Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Satpura, Sheer Wilderness!

“A house you can rebuild; a bridge you can restring; a washed-out road you can fill in. But there is nothing you can do about a tree but mourn.” … Louise Dickinson Rich

Louise Dickinson Rich was a writer known for fiction and non-fiction works about the New England region of the United States, particularly Massachusetts and Maine. And no wonder as I had been to those parts of USA & even today its thickly wooded & that’s why I can understand the love & affection of Louise towards the forests which she has warned us through her above words! And when the subject of sharing is about a forest where I started knowing about wilderness & is a place which is like ocean of greens (thankfully still it is) then it’s Loise’s above word which fits perfectly for the start. I am refereeing to my recent trip to Satpura Tiger Project in MP & about which not many people know much, even the die-hard wild lifers also visit less frequently this place & reason is its vastness! And the logic is, the forest spread over nearly 2200 sq kms, & this is just tiger park’s area, all around this park also there is forest & this forest contains hills, mountains, ridges, valleys, gorge, water bodies, rivers, ponds, lakes & densely wooded patches making it near impossible to sight a tiger & unfortunately (or fortunately) tiger sighting is the main focus of wild lifer’s also (yet they call themselves wild lifers is another joke) & this is why Satpura is like an island in ocean but island of wilderness!

Well, you may think I am over-exaggerating because whenever forest of our country is subject of discussion then major names floated around are Kanha, Ranthambore, Corbet, Bandhawgarh & yes recently Tadoba, that’s all! Sorry folks, I am not disrespecting hundreds rather thousands of the forests or habitats & its occupants but open any group of wild life on FB & see the images & their locations! MAin reason is, these places are accessible & most chances of sighting a tiger is here & another aspect is we (read as even the govt) never promotes wildlife or say forests but a tiger or some species such as Cheetahs or Barasingha or Rhino but never a place & that’s the reason places like Satpura doesn’t gets due credit for what they possess! But then if a fool doesn’t care or values for a diamond that isn’t the fault of the diamond but of the fool, is what I said to our guide Nikesh who said to me on first safari, Sir, humare yaha tiger jaldi dikhta nahi, isliye tourist loag jada aate nahi par sir humara jungle bahot khubsurat hai”! That last line, “humara jungle bahot khubsurat hai”, was the most important & heart touching sentence, “humara jungle” i.e. “Our Forest”, that is what made my day & then a boy who has started his journey in the wilderness in Satpura range, doesn’t needed to told him about the beauty of the forest here, is what I told to Nikesh! I have been to Melghat many times in my younger age but its other side i.e., Maharashtra side of these mountain ranges, here in MP we know it as Satpura Project Tiger which in Maharashtra is known as Melghat Tiger reserve & is known to most of the Mumbai-Punekars for its malnutrition induced deaths than for the forests, an unfortunate fact!

Even the Melghat Project Tiger, which has got entrance from Maharashtra side too has lesser tiger sightings as the terrain is same & so is its expand yet with due respect to lesser urbanization (and lesser human population too) Melghat’s MP brother i.e., Satpura Tiger Project’s forests is a lot more virgin & serene too! It’s in Baitul & Narmada Puram (earlier Hoshangabad) districts, some 270 km drive from Nagpur which in my younger days was nightmare but today it’s a four laned highway & you can cover the distance in four hours from Nagpur, first pleasant surprise for me, that was! For years the road from Amravati which cuts across Melghat & heads to Baitul was my dream journey as it passes through entire Melghat forests but never I had privilege of travelling till Baitul & enter in Satpura Forests but this time my wish lish got ticked & so got one more wish list item ticked, a leopard in the evening dusk light walking on road! Satpura range of mountains is probably the oldest in Central India & the forest here is endless as you start from Nagpur & cross the smoke blowing huge chimneys of Koradi thermal Power station & then the forest starts which is with you till you reach in the core of Satapura & sure beyond that! If this is a boon on one side as no industry, urbanization, IT, Airports, nothings are here in this cast belt but that’s what makes the humans here difficult to survive & I think that is the biggest challenge while conservation of such forests like Satpura! Incidentally, this year’s summer only, the Satpura Project Tiger got second ranking all over India for best managed tiger project, at the hands of Hon Prime Minister & may be its because of the difficulties the place has to manage due to its location & expand!

Satpura forests has two main gates, Churna & Madai & the distance between two gates I nearly 100km, so you can imagine the spread of the forest of Satpura! There have been some villages within the buffer & core which has been relocated recently & the restoration of these lands was in progress. It’s very interesting process as the villages consisted some houses made of bricks+ mud, a school building, as well farmlands & a small temple of Bajrangbali (a must feature of every village in Central India). Now the forest dept has demolished all the structures except the temples. The land for the farming will make meadows i.e., grass lands which will be helpful in increasing prey base & all these will make a wonderful habitat as well corridor. Already the abandoned village sites have seen lots of wildlife movements as per the guides &is a good sign. This is major task in-front of all the forest dept’s, as to make space for increased numbers of wild animals & for this herculean task we must appreciate the efforts especially places as remote as Satpura!

This remoteness not only makes work of forest dept hard but even the private service providers too which are most essential for tourism at such places. At Churna, I met my long-time young friend Chinmay Deshpande, who has chosen wild life as his career & is presently CEO of Bori Resort at Churna gate. His place has provided jobs for nearly fifty plus local youngsters & their skill development is a tough job even tougher than to locate a tiger in Satpura! But we need such places & the people, as then only the locals can get the jobs & their knowledge as well skills can be utilized in positive way for conservation of the forests. As one may think what big deal in relocating these villagers, pay them, give them money as well alternate place to settle, what’s the reason for not to leave some remote barren land in exchange of a land at location with infrastructure, right? But then, same equation you try in relocating slums in cities like Pune or Mumbai, why it’s not successful here also? The simple answer is, human tendency is to resist any change & where your generations have stayed for hundreds of years its not so easy to move from there. Instead, if we can make them survive along with their forests & get them job in near by establishments, its always the win-win solution.

One thing, which Satpura needs is training of guides, mainly about communication skills as well using their knowledge of forests in the benefit of tourist. In forests like Satpura, you can feel presence of the tiger all the time but sighting is hard & at such times the tourists may get frustrated because of no tiger sighting but at such times the guide’s role is vital to make the tourists know or enjoy sheer magic of beauty of the forest by keeping them busy with stories as well information about the forests! This is something which forest dept at Satpura must work on with the help of NGO’s as we’ll professional firms & for that govt has to spend as its investment actually! Lastly, some interesting stories always makes part of the forests & Satpura is also not exception for the rule, rather it has got many hidden stories under its green cover. I always ask questions about every unusual activity in the forest as usually the answers unveil wonderful forest stories, is my experience. One such I came across was about story of Baradeo (Twelve Gods). On a turn in the core, I saw a small temple & an old tribe man putting a stone on that temple. This was one of the Bara Deos’ i.e., long back twelve brothers used to protect the forests & villagers around this region which became legends & in their memory twelve such small temples were built across the Satpura forests. If some villager / tribe wants seeks something then he or she has to visit all these twelve temples & put a small stone on top of them then his wish will get fulfilled by the Baradeo is a belief which is still followed around & what I saw was just one example of that belief! Speaking about stories, each forest trip of mine creates some new stories too, here is story of this trip…

That One Glance !!
Every time I visit the forests there is a hidden Wishlist, some of which has remained unticked for more than decades! One such was watching (read as feeling) a leopard walking on the road ahead, from behind & at one moment, it taking a pause to look back in my eyes...The more I wander in forests the more I realize this wish isn't easy to tick as leopard is a shy animal & if there is a tiger around then it will never come in open at ease yet I knew this also, the forests never disappoints you, it's all about your patience, persistence , using your knowledge along with efforts & huge luck to be at right time in rigid place! All of these came together in recent Satpura Trip @ Churna gate. As I said, in Satpura expand of forest is huge & a tiger can have territory even of 100 sq. kilometres, making leopards can have ample space of their own & the habitat is just perfect for them. On a summer eve with sun travelling fast towards horizon, at the start of the safari itself I have said to our guide, "boss, sawere tiger ka movement jis area me hua hai, usase alag area me chalate hai, leopard ka chance lete hai". So, we were moving around terrain which is favourable for leopard & hoping that either we can get it while going to some water body or coming back from it & as the tiger surely was not in this area, there was fair chance, now it’s only about some luck as most of the gypsies have retreated from this area. As well we needed keen eyes of the guide to spot leopard on the background of yellow grey summer habitats of Melghat & we had one in the form of Nikesh, a local young guide who suddenly shouted, "sir, leopard hai zadi me"! Now all we had to do is, take our gipsy away slowly & let it come on road which we did & the young leopardess came on road walking away from us. The dusty road, the fading sunlight & the rosettes (prints on leopards’ skin), my heart was beating fast as one wish-list was ticked & "Man me dusra laddo futa", will she look back as any attempt to reduce distance or overtake her will drove her away in the forests, so we just kept the distance & followed her! She was very much aware of our presence but as there was total privacy apart from our vehicle she was walking in her own peace & there was a tikkat ahead (T Junction) so she has to decide which way to go & at that moment, like she was asking to us where I should go, she paused & look back, strait in my eyes! With a heart rate which would have made me admitted immediately if any doctor would have been there, I got one shot of those piercing eyes, as I knew it will be one glance only & I clicked! After that I kept camera aside & just kept admiring her walk & the heart beats also resumed normal & she just slid in the forest along the road! The whole drama must have lasted for some ten minutes but for me entire time felt like stopped for ever! & so did that image of her looking at me, like she was teasingly smiling, saying, 'Ho gai aapki wish puri"!

And I left Satpura, with the image of that leopardess looking at me carved on my mind forever, with a promise to her, “Fir Milenge, Jaldi Hi”!

Sanjay Deshpande

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