Vision of Life; by Sanjay: DNP, Beauty of Life in the Sands!

“The rules of survival never change, whether you're in a desert or in an arena” … Bear Grylls

“It’s in the forests you realize, to survive, how less people have”… Me.

Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls OBE is a British adventurer, writer, television presenter and former SAS trooper who is also a survival expert. And when the subject is about desert where survival is the thing around which entire life revolves, the above words from Grylls came to my mind as men like him have experienced living in such surroundings which is life for many! And another is words which came to my mind when I put myself in the position of Grylls though with much more comfort zone (not actually) & fun is mine & Grylls’s words may be bit different but feelings are same & so is the first thought which came to my mind when had my first full sight of DNP, how can people live here! Its December 2^nd week & famous winter of North Eastern Rajasthan was knocking on the door, my first ride was in the noon so I didn’t realize the cold much, though I was well aware of it but at 6 am in the morning when I get-up for the safari the only thing I noticed was cold everywhere & from every direction, telling me, welcome to Desert National Park winters! Well, before I share about DNP, let me tell you a bit about it which you won’t find on Google & that is how its ignored by the tourists which were in thousands of numbers just some thirty kilometres away from DNP’s gate or the place where we were staying!

Since long I knew, read about DNP but two things were reframing me from going there, one its bit odd location, thanks to Pune’s weird connectivity with other cities via flight & second my intolerance (or say weakness) with cold. First aspect somehow, we managed by taking a flight from Mumbai to Jaisalmer but second aspect is the best season to visit DNP is winter & Rajasthan may be famous for summer but its winter is equally hard to face, especially in this period of the year i.e. mid December! But I knew if I want to see GIB (Great Indian Bustard) as well feel the real wilderness of DNP then I have to visit the place in winters only, finally the wildlifer in me won (as usual) & I was in the gipsy riding through sands, shrubs, dry grass & cold which I can’t explain!

Two things hit you hard when you enter DNP through Sam village side which is its main entry, its endless expand & the chilling cold! On the surface everything looks dead, covered in the yellow shade of sand & dry grass but slowly as the red orange sun rises in the sky you start seeing rather feeling the life around, that's DNP! The sky is like a canvas of red & orange with flocks of birds painting it with black & grey, music of their chirping fills the air, there is sudden swoosh of wings with an eagle flying up high or a laggar falcon diving down to catch its prey which is invisible to our human eyes & you realize how much alive the deserts can be!
Indeed life is hard in every corner of the world & comfort is for a very lucky few yet in places like DNP where weather also is ruthless in compare to most others places i.e. mercury shifting gears from four degrees to fifty degrees in winter to summer, every day is fight for survival, for humans as well for wildlife! And in such habitat survives some of the most endangered, near extinct species like Great Indian Bustard, Desert Cat, Desert Fox & many such making this desert their home! It's our duty to contribute in every possible way to protect these last breathing habitats which are Homes for the animals who have been keeping these deserts alive by their presence!

As I said life is hard for the animals & birds & its equally hard for the most evolved species i.e. the humans also, with very less sources of income from farming or from domestic animals & extreme weather conditions is worst enemy to confront! I was staying at homestay by Musa khan, with limited resources a moderate stay facility & in that winter at 4 am in morning the boys who were working there used to wakeup & make tea for us, it was so heartening to see that, Ismile was name of one of the boys who worked there & I admire his ever-smiling face in such extreme living conditions & ready to assist all the time! The problem with such establishments like Musa’s is with uncertainty over the visitors trips they can spend much on upcoming or making the stay place like a resort & as the place is not at part with resorts tourist (may) refrain coming here exception of hardcore wildlifers! My word of advice if Musabhai come across this sharing is, you may not give five-star luxury but toilets & eating place area must to be kept in clean & good condition if you want to promote the place. As well the food must be in tune with city people, a bit subtle on spice front! Yet its people like Musa who dedicatedly are working for the DNP in their own way as its not easy to dare to remain in a profession like wildlife on the dependency of fewer tourist giving up more lucrative way of earning such as focusing on fun or entertainment tourism such as desert safari or make just a relaxing staying place types & full marks to Musa khan & his brother Sikandar who are dedicatedly taking wildlifers in DNP for a long period now! One more advice to all wildlife tour operators, please speak less on mobile with your new booking clients while you are on safari with some customer as not only it disturbs a lot to the real wildlifer but it makes you deviated from the things happening around, as I understand importance of revenue in business but there is way to conduct your business, that’s called professionalism! This thing I have observed with many guides as well drivers, all across the country’s forests as they are too much involved in attending calls for new bookings right in the ongoing safari, not a good thing for the tourists who are with you & wants your attention for which they have paid you, all those concerned who are reading please take note!

Coming back to wildlife at DNP, well, first you don’t see any animal here for which most forests are known in this country i.e. tiger, leopard, rhino, elephant or even some rare monkey! Rather at first sight you don’t see anything but sand, thorny shrubs, dry grass & sky, not even a water body! And as Musa’s expert eyes helped with binocs starts showing you things then you realize the fun of wildlife here! And if there are 3000 plus tigers in the entire country then there are only 200 (yes you read right, two hundred) GIBs’ left in the entire country & maybe in the world which is why DNP is special! And the tiger is a 300kg weighing, 12ft long animal while GIB is 5 to 6 kg weighing bird with wings & 1/10^th of the size of tiger, now you can imagine the hard part in sighting a GIB in comparison to a tiger in the wild! And this too was my one more motivation as to see a GIB before it becomes a Dodo (please google) with due respect for the great efforts by Rajasthan’s Forest dept, yet the threat is not over on these few surviving GIBs here, is a fact! I saw huge windmills & power lines right on the fringe of DNP which is a direct threat to GIB as these are low flying bird & due to their heavy body-weight they can’t fly long & add poor eye sight in these odds & you will realize these power lines along with windmill blades are death traps for GIBs! Joke is, the concerned dept (power or whatsoever) has spent millions & added reflectors on these power lines to divert the GIB & other flying birds through these zones only adding to the misery as the reflecting sun rays cause more confusion in the flight plan of these birds is what locals said. At the same time GIB lays only two or three eggs in a year & on open ground so the eggs are vulnerable to all sorts of damage/ threats making conservation of these birds more difficult! Barring GIB there are many raptors i.e. eagles, falcons, harriers as well grass-land birds, its heaven of birds actually! And there is desert cat, again an endangered species because of loss of habitat as well desert fox & many such! What I wonder about is, on one side our govt spend huge money & manpower to save species such as GIB & tigers & on the other side the very same govt erects obstacles such as power lines, dams, canals, railway lines, highways & mines right around habitats of these animals, what’s this joke & is our Hon PM going to look in this aspect of conservation where saviour itself is a destroyer of the wildlife!

From DNP’s entry gate Pakistan border is hardly some 50km away, Dhanana is the last village/ settlement on that road where Border Security Force has their check post. I visited that place & gave some goodies to the soldiers at the check post, who were happy to accept & chat but politely declined to have a photograph with us for security reasons, though they allowed us to click our photos at the check post! Beauty of DNP is, it stretches in to Pakistan also & birds, camels & all such species cross the border often making us realize nature has no borders, its we the humans who has created it & suffer because of our own creation; I said adios to DNP with this realization with a promise to visit soon!

Here are some wonderful moments I came across at DNP, you can watch at the link below...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72177720322741433/

Sanjay Deshpande

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

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