Being a Right Civil Engineer!

                                        

                                                    

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“Science is about knowing; engineering is about doing” …. Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski was an American engineer specializing in failure analysis. A professor both of civil engineering and history at Duke University, he was also a prolific author. And though I didn’t use Petroski’s above words at the sharing about which I am writing this piece but it's these words which I elaborated in the entire sharing, that’s why I thought of using the same here! Well, I love (I mean it) to speak (read as lecture because officially that’s what it is called as) with the students & of any age as one, it is a challenge to test myself to hold those minds for an hour without them getting bored & two, it gives me opportunity to think on the subject I am speaking from every possible dimension which these minds can think & its fun, its like sharpening my own mind & patience too! Though when the subject is civil engineering & audience is second year engg students then one thing is sure that they won't dare to hoot you out as their faculties are also sitting in first row & submission marks matters a lot in engineering course! Yet, as a speaker the challenge which I take with myself remains as I can feel & see the bored faces & eagerness when the lecture will be done & they will be free, I want to take that challenge as this must not happen & as a speaker you can very well tell yourself whether you succeeded in it or not by looking at the faces in front of you!

Ohk, this is not about the art of lecturing but about civil engineering & opportunities as well career ahead which I was supposed to share with the 2^nd year students, most of which has come from direct admission after completing their diploma in civil engineering, a path which I myself have walked on nearly thirty-five years back! This is one more reason I accepted the challenge of the lecture when my friend Dr Samer Shastri invited me to deliver the lecture in front of this lot of young to-be civil engineers. When the subject is a bit general such as this, then it's better to make a simple PPT with topics under the main subject you want to cover so you don’t deviate from the flow, which is what I did & sharing the same here…

“An Engineer is a person, who applies his/her knowledge,

to make the world a better place” …

Though I have used quotes of Mr Petroski for this sharing but for the lecture I started with my own definition of an engineer as before becoming civil engineer first you are an engineer is something many students forget! Engineering is an approach not to your profession but to the entire life as then only you learn to use the formulas you will be learning ahead is what I told them! Knowledge is available on Google also but that doesn’t make you an engineer & so mere degree won’t make you engineer but the understanding of this profession is what will make you able & for that I share below two stories with them!...

Man in a Balloon …

…A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes that he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts,

 "Excuse me. Can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." 

The man below says,

 "Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40- & 42-degrees north latitude, and between 58- & 60-degrees west longitude. 
 "You must be an engineer" says the balloonist.   

"I am", replies the man. "How did you know?" 

"Well..." says the balloonist. "Everything you told was technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information and the fact is I am still lost." 

The man below says, "You must be a Manager" 

"I am", replies the balloonist. "How did you know?" 

"Well..." says the man. "You don't know where you are, or where you are going. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met but now it is somehow 
my fault.

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The Train Story…

A company's engg & sales team, with 4 members each, is needed to travel from Pune to Mumbai for a seminar...

While going to Mumbai, the sales team went & bought 4 tickets, while the engg team bought just 1 ticket for 4 people, of Deccan Queen!

When TC came, the sales team showed their 4 tickets, all 4 members of engg went & hid in the toilet, TC knocked on the toilet door, one hand came out with a ticket, TC punched & it & went away! Sales team was furious as they had been outsmarted by the engg team...

 

They decided to take revenge & way back both teams were to spend some time in Lonavala, so the sales team bought only 1 ticket but the engg team didn't buy any tickets! Sales team was joyous, thinking this time the engg team will land on their face! Train started, as coon TC came, the sales team went & hid in one toilet while the engg team hid in another end's toilet. One engg went to the toilet where the sales team were hiding and knocked on the door, one hand came out with the ticket the engg took that ticket, ran to the toilet where engg team was hiding & you know what must have happened when real TC came..

Now the sales team was more furious, next day on the way to Pune they were determined to take revenge on the engg team, so at the platform, they waited to see what engg team did, but engg team bought all 4 tickets. Smilingly, the sales team didn't buy any tickets. It was a Local train (No toilets) !!! 

Morale of these stories was not fun but application of the knowledge & understanding the situation in totality for being able to do that, is what makes you an engineer!

System is for the people, people are not for the system, yet people won't survive without a system… 

Engineering is a system, as its outcome of formulas, logic & application which isn’t possible without a proper system in place & I told them engineers don’t work on feelings or intuitions but on facts & figures, which is possible only if a right system is in place! Of late I come across many youngsters (including my sons) with a favourite line, i.e., I felt this & I didn’t feel it & that’s why I didn’t do it! Well, the world doesn't run on our feelings & if not anybody but an engineer must not forget this basic about the life & that’s why from today take an oath that you won’t use this line ever, is what I told them!

Understanding the Job at hand, is what makes you an Engineer…

Most of the time people fail because they don’t understand the problem itself & this is why first one must understand the problem then only you can find the solution with the right way to do it! Job of an engineer is twofold, first, build a system which won’t have a problem & second, be ready with solutions if problems arise & improve the system. At the same time any problem is solved completely only when the person who is facing that problem is satisfied with the solution is what an engineer must learn to accept! And for a civil engineer the entire world is his client because right from home, to railway station, to bridge, to school, to road or a water line every living person (and other species too) are dealing with some civil engineering job & to see their comfort while using that service is the job of an engineer!

It’s not the post you work at but, what you give to that post is what defines you…

And to achieve this we must forget the false or say showbiz behind the terminology of posts, authority or respect, as real honor is in solving a problem with your knowledge & not in tag you carry along of some position! Money, power, position all are byproducts of knowledge & solution providing attitude, understand this as there is no term like good or bad in engineering, but there is right or wrong, that’s what engineering is about! Either you have done a right job or wrong job & unless we stand or say thrive for rightness in our work we will always end up as wrong engineer, mind it!

Accepting wrong reporting makes you a bigger lousy person than the one who reports wrongly…

And once you make your own definition of right & wrong then you won’t ever accept wrong reporting neither you will ever make such, that will make you a right engineer! And that path one has to practice as failure is in giving up in trying for rightness, is what these three years will be teaching you! Reporting has great importance in engineering as unless you have a right system of reporting you won't reach your goal, is what I told them. As well, the right reporting system helps us in minimizing errors is another important aspect of working which no syllabus will teach us directly.

There is nothing like a “Good Engineer,” or a “Bad Engineer,” you either have it in you or you don’t…

After passing out from here all of you will be called as an engineer but it won't make you a right engineer as that will be just a piece of paper but how you use what you have learned in these three years only will decide whether you are a right engineer for the job or not & for that learn everything thrown at you here by understanding the purpose of it than just mugging the formulas for marks, is what I told them. Marks are important just like money but more than that important is how you earned those marks & what will you be doing with those marks, mind it! 

 

A Whole New World…

About opportunities, a whole new world awaits them as civil engg is a basic branch & ever-increasing population of humans will always be a boon for this branch with our endless needs to live! What we need to do is look for the opportunities & fit in as per our liking & capacity, that’s the trick! May it be a govt job (which is actually getting most difficult to perform than not to get in) to contracting to services such as maintenance of the buildings, to profession to teaching to using this knowledge for other paths of careers such as marketing or finance there are hundreds of paths which starts from here! Key factor is, knowing what you want to be & no path will be easy if you want to become a right engineer, hard work is your room partner now, get used to it!

 

Fitness of Structure is possible only if you follow…

Fitness of Character,

Fitness of Mind,

& Fitness of the Body…

Last but most important, if you want to create strong, useful & right structures then first you will have to mold yourself in one such or else like a weak foundation of a building whatever you will create will remain weak i.e. wrong! And for that you must have a strong character with clarity of right & wrong about life & not just about your profession! You must have a fit mind, which is possible only with knowledge & humbleness & for that read, travel, respect wisdom, are the key factors! Last but least, hardships can be dealt only with fitness of your body , so be fit first to create fit structures, make yourself proud by your creations & that will be your best Guru-Dakshina to all your teachers & parents, adios with this note, my young civil engineer friends! 

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You can watch this sharing on YouTube links below & plz do share if feel worth…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIdxbZMSdTk

https://youtu.be/U-7Y5goFcvk?si=T-DlM3F0YBvfpOGA

 

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Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/01/choosing-your-home-along-with-future-of.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

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Take your issues to Hon PM at link below...

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Think Green, Think Life

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Rains, Roads, People & Traffic!

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“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”

― Henry Ford

Well, some names need no introduction & the writer of above quote is one such, & when my sharing is about a subject which I have taken oath (to myself) not to write about i.e. roads conditions & traffic of Pune city, then his words seem apt to start it! Who better there can be than the person hailed as the father of the automobile industry but I didn’t use Ford’s words for his automobile background but for his attitude & keenness for the quality! The reason I said about the oath for  not writing about roads & traffic is, so much has been written about it & yet every year the situation is getting worse, so why add frustration for both i.e. the writer & the readers is what I thought but then like the Zen story about a doctor who keep the wounded soldiers’ fit & gets frustrated watching them to go to the war & get dead or wounded again, when meet with a monk, who tells him , his job is to make the wounded ones fit as he is a doctor & the job of a soldier is to fight, so no need to get frustrated over it, I too gathered courage & decided to write about the most written topic of Pune i.e. traffic & road conditions! Here is one more aspect we are missing & that is rains about which many will say what’s big deal as we all know in rains traffic scenes become worse & even the roads get damaged to add salt on the wound but its not that simple, is my subject of sharing!

Most people will blame traffic delays & chaos to poor public transport which indeed is a major reason but a lot depends on other aspects also as how many people who blame traffic mess themselves have ever shown patience to wait for the PMPML bus or even try the Metro of late, is the question I want to ask. Or how many use Autorickshaw or Ola/ Umer (private taxi) , giving up their 4 / 2-wheeler, is also we should ask. And I know the impatient answer, why would we do that, who will wait & look at the public bus service, how can you expect us to use it & I won’t say you are wrong but then this impatience is also one of the major reasons for the traffic mess we are witnessing on the roads, is also a fact, right? There may be a hundred reasons for not using public transport or taxi or rickshaw but in any such transport system there has to be some adjustments & if the entire city doesn’t want to make any adjustment, then the traffic issue will never be solved, is my subject of sharing!

Coming back to the core i.e. road conditions & its impact on the traffic speed then rain induced water logging is the major reason for the road damages so if we want good roads then first, we must learn to take care of rain water!  This may look very simple, but it needs planning from the very beginning, which is missing is a fact as in our country a city gets developed first then we make the roads & when this is your working style then the roads are bound to fail on dealing with the rain water problem, which is happening. Every year rains cause water logging on the same spots & water is the biggest enemy of any structure (even sheer concrete) , may it be flowing or still. Even the road portions where water flows aways the surface of all such roads gets eroded with the current of the flow & we need to reduce this flow of water on the roads which only can save the roads damaging from forming of potholes (I love the word, Khadde) & we are not doing anything about it!  Time & again it’s been proved the closed rain water drains are insufficient to carry the rain water of the changed pattern of rain water & another aspect is constant choke-up of closed rain water drains because of our attitude of throwing garbage in it (or anywhere)! We blame PMC/ PCMC for not cleaning these rain water drains before every monsoon but in the first place why these lines are needed to clean is itself the question I want to ask to the citizens & reason is, it’s the citizens of this very city dump everything they don’t want around in the rain water drains, which makes the job of the civic body harder! Rainwater lines are meant to carry rain water but every year the cleaning team finds from sofa sets (unusable of course) to carcases of domestic animals & what not in these lines & this aspect plus the insufficient size of these lines makes most of the rain water flow on the roads or wherever it is possible. And its because of careless attitude of the citizens even if the size of rain water lines even if we increase then also the chocking up of the lines will make them of no use in rains, is a fact! Here in this city, we don’t spare our open rivers & keep throwing garbage in it (I am not even mentioning encroachments) to such extent that the local-body has to build jail like framing along the sides of every bridge on our rivers so the citizens won’t throw garbage in these rivers, what else can be expected but to chock the rain water lines with our dirt!

And then comes another most important & neglected aspect of the reason for water flowing on the roads & that is, rampant concretization of every available piece of land, may it be private or public! Many people ask me, don’t we have rain water harvesting rules or policy for building any structure; my reply is, yes, but so do we have a helmet policy also while driving! Leave out the sarcasm but we speak about many things & rain water harvesting is one of them as we don’t give a damn about the rain water unless it will someday blow us (read as flow us) away, which it is already doing by damaging our roads but we are not accepting it! If we absorb majority of rain water which was earlier case then basic quantity of the rain water which will flow on the roads will be less, reducing clogging or flowing on the roads & eventually reducing the damage to the road surface, even a first year civil engg boy will tell you this but we all so call bosses of engineering are ignoring this logic of managing rain water! And the reason is, our urban policies have become blind to balance the nature with development, may it be water or green cover or earth cover, first we must improve them if we want to start making good roads! As all new buildings are required to have a RWH (rain water harvesting) compulsory but are we monitoring it & its outcome, what system do we have in place to do so? And the result is, from every developed premise (barring a few) thousands of litres of rain water flows outside of the premise & then our rain water lines are either choked or inadequate, so where this water will go, has anybody got an answer for this question?

Answer is, water will always find its path by gravity towards the low lying area & this again any science studying boy can reply but we are not accepting this simple basic science also as recently behind my society there is a nallah (once it was a stream) & PMC drainage dept were requesting to our as well neighbouring societies to allow to break our compound wall on the nallah side so their machines can enter in the nallah for cleaning. But nobody is thinking how this situation arises as for kilometres of the length on both banks of this nallah there are compound walls of adjoing buildings making entry of even PMC officials impossible so how the rain water is going to flow towards it! As here also we have blocked every such natural way of flowing rain water by illegal constructions or by wrong policies of urban planning & outcome is now we have left it to the water itself to find its own way which eventually it will & trust me we are sitting on a water bomb! As this nallah behind our building is one of thousands of such natural water carriers of the city which just a few decades back were real rain water drains as whatever rain water was coming outside of the developed premise either getting used to percolate in the earth or used to flow towards the rivers of the city via these natural streams & all of them are being blacked or encroaches & roads are doing that job, is the main reason of damaged roads in the monsoons!

Last but least alarmingly reducing green cover of the central part of the city is one more reason of increased rain water on the roads & we must create more spaces by which big trees can be planted & more rain water can be hold by their roots in the ground & here also we build big road dividers & plant the trees in between them but what about rain water which won't ever reach to their roots, who is thinking about this aspect of the job of these trees, again, answer is,  nobody!  And if all these problems are not enough then there is road digging which keeps going on all around the year for every known & unknown purpose & in the process damaging the surface of the roads! Reason behind this may be lack of coordination with the govt’s departments as well bad planning of the respective services but it is a major problem for road surface. In the end, it’s some road dept which has to take all the blame but actually we all in some or other way are responsible for the pot holes & road conditions & the traffic mess, is my subject of sharing!

What the city (read as govt/ planners/civic bodies) must do is, focus on developing rain water drain system on surface via open drains as well proper slopes with concrete roads & clear all the obstruction in the ways of natural water bodies, so they can carry this rain water (runoff) to the rivers, just it used to be few decades back! Keep enough space on ground level along the road for trees so the water can be percolated in earth. At the same time monitor effective (well, we can hope) rain water harvesting for every project, new as well completed too, so lesser rain water will hit the roads. Change DC rules for this aspect of development & do it fast so we won’t have to dig the ground to accommodate our greed for more parking spaces, instead go higher so the earth will be free to do its job i.e. absorb rain water & support trees!  Public transport strengthening is not an over-night solution as well it depends on citizen’s attitude towards life too, but the road potholes must not be the reason for traffic delays as that’s not a thing of pride for the Smart City & this can be achieved not by pointing fingers at each other but by joining our hands only; adios with this note!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

 

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/01/choosing-your-home-along-with-future-of.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below...

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com / https://junglebelles.in/

Super Moms of Tadoba, Chapter 1

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“Iss Duniyame Bhagwanse bhi badhkar sirf ek hi Takad hai aur wo hai Ma ki Duaaoki Takad” … Rocky bhai in KGF.

Well, with due respect to western world’s wisdom words in English(what else) when its matter of emotions, nobody can beat our Desi languages & when it’s about Maa i.e. Mother then you name it & we have it as who can forget the all-time greatest, “mere pass Maa hai” from Deewar (it’s a superhit movie in 70s for the younger genre) yet when I thought of writing about Super Moms of Tadoba then I choose more recent & powerful one from this genre’s super hit movie i.e. KGF & when its south then more strong the emotions oozing from the words, lol!  Btw those who doesn’t understand Hindi (there are many in Pune) for them the quote means, strength of a mother’s well-wishes for her siblings are more powerful than the God itself! And when the mother is a Tigress then this power must be getting doubled, I am sure! Well, for a long time now in bits & pieces I have written about many tigresses yet this time in my tdaoba trip I kept bumping many tigresses, most of them were with cubs & I could observe the hardships a tigress has to face while she raises the cubs until they become a grownup tiger & I thought the best tribute will be to write individually about few of them. That way, every Mom (may it be of humans or tiger or deer or as sparrow) is a Super Mom in her own place & own way yet when you are a tigress then though you may be the Queen of the jungle yet that Queendom comes at very high price & that’s why tigress Super Moms are more special!

Tadoba is blessed with many wonderful Mom's i.e. Tigresses, all zones have some or other mother which has blessed the Park with new tigers every year making the Park richer! And it's not an easy job to raise tiger cubs even your home may be protected forest like some Project Tiger as safe as Tadoba as apart from Male tigers i.e. other than the father, the small cubs are vulnerable to many threats the forest holds, smaller predators such as jackals, leopards, wolves even other tigresses too are a threat for the young cubs! And then the tiger cubs too are playful & can put their lives at risk while playing i.e. can get drawn in water body or bump in to a venomous snake, forest is full of dangers in every corner, so leaving them along is a tough task while the mom goes for hunting.  As well to feed her own stomach along with cubs, the Mom has to be on the hunt keeping them at a safe place!   At the same time, it's not easy for the tigress also to live constantly under human eyes, yet both the tigress & the humans have accepted this life & are happily living, this is coexistence at its best! And do mind, the way we are afraid of a tiger, the tiger is more afraid of we the humans actually! This behaviour we can learn by observing it in the wilds, especially when cubs are around, the tigress is very careful & imagine the stress levels she must be carrying along, so as a tourist we must be as silent as we can & just observe the wildlife keeping our excitement under control & let the tigress have her own peaceful time with her cubs! I have seen many tourists getting over excited when they see a tiger & that’s natural but instead shouting & telling other about the tiger, all you can do is use signage or just be steady, silent & absorb the beauty of the tiger in front of you, right? 

And all such things make these tigresses Super Moms of Tadoba, so I decided to mention (rather say, to pay tribute) few such Super Moms who made my forest trips wonderful by giving me opportunity to study them & their life which has taught me so many wonderful things about the forests at large. I am mentioning local nick names of these tigresses which has been given to them because of their resemblance to somebody or the place they originate from or from their mother’s nick name or some birth mark. This may not be correct as per the experts or authorities because forest dept identifies every tiger above age of three years by some number & doesn’t allow to name some tiger the way we name some human or a pet but frankly it won’t corelate us with the respective tigress, so I am using names given! At the same time keeping full respect for forest dept’s concerns,’ it’s ok to number a tiger as we humans also have Aadhar Card number but we don’t call each other’s by that number, same way I feel its ok to call a tiger by its some name, though it does create confusion a times as same tiger is nicknamed differently when it changes territory of region by the locals, yet be it. As I have mentioned many of these tigresses have been clicked by wild lifers & have made millions of tourists happy by giving them full show as everybody visits forest to see a tiger & I don’t blame them for doing so. These tigresses have not only made life of the tourists happy but because of their sighting just like a super hit movie draws audience again & again to watch that movie & making film entire industry able to sustain, same way here, one tigress not only gives birth & grow its cub & in the process she helps hundreds of families also grow & able to live as it’s the money generated out of tourism which makes that happen! That’s one more reason of paying tribute to these Super Mom tigresses of Tadoba! At the same time, let me confess, I am not an authority on the subject, so please forgive if any reference related to location or blood-line of these tigresses is not correct, rather please write me back with correction, as my intention of this sharing is, to make common people understand importance of these tigresses & our responsibility towards them as well forest at large so we can conserve our wildlife for our next generations...

 

Super Mom, Kuani!

Here is a tigress which is ruling Kolsa range for nearly eight years single handedly; irony is, she still has to fight with another Super Moms i.e. Hirdinalla female for territory to protect her cubs, that's the irony of being a tigress!! It’s because of tigress like Kuani, Kolasa which is a wonderful forest but lesser known than other ranges as its entry if from slightly remoter side of the forest i.e. from Mul road, came to fame as the bold attitude with which Kuani walks along with her cubs on the road is treat to wildlife tourists! She is a brave tigress as Kolsa & Palsgaon villages got shifted last from the core & Kuani has been used to live with humans around, so she is not afraid of them. She has given birth to nearly eight to ten cubs & most of them has lived as beyond Kolsa there is not much development & lots of forest though unprotected also is available for the new tigers. Her contribution on the front of raising cubs along with making Kolsa range on the map of wildlife makes her Super Mom of Tadoba!

 

Super Mom, Sharmili!

Some ten years back when buffer zones were not on the preferred list of wild lifers (read as tiger seekers), with Junona gate came in operation near Moharli main gate of core, & later two new gates were started with great opposition from the locals fearing the restrictions on their movements in their forest because of the entry gate system! And even the tourists were not ready to visit here as one, the forest of Agarzari, Junona, Devwada is bit different than core, with narrow roads, thickset of trees & bushes & grass & backwater, it was difficult unless the tiger or any animal comes on road to sight it! In such times it was one tigress who was bold enough to walk on the road for miles to delight of the tourists & taught the same attitude to her cubs, which eventually helped tourism with which money started flowing & that’s helped locals to strike coexistence with the tigers! It was not easy to raise cubs as well as live in buffers as food is not as easily available as it is in core (deer & such) & you have to maintain safe distance from the humans, yet she survived for long & blessed Tadoba with many tigers, until she met with unfortunate early death by snake bite is what locals says! But she indeed is a Super Mom of Tdaoba!

 

Super Mom, Choti Madhu!

 

Moharli which is main gate of the park & the road which connects Tadoba to Chandrapur is of some 30 km length & the portion of the main road near Moharli has witnessed some wonderful sighting of a bold tigress which crosses this road at least once a day & with such ease or comfort that any outsider will think this tiger (most people can’t differentiate nor cares whether it’s a male tiger or tigress) is pet(tamed) as she is unfazed with humans or their vehicles, she is Chioti Madhu, undisputed queen of Agarzari & Junonoa Buffers of Tadoba!  Though her name is Choti Madhu, it is from her mom Madhu & she is quite big by size for a tigress in compare to some other tigresses! Best part of Choti Madhu is, the way she has adjusted herself with the humans as the territory she rules has villages, farms, even resorts & main roads which are continuously used by the humans for all part of the day & yet she is successful in avoiding any conflicts with the humans & is delight for them as she brings tourists & that’s good for the locals for their survival! In Corona lockdown times she has taken shelter in nearby empty resort with her two cubs, such adoptability she has developed! I am lucky to observe Chiti Madhu at length & always admire her survival techniques with the humans as well other male tigers. Problem for Choti Madhu is the ongoing migration of male tigers from core to buffer which disturbs her mating cycle & put her cubs under constant threat as father moves away after she gives birth to cub & the new male kills them, that’s cruel side of nature! This is why her many cubs couldn’t survive yet the Super Mom doesn’t give up & recently is busy in growing her two little ones, & it’s her courage to survive among the humans & make their lives better makes her Super Mom of Tadoba!

 

Super Mom Combo, Choti Tara & Maya!

 

Like Choti Madhu, Choti Tara also got name from her mom Tara but the fame she has earned is way more than her mom & so is her contribution to Tadoba also! Rather even at present two other moms which are ruling central part of Tadoba core, both are daughters of Choti Tara, which is a proof of the contribution of CT (nickname) & then there are many present male tigers which are her siblings only. Well, whenever Tadoba’s journey to fame in tiger conservation will be written two Super Mom’s name nobody can miss, one is Ct & another is, legendary Maya! It’s just like 80’s Bollywood when Shridevi & Jayaprada were ruling film Industry & all lime-light was on Shridevi yet Jayaprada’s beauty & screen presence was equally important & admired by the fans, so is here, as Maya always used to steal most of the lime-light yet CT’s contribution & presence is equally important to take tadoba’s name on world tiger map. Irony of similarity between these two & the two heroines I mentioned above is, Shridevi left this world in most unexpected way & early, same way Maya disappeared from tdaoba core in 2023, leaving back CT to hold the fort of core & how wonderfully she is doing that! Before Maya disappeared (God Bless her) for nearly two years CT has to give up her territory for her own daughters which will be next Super Moms of tdaoba core & just when she was settling in buffers Maya disappeared. Slowly & with patience CT entered in the void created by Maya & started ruling here territory & good news is at age of fourteen Ct conceived & has two little ones to look after! Unfortunately, Maya which is probably not just a Super Mom but a Super Queen of tdaoba was always unlucky with her cubs because of too many male tigers in her territory & most of her cubs succumbed to ill fate i.e. getting killed by other male tigers! The contribution which Maya & Choti tara has made to the forests in the recent years will be written in golden letters, such was & is there prowess for the park, making them on the top of the list of Super Moms of Tadoba!

 

Super Mom K-Mark

 

She is the youngest entrant in the Super Mon league of Tadoba, as I mentioned few tigresses has been named because of some marking which comes as birth mark & this one is named because of “K” letter marking on her forehead. This young first-time mom present rules Mul side buffers of Tadoba & like Choti Madhu she too is learning to live with the humans as her territory also has many villages around & some busy roads! Recently I got opportunity to watch her at close & she is having three cubs & as she is first timer Mom, she is extremely careful while moving around as she has seen humans closely while she grew up but as a Mom, she don’t want to take rick when she has cubs along. Mul road is a busy road which lies in the buffers of kolsa range & now K mark is a frequent sight for the commuters on that road & as she is having cubs, she snarls, growls, mock-attack the commuters just to make sure they are not a threat to her cubs but never actually has injured any human till now, sowing the smart attitude as she knows killing a human is starting a war with humans which won’t do good for her & eventually for her cubs!

 

Friends, the way movies KGF or Pushpa (please google), this is Chapter One of Super Moms of Tdaoba, as Tadoba is blessed with many Super Moms & each of them is special at her place & I hope to cover all of them in some time ahead as that’s the best tribute we can give to these wonderful moms (tigresses’)! What we should understand & respect about the Super Moms is the difficulty we humans are putting them in doing their duty towards their cubs, their forest & themselves as barring few hundred sq. kilometres of core where human movements are restricted most of these tigresses are fighting for territory which are being encroached by the humans. And all these Moms need is some privacy & secured feeling for their cubs as they even dare to hunt in stark daylight for their cub’s survivals & some hundred people can watch this scene from their home’s backyards as well there are farmers working hardly at some 200 meters distance & cattle keep grazing around, there are village women going to work from the road from where a tigress mom walks & yet all she does is a snarl or a mock attack that too for her cub’s safety! When she is alone, I have witnessed many times in Tadoba buffers the tigress silently changing her course or pause for a while in the bushes when notices human movement & comes out after the humans have gone, this is so wonderful to learn & experience! And yet accidents (conflicts) happens but they do happen in our cities also on the roads & that doesn’t make us ban the cars or the trucks on the roads, right? If we follow simple rules of living with the wildlife then here also, we can reduce the accidents (conflicts), that’s the best gift we can give to these Super Moms (tigresses) not just of Tadoba but to all such in the forests of our country, adios with this request!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

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