around his forest land & he started like a one-man army.  Obviously earlier he has tried a conventional path of taking monthly sallariwala job & so did his brother but soon nandu realized he is not meant to do a 10am to 6pm job to live & about earning part of the job, well I told you, nandu is mad, right & mad men don’t think like you & me! So, he quit the job & started spending full time in the restoration of his forest & soon his brother & mom also joined (family can’t give up on the mad member) & started a journey which we today called as a success story of forest revival!

The journey is now nearly some twenty-year-old & so are many plants & trees which nandu has planted. Today his forest is a home for some of the rarest birds such as Oriental Dwarf KingFisher (ODKF), smallest of king fisher clan & most colourful. There are fish owls, there are eagles, there are barbets, there are butterflies, there are sunbirds, there are snakes (lots of them), there are ants, there are spiders, there are scorpions, there are even leopards too & to accommodate these all there is home (read as food & habitat) for every above specie & all this only a mad man can make possible! What nandu did was, first study everything about forests in this region as he doesn’t believe in just planting new 0r numbers of trees but he wants to give back to the forests what we have taken from them. To explain in simpler language, nandu is not trying to make a man out of a monkey but what he is trying to do is, let the monkey survive as a monkey in a healthy way & at peace! And to do this he was needed to study the basics of the forest or say wildlife of the type of forest along the foothills of the western ghats. The forest here is unique, as it's evergreen, ready to absorb lots of rain & survive even in shadows as with the thicket of trees many a times sunlight never touches the ground here. We can see a complete life cycle starting from water which is pure form of life to moss, to grass, to small plants, to creepers & big trees & all of these makes a Western Ghat classic forest & then automatically the wildlife follows once the home is ready!

And this job needs money which nandu tries to generate from tourism by making few areas of his forest available for photography of different birds such as ODKF. And he accepts money for the restoration & not plantation but as I said he is not a commercial person or else he would have made much more money by now which he should as then he can save more forest, is what I told him. At present nandu accepts money for restoration of the forest under which he uses such money for planting new trees & making them survive which isn’t an easy job. It needs protection from grazing to irrigation as well as daily looking after the new plantation which is in tune with the local flora & fauna. Apart from bird’s photography , if you believe in the madness or say, are ready to share some of it then do spare some time to talk with nandu. He believes that he is doing this work is part of destiny & he believes that the trees, birds, even snakes here can speak with him. He can heal injured birds by talking to them, he can ask an owl to change its nest by having a dialogue with the owl & the owl obeys what nandu says; I haven’t witnessed these stories but nandu told it to me & I believe nandu! Unless you don’t know how to speak with every entity in the forest, how will you know what it needs for survival, its same philosophy which is applicable in our family at home, right? If you call something a home then there has to be a family & a dialogue between the family members. Adhering to this logic, for nandu, his forest is his home & every specie of this home is his family member & that’s why he is able to speak with them; for nandu it’s that simple a thing which many people will call as madness but that’s their problem, not nandu’s!  If we want to undo the damage we have done to the wildlife because of the chaos created by so called sane people like us, then  the only way is, to join the mad person like nandu or at least give him a free hand & support him in whatever way possible!

You can connect nandu @ 09922587001 & his forest is some 8 km from Chiplun city towards south. Do visit, as that itself will be a start of you joining hands in the conservation of a forest on which our future is depending, is all I can say; adios with this note.

Location -

https://www.google.com/maps/place/17%C2%B026'44.7%22N+73%C2%B025'15.6%22E/@17.4457522,73.4188057,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x364b3838fd3b042e!8m2!3d17.4457522!4d73.4209944?hl=en

 

 

Email-  nandutambe444@gmail.com

 

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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

 

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

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