“Bees always follow the sweet flower, that's why everyone enjoys being with you.”
“Remember expressions go a
long way before you say or do anything, we look at how you represent yourself”
…
Nozipho N. Maphumulo is a South African writer and quoted author known for inspirational and poetic reflections & no wonder I could use two of his quotes at a time & draw some conclusion of mine from them. Well, the subject of sharing is about guides (yes it has forest & Tadoba also) & though its about wildlife & tigers but it’s about showing them or let’s see understanding them via guide! Ok, won’t make you stop reading by riddles (read as ridiculous language), I have been lucky to be part of Anuj Khare’s (Nature Walk) team along with Vinod Bartakke (Wildlifer) & Hemangi vartak (Jungle belles) to participate or address (Anuj’s term) to guides of Tadoba buffers in a training session arranged by TATAR (tadoba forest management). Well, those who have not yet gone to the forest safaris, for them you can not enter in reserved forests such as Tadoba, Pench or any Sanctuaries like UKWS in your private vehicle or on your own. You need to enter here in a special licensed vehicle (usually a Gipsy) & must be accompanied all the time with a trained person which we call as a guide. Though the catch is, this person is not forest dept’s employee nor he is a freelancer, he (or she) has been licenced by the forest dept as expert on respective forest & he gets paid per trip basis from the money which tourists pay to the said park or sanctuary as safari charges. Usually these are locals or natives who know the forest better than city people as they have grown up in the forest & knows many things about the wildlife, especially local wildlife. And as in & around reserved forests there are many restrictions on farming or doing any other business, being a guide is a good source of earning for the locals, is also one logic behind it, but!
But, there is a small hitch here, as these people are not academically educated & as well they have very less exposure of outside world & what they know about wildlife is in their native language or knowledge, they don’t have skill developed to explain the same to the tourists & updation of the changes in wildlife terminology of species or reasons behind them. And exactly for this aspect forest dept arranges their yearly training programs of which I was part of one such at Tadoba, Kolara range! The Tadoba buffers have more than 18 nos of gates & for this session approximately total 80 odd guides were present from six gates, which comes under Kolara range & they are Madnapur (here the training is conducted), Alizanza, Kolara Buffer, Belara & Shirkeda. I could see young teen age faces to weather torn seniors & few of them knew me already, though not as a trainer or speaker as this was my first time addressing to buffer guides. Anuj has told me to cover two main aspects, what tourists want from their guide & personality development along with motivation! I accepted this challenge for two things, one I wanted to have a dialogue with these people who every day are in forest & in a way it's actually learning from them & second no more wildlife tourism is a passion of patriotism, is what I personally feel. It must be treated as any other service industry if we want to make it sustainable, financially & what better opportunity than to interact with people who, along with forests, spend time with the end customer i.e. tourist! (One best thing was, I could communicate with them in Vidarbhian Marathi /Hindi, as being from Vidarbha)
It was a two days session & on the first day in the opening session I have briefed them about the theme & told them a short story which is a real incident. Long back when I was having casual discussion with an MSEDL (MSEB) senior officer & image of MSEB in people’s mind, he told me, sanjay, it’s simple, if in a remote village at night electricity gets cut & the wireman which is last link of system is drunk & unable to repair the fault & the village spent night in darkness, the entire village will curse MSEB for being corrupt & useless organization. But if the lineman is awake & is fit & repairs the electricity fault at night & starts the supply, the villagers will praise the MSEB for its efficiency! In nutshell, the end guy of the system who is the actual link between the customer & the system matters most which a guide is for wildlife tourism & the forests! As tourists think they are the forest dept which they are not actually yet whatever the next four hours the tourist is going to see, listen or experience in the forest, how the guide behaves with the tourists is what is going make their opinion about the forest & wildlife at large! Next day, when I started, could see faces looking at me with curiosity & pepped up & again I told them, I am not going to speak a word about wildlife, not in this session but will try to share what I have understood about giving service to the client & its advantages, personal as well for the organization at large! I told them this also that at the same time I will try to learn many things from them & for that interaction is important, so I asked them to write (yes write) answers to two questions, one, “What is My Job?” & second, “What’s the most difficult equation a tourist has asked you during safari?” And I told them will give you five minutes in which they have to write these two questions in three or four lines & submit to me with their names & gate!
This may look simple on face, but most of these guides have lost touch of writing even a few words which was important for me to make them realize for the session ahead & I firmly believe, when you write something, you need to be lot more focused than just speaking, which I wanted them to be! In ten minutes, I had nearly fifty plus sheets of papers & I didn’t press those who couldn’t write & told them no need to hide their faces, its ok, even fifty sheets is lot more than my expectations! And I moved on with the theme, focusing on my first question! What is my job, and 90% of the answers were near similar, I am guide, I am supposed to show tourist forest & explain them nature & such. And the next question, there were nearly 70% different answers, means tourists have asked different questions to each of the guide which they found difficult to answer. This is the game, I told them, as first question I got all answers near same as it was to be asked about you but the second question want in your control, & in one go like 21 Expected (plz google 21 apekshit) for 1oth exam, we have nearly all the most difficult questions which are asked to them respectively & which can be asked tomorrow to any of them. This is the power of sharing, I explained them, & then I asked one of the guides who came across a very peculiar question & it was about Periods of Tigress, that is what he answered. He said, I told them, I don’t know but I will get information & tell you. I immediately asked, 50% marks, but did you take down the contact number of this tourist & reverted him about the answer? The guide’s sheepish smile told me & this is what differentiates between a right guide & others as I didn’t call them wrong!
I told them there are only two types of people in the world & they are; capable & incapable (Layak & Nalayak)! We are all born as incapable but it’s the knowledge we acquire is what makes us able & how we use that knowledge decides whether we are really able or not! And here I shared one mor Zen story, which was about four stone men working on a temple with their sledge hammer & having clarity about the jobs at hand. While the first one said he is breaking the stone because he is getting paid for it, the last one said, he is making steps of a temple which is being built here & his job is to make stepping stones for the temple, having perfect clarity about the job, which is what makes him an able stone man! Then I came to the most vital issue or challenge in their job i.e. sighting of a tiger! I asked them even if the park's Field Director sits in your gypsy & asks you to show him a tiger, will you be able to do it; all laughed even that thought, FD sitting in their car! I said, no, will be the answer which you know & even FD knows, but the tourist comes to see a tiger is a fact whether you accept it or not & how we are dealing with it is what I am trying to help you with! I gave them an example of my own office, as in conference room of our office where my marketing team meets customers inquiring for home, the TV keeps displaying images of wildlife & our conservation efforts instead of our project’s images. The entire discussion starts with a different note than the rate of the project & eventually whether the customer buys flat with us or not, the meeting ends on a positive note. Same principles applicable with tourists on the tiger sighting front, as if we succeed to divert tourist’s focus from seeing tiger then half war is won, & this is what differentiates a best guide & others as there are nothing like a bad guide, I reminded them! And for doing this, such trainings are essential as well they need to develop few things to make tourists speak about things other than the tiger & for that reading is a must as well gather knowledge about not just wildlife but general knowledge about our country, people as then you can open a dialogue with the tourist, which is the key. Make the tourist speak about things he or she likes to speak for e.g. a Bengali tourist will be happy if you ask him question about Mamata Didi or politics over there or about Jhalmodi (plz google) or Rosgulla, in short anything but tiger & see the effect!
At the same time, I suggested them to make groups of guides on WhatsApp & share information about wildlife across the gates & arrange their own get-togethers occasionally, as why they need forest dept to do so, why can’t they on their own arrange such training for themselves? Last but not least is, fitness, being a guide is tough job, bumpy gypsy rides, extreme weather conditions, all this does take toll on health & for that exercise, discipline & keeping away from addictions like guthka is a must, if you want to play long term innings! To conclude, I told the guides to practice three things, read, whatever you can from newspapers or on google news, write at least a few lines everyday about what they saw in the forest & last is, speak with tourists instead waiting for them to ask questions & then see the difference in life!
Well, this was about the guide but on the training front I have few suggestions for the forest dept also, how they reach to write people…
First, indeed it’s a great initiative to take training of guides but it needs to be more systematic & parodical than abruptly scheduled. Let’s park’s senior officers sit with the trainers first & chalk out exact contents for training. See that all the guides get covered as this time half of the guides only got training & the rest half are in limbo about their term for training. Similar training is a must for ground staff of forest dept. Gypsy drivers are also an important aspect of tourism & their training is also equally important. As well all such sessions must be recorded on video as these are wonderful doccumentataions & sharing them can help many other guides also! Last but important, remuneration of trainers, with due respect what figures I came to know from sources are practically peanuts & if proper remuneration is not there then the drive behind the training also gets loosen up. Thankfully our bread & butter isn’t on the training yet if we want quality training then we must pay also for that quality is logic, right? Guys, guides are the link between wildlife & the world outside of it, if we strengthen that link then only there is hope for wildlife, is all I can say, adios with this note!
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Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
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