Preview: reusable shopping bags made by the Sawra Self-Help Group

In an earlier post "A stitch in time" I wrote about the sewing course SF organized in Sawra in collaboration with Pratham's skill centre. Click here to read about it.

One of the first items being made by the Sawra Self-Help Group is reusable shopping bags. This is the design they are starting with. Each bag can be folded away into a small pouch that can be easily carried in one's handbag or pocket. The bags will be made from different fabrics, some waterproof, some durable and also some made of handwoven and hand-dyed fabric. Proceeds from this product will go directly into the bank account of the Sawra group and will not be routed through Satpuda Foundation. Each bag will have a tag on it explaining that it was made by Gond tribal villagers living in the Pench tiger landscape.

The first batch of bags should be in Mumbai by end July or early August. We'll keep you posted.

All images: Kirti Chavan

In the tiger's footsteps...

I took this picture on a brief but exciting walk to visit a waterhole in the forest near Tadoba-Andhari TR. The water body was created by the SF team with the participation of local villagers.

Water conservation projects are high on the activity list of all our field officers. Click here to see some waterholes and stop dams built under our programmes.

Two friends accompanied Bipasha and me, so including our Conservation Officer Bandu Kumare we were a group of five. Bandu used to be a park guide earlier so he knows a lot about wildlife and the forest.

On all my trips to Tadoba I've looked at the forest from the road and wondered what it's like in there, among the teak trees and bamboo clumps. What does it look like to a bear or chital living inside?

Now I know! It's dense and paper-dry and pale yellow at this season, and visibility isn't very high so as a human you really wouldn't know what might come out from behind the next bamboo thicket. (Other mammals wouldn't always be so handicapped, since they have far better senses of smell and hearing than we do!) Bandu pointed to a gaur that he glimpsed through the vegetation and we saw three chital bounding away, startled by our arrival. Inquiries about what animals had deposited some of the scats lying around brought forth the answers "bear" and "tiger" (pronounced by Bandu in a cheerful matter-of-fact tone, with varying reactions from our group).

So we know that all these animals use these forests and benefit from the waterhole. The site is regularly visited by the Forest Department so it does get monitored. You can see their machan (platform, for want of a better word) up in the tree behind the waterhole. It's a good feeling that we are providing a much-needed drinking spot for the fauna here. Anyone who has visited the Vidarbha region in May would understand the relief the water must be bringing to the animals of this parched place. The water level in the hole has sunk but is still accessible.

There isn't any real danger to people walking in a group in the middle of the day, but all the same none of us really wanted to encounter a bear or tiger or gaur on foot. And neither did we want to disturb the animals by intruding in their space. So after a few minutes we walked back to the road.

I think for all of us that walk will remain one of the most memorable experiences of this wonderful trip.

Photo: Rajashree Khalap
Tadoba-Andhari area

Driving course for youth near Tadoba-Andhari TR

These young men live in the villages Moharli and Dewada, in the Tadoba-Andhari tiger habitat. They are part of a group of 20 that recently participated in a driving course we had organized for youth of the area. The course was conducted in collaboration with NABARD and was one of the ongoing activities of Satpuda Foundation's Employment Cell. By teaching forest villagers different skills we empower them to earn better incomes and phase out their traditional forest-destructive occupations.

The driving course was completed in May and on the 31st Bipasha and I happened to be in Tadoba, so we requested SF's Conservation Officer Bandu Kumare to arrange for us to meet some of the participants. I took this picture in the SF office near the Moharli gate of the tiger reserve. These young men are: Vikas Gedam, Dashrath Choukhe, Sainath Garmare, Baburao Moharle, Diwakar Kulmethe, Sachin Sirani, Sachin Marwati, Bandu Kulmethe and Mahindra Kannake. Their ages range between 20 and 28 years.

Most of the men are currently working as field labourers, which would earn them a pittance. Some are in the business of supplying bamboo for a paper mill in the area. Cutting bamboo in the peripheral forests of the reserve has proved to be an extremely damaging and dangerous activity. These forests are used by all the same wild species that live inside the protected area (see the next post about our waterhole visit). Bamboo cutting and general dependence on forest resources not only severely degrades the wildlife habitat, it also sends a large number of humans right into a forest that is occupied by tigers, with predictable results. Small wonder that the Tadoba/Chandrapur region has become the worst tiger-human conflict area in India in the last few years, with a large number of people losing their lives and tigers then being poached in retaliation.

Driving is a useful skill to learn and one that could earn these men good livelihoods. It would be ideal if the park management would ban tourists from bringing their own vehicles into the reserve. Local villagers like these could then earn a good income by driving tourist jeeps and gypsies and that would also serve to regulate tourist movements and behaviour. Most important of all, jobs like these would ensure that locals benefit directly from tiger conservation.

Volunteering opportunity: NCSA Mobile Health Unit schedule, June - October 2010

I've posted this schedule in its original table format, as that is the neatest. Please click on the image to enlarge and read. If you'd like to volunteer please email me on rajashree DOT khalap AT gmail DOT com

Tiger meets gaur: face-off in Tadoba

An encounter between Tadoba's two mightiest beasts turns out to be a lesson in sensible and civilized behaviour!

June 1, 2010: temperatures had nearly reached scorching point at 48 degrees C. A large male tiger had taken to regularly soaking in this waterhole. On one visit he found a huge male Gaur had got there first. The tiger's dilemma was fun to watch. Even the king of the jungle does not lightly take on the world's largest bovine. We could see the debate raging in his brain: should he go to the water or not? At first the gaur's lowered head and loud snort were a deterrent (the snort made me jump too). But not for long. The cat made two attempts to go to the waterhole but changed his mind halfway. The third time he decided to take the plunge.

Gawking from a respectful distance were SF volunteer Bipasha, Aarti Phatarphekar and me and a few other privileged people. Needless to say we were all amazed by our wonderful luck!

A stitch in time

Pictures I clicked on my recent trip (1, 2 May) of the Self-Help Group in Sawra, Pench Tiger Reserve. Our Employment Cell organized a cutting and sewing course here last month. It was attended by 37 villagers. The Forest Department has provided 42 sewing machines to this village so that was an incentive to learn.



It was a 10-day course conducted by the NGO Pratham's skill centre. After it was over, eleven of the participants formed a permanent sewing group and are helping each other - and improving daily. Earlier only one girl, Vaishali Kumre, knew some basic sewing. Now all the group members are able to stitch clothes (sari blouses, shirts). They will be able to take orders soon and will probably make school uniforms for the village kids.



How can city-dwellers help this employment-generation initiative?

Simple: order a re-usable shopping bag. Here the group is cutting fabric to make one of the designs I've asked for. There will be two designs - but the prototypes need some minor changes so I'm not posting the pictures yet.

From SF we've already placed an order for 50 bags, to be completed in a month. Kirti and I plan to buy ten each and gift them to our friends, and our President Kishor Rithe also wants ten. Our Executive Director Giri Venkatesan has ordered 20. The bags will be priced at Rs 100 each (one of the designs may be priced at Rs 120). The money will go directly to the group and will not go through SF at all. The group members are going to open a joint bank account soon.



Four people who saw these pictures in our Facebook group have also enquired about the bags. An order has already come in for 50 to be made in canvas! Re-usable bags will always be in demand, and it will be wonderful if villagers of the region buy them too, because disposable plastic bags are becoming a huge problem there - as they are everywhere.





So here's the group: Vaishali Kumre, Ram Tilak Kodape, Rahul Kumre, Kaushal Kodape, Arti Awasthi, Ambika Warthi, Evatkala Uike, Baby Wadive, Reena Kumre, Kavita Maskole. The eleventh member Sita Uike is missing from this picture but is an active participant. On the right: SF's Community Officer Dilip Lanjewar.



Above: Displaying shirts made by the group

I want to publicly thank my friend Seema Kalla-Churamani for all her help with this initiative. Seema visited Pench with me last month and suggested a number of items the Self-Help Group could make. She guided Vaishali on making a couple of bag prototypes but that was before the sewing course and Vaishali had a problem cutting the more complex pattern. I don't know much about tailoring, but on this trip it was easy to see the huge progress she's made after the course.

If you are interested in ordering bags, please keep visiting this blog as I will post pictures of the products once they are ready. You can email me on rajashree DOT khalap AT gmail DOT com

IT Education programme, Sawra - Update

March 20, 21, 2010:

We moved into the second phase of the IT education programme. Read about the initial phase here.

On 20 and 21 March, SF volunteer Kirti Chavan visited Sawra village to evaluate the trainees who were taught in Phase 1. The trainees then started teaching 37 school students, using five computers donated for this project. Apart from the three we had been given earlier, ICICI bank donated four desktops after upgrading them to our course requirements. Two are being kept for the next village we take this programme to.

The CD-based tutorials have been provided by the well-known education NGO Pratham, who have collaborated with us on this project and have been very generous with their time and expertise.

Kirti also used these two days to teach DTP to the trainees and anyone else who was interested.



Above: Kirti teaching DTP to school staff and student Sita Uikey. Two teachers from another village (Thuyepani) attended the training.

May 1, 2, 2010:

Classes have been held through April according to the timetable drawn up by Kirti. But there will now be a pause for two reasons: first, the summer holidays have begun and the school is officially closed; and secondly the school teachers Manoj Mankar and Sachin Ambadkar who are the main IT trainers, have to spend the next one and a half months helping in the government's human population census (since both are government employees). They will be back in Sawra on June 15.

I visited Sawra on 1 and 2 May for some different work, but decided to stop by at the computer lab we've set up in the school to see if anything was going on. I was really pleased to find three school boys sitting there and using the desktops even though it was a weekend! The headmaster told me that 11 of the school kids have become quite skilled at using different programmes (Excel, Word, Paint and Photoshop). Apart from Sumit Warthi, a 7th standard student whom I met, the other good students are Priyanka Kumre, Sailesh Maskole, Dayashankar Tekam, Kamaldeo Uike, Nitesh Chauhan, Ankit Maskole, Pankaj Tekam, Srikrishna Invate, Ankita Tekam and Manish Maskole.

Here's Sumit:





Above: Sumit works on a picture of a borewell he has created using Paint. An appropriate enough image in a region where people depend on groundwater (like most of India actually). Here the importance of trees and forests in conserving groundwater is common knowledge among children and adults alike, as they understand the connection from first-hand experience. Very different from urban Indians, who mostly think water comes out of a tanker and at best "know" the facts only on an academic level.



Above: Sumit with two other budding techies!

An unforeseen and unfortunate event last month was the employment of many of the village children for collection of "tendu" leaves. This is a vile business as tendu leaves are used for making "bidis" or local cigarettes, and the business has a terrible effect on the environment as well for many reasons.

The way it impacted the IT programme was that many of the students didn't attend all the classes, and will now have to catch up in mid-June when the school reopens. So we are running 45 days late with our schedule, but this is a hazard of working in a remote rural/tribal area with different economic pressures and compulsions from the ones felt in the city. Let's hope that with computer literacy and the better job opportunities it brings, the exploitative and harmful tendu business will one day disappear for good.

Wildlife Conservation Course: A participant's view!

Read about NCSA's recent course as experienced by a participant, Pintueli Gajjar. Incidentally, she's a teacher with a special interest in environment education and she was 2005 winner of the Green Teacher award (also awarded to NCSA President Prof. Nishikant Kale).

Click here for Pintueli's report in her blog, Songs of the Wind.

Kishor Rithe's talk at TEDx Mumbai, 3 April 2010

SF President Kishor Rithe explains how "Saving Tigers = Saving People."

Report on the Wildlife Conservation Course in Melghat TR, April 10-14, 2010

“Wildlife Conservation” is must today to conserve the landscapes which actually provide many ecological services for the sustainable development of humans. However for doing the same, the country cannot only rely upon one agency. As per the Constitution of India, it’s a responsibility of every citizen to participate in protecting wildlife and their natural resources in any ecosystem.

However there are hardly any efforts to make every section of society capable of exercising their responsibilities towards wildlife conservation. Knowing this, the Nature Conservation Society, Amravati designed a five-day long certificate course in “Wildlife Conservation.”

The course was scheduled 10-14 April 2010 at the Muthawa Community Resource Centre of NCSA near Melghat Tiger Reserve. Around 15 participants were selected from Nagpur, Pune, Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Chattisgarh and Rajkot for the course.

The course participants were trained in Applied Environment Education, Bio-diversity Conservation, Land Management (resettlement and eco-restoration), Wildlife Research and social studies, Climate Change and Environmental Laws. The training modules included interactive sessions, field exercise and assignments, films and open university sessions where participants were to present on the subjects.
Wildlife conservationist Kishor Rithe, Prof. Nishikant Kale, Dr. G. N. Vankhede, Mr. Mohan Atalkar, Mr. Rohan Mukerjee and Vishal Bansod conducted the sessions.

Introduction to Community Resource Centre:

On Day 1, participants reached the Muthawa Community Resource Centre (CRC) at Melghat and mixed in no time with the diverse friends participating from different states and different backgrounds. The organizers took the group on a tour of the Muthawa Community Resource Centre which is the ideal place in Melghat to understand many village development-related activities. They appreciated the waste water treatment plant, solar lighting system, bio-diesel unit, nursery and vermi-compost plant. Prof. Nishikant Kale and Kishor Rithe made this visit very informative and meaningful. The first evening was memorable due to a few owl calls and also the screening of conservation films on Melghat Tiger Reserve.

Biodiversity Conservation:

If you want to know biodiversity conservation you must go to the forest. That is what participants did on the second morning. The organizers took the participants to locations in Melghat Tiger Reserve where they got the opportunity to see Gaurs, sambar, chital, Crested Serpent Eagle, Honey Buzzard, Crested Hawk Eagle along with 27 other species of birds. They also visited the Nature Interpretation Centre at Semadoh where they liked the depictions of tribal culture, unique flora of Melghat, wildlife and wildlife management.

Wildlife Research:

I use to think that wildlife research meant “wear a hat, drive a green Gypsy, have a good camera, tranquilise the tiger, put a radio collar to the tiger and get your own picture with the big cat.” My impression was broken when I heard the presentation by Dr. G. N. Vankhede on spiders in Melghat Tiger Reserve. Dr.G.N.Vankhede who is head of the Zoology Department of SGB Amravati University, Amravati has done extensive research on spiders in Melghat. His talk on ‘Spider Diversity in Melghat’ was eye-opening for participants. Vishal Bansod also explained the methodologies for studying birds and herpatofauna.

Applied Environment Education:

This was great fun as well as learning. Green Teacher award winner Prof.Nishikant Kale showed the participants how small activities can be used to teach environment education. The systematic approach of designing the education campaign, identifying the target audience, identifying small activities, selecting the media, designing tools like nature games etc were discussed.

Land Use Management:

Land management is a very important aspect in an overpopulated country like India. The participants were taken to Kund Meadow to see how the landscape responds after the resettlement of any village from a tiger-bearing area. After returning from the field visit, Mr. Kishor Rithe conducted an interactive session on Resettlement in Melghat Tiger Reserve. Participants could learn the process of resettlement from the stage of Gramsabha meetings to actual resettlement at the new location. He also enlightened the participants on habitat improvement/manipulation works at the vacated site. Afternoon participants visited the field to work on the assignments given to them on Applied Environment Education and Protection. They visited some of the protection camps to understand the field issues regarding ground level protection. Participants promised to support the field staff by several programmes in the near future. They also designed a campaign on local specific environmental issues. After the field visit, participants also delivered their individual proposals.

Social Studies and Issues:

13 April 2010 - the visit to the tribal village Chauarkund was an amazing experience for participants. Community participation is a crucial thing in Landscape Conservation. This visit made the participants think about the issues related to development of villages, encroachment, employment, health and education. The discussion on this topic was an eye opener for all participants after returning from the village visit. They understood the role of local people in wildlife conservation. Mr. Vishal Bansod conducted the session.

Role of Media:

Mr. Mohan Atalkar, a senior district correspondent of the daily Loksatta, also interacted with participants on the role of the media and how conservationists should prepare to bring conservation issues to the notice of the masses.

Eco-restoration and Climate Change:

Mr. Rohan Mukharjee, a young and dynamic Project Manager of Satpuda Foundation who is handing the Eco-restoration project near Melghat, spoke on his project and on climate change. He also spoke on the emerging carbon market and the potential to boost wildlife conservation initiatives in the landscape to benefit both the locals and the wildlife.

Environmental Law:

Kishor Rithe conducted a thought-provoking interactive session on Environmental Law. His style of teaching a law was unique. He explained many interesting natural history events, past situations, circumstances and the legal weapons introduced. His presentation actually made the participants aware about the state of forests, wildlife and environment between 1850 to 2010. He reviewed the Indian Forest Act 1927, Forest Conservation Act 1980, Environment Protection Act 1986, Wildlife Protection Act 1972 as amended in 2006 and the Forest rights Act 2006.

Evening Films:

The film "Man-eating Tigers" was appreciated by all participants as it made them aware about one of the most important issues in wildlife conservation: human-animal conflict. The discussion on this topic ended with some interesting solutions to resolve conflict.

Delicious food!

Participants enjoyed the delicious food at Muthawa though it was simple. The “pana” of kaccha mango and “mattha” of buttermilk were superb relief in the scorching heat. (It actually made post-lunch sessions difficult to attend. The Course Coordinator brilliantly kept assignments and group discussions after the heavy lunches).

Open University sessions:

Every day was concluded with an "Open University" session where participants delivered a presentation on a topic of their own choice.

Participants enjoyed birdwatching sessions and specially the sighting of a Nightjar during the day time along with sightings of the largest herd of gaurs (as big as 50 in number) and sloth bear, wild boar, jackals, chitals and sambar deer. The participants were awarded a certificate of completion at the hands of Mr.Vinod Marathe of Daily Hindustan, Prof. Nishikant Kale, President of NCSA and Kishor Rithe, President of Satpuda Foundation.

Report by Ar.Vishal Bansod, Course Co-ordinator, NCSA

Melghat!

Baby Rhesus Macaque by the roadside. He begged for food for a while, making a cute noise at us and even standing up on his hind legs. Truck drivers and other people have got monkeys into the terrible habit of hanging around in the road for handouts. Many get killed in car accidents thanks to this stupidity. What a pity Indians think it kind to give unnecessary snacks to so many creatures. It would be kinder to leave most of them alone.





Above: In the forest



Above: Gajanan, who along with Pradeep conducts the education programme of NCSA in the 39 villages of Melghat's Multiple Use area. This is next to the Sipna river at Semadoh.



Above: Chital



Above: Snake skin

Below: Fallen Mahua flowers. These are used by tribals to make a liquor of the same name. It's ironical that there happened to be a matchstick lying next to the flowers. Villagers often start fires under Mahua and Tendu trees, to "clear" the ground before the flowers and leaves fall. They often "clear" large sections of the forest as well.



I made my first trip to Melghat Tiger Reserve earlier this week. It was a very brief trip, just one and a half days, but there was a lot of new information I tried to absorb in that short time and I am trying to let it all settle into my head!

This was the only SF/NCSA project area I had never visited. So I decided to make a quick visit after going to Pench for some follow-up work (more on that later). It's always a privilege to talk to SF President/founder Kishor Rithe, and I was lucky to have his company for the whole trip. As always I plagued him with hundreds of questions which he answered very patiently. This is such a vast region and the issues impacting the tiger are so varied and complex that my questions will probably never end, but I am certainly a lot clearer in my mind about lots of things - exactly how reforestation is being done at Akot (south of Melghat Tiger Reserve), how barren land is made fertile, agro-forestry, forest legislation from the 1870s till the present day.

The first part of the trip was spent exploring the Community Resource Centre belonging to NCSA. I'll put those pictures in another post. In the evening I accompanied the Duda education van to a village called Chikli. The next morning was spent exploring the tourist zone of the Reserve. This series of images are of the forest and wildlife.

Duda Education van schedule for March-April 2010

The schedule for NCSA's Duda education van, March and April 2010. For an earlier post about this programme click here.

The Duda van unlike the MHU doesn't return to Amravati/Nagpur after 4 days but travels from village to village for 2-3 weeks, covering all 39 villages in the buffer zone. Volunteers are welcome to join for five or six days or longer if they wish. Here's a post by one of last year's interns, Abhishek Surana, who accompanied the Duda van.

The schedule:

Name of Village - Date

1 Dabiya - 13/03/2010
2 Gadaga Bhandum - 14/03/2010
3 Bhandum - 15/03/2010
4 Sawarya - 16/03/2010
5 Tarubanda - 17/03/2010
6 Raksha - 18/03/2010
7 Patkahu - 19/03/2010
8 Keli - 20/03/2010
9 Bhiroja - 21/03/2010
10 Kesarpur - 22/03/2010
11 Chikhali - 23/03/2010
12 Harisal - 24/03/2010

Inverter Charging 25/03/2010

13 Tangada - 26/03/2010
14 Chawarakund - 27/03/2010
15 Rangubeli - 28/03/2010
16 Kund - 29/03/2010
17 Dhokada - 30/03/2010
18 Khamadakheda - 31/03/2010
19 Khokmar - 04/04/2010
20 Bhutrum - 05/04/2010
21 Ruipathar - 06/04/2010
22 Domi - 07/04/2010
23 Chilati - 08/04/2010
24 Simori - 09/04/2010

Inverter Charging 10/04/2010

25 Ektai - 11/04/2010
26 Sumita - 12/04/2010
27 Kuhi - 13/04/2010
28 Hataru - 14/04/2010
29 Sarwarkheda - 15/04/2010
30 Marita - 16/04/2010

Inverter Charging 17/04/2010

31 Barugavhan - 18/04/2010
32 Kamida - 19/04/2010
33 Jarida - 20/04/2010
34 Mehariam - 21/04/2010
35 Awagad - 22/04/2010
36 Ghana - 23/04/2010
37 Khandukheda - 24/04/2010
38 Khadimal - 25/04/2010
39 Chunkhadi - 26/04/2010

If you'd like to participate, please email vishal.p.bansod@gmail.com and manish.sawankar@gmail.com

The Melghat wildlife estimation exercise - Krishna's blog

Nature lover Krishna Dave has been a member of our Facebook group "Tigers of the Satpudas" for some time. When she read our invitation to volunteer for the wildlife estimation exercise being carried out by Melghat Tiger Reserve, she jumped at the chance to visit and work in this beautiful forest. Her report about the experience brought Melghat alive for me - I have still to go there! Borrowed from her blog Forestogue:



It's been almost a month since (part of me) came back from the forests of Melghat, and ever since then, I have been making plans of going there again...

January 2010 began for many of us with an ever increased concern of losing tigers. At a time when I get wrecked about the dwindling numbers going out of reality - with only 1400 or God forbid minus tigers left, the loss seems inevitable...in the midst of these, when I received an invitation message from Rajashree Khalap of Satpuda Foundation about an estimation exercise, I pounced on the opportunity and got myself to Semadoh, one of the ranges in the three divisions of Melghat Tiger Reserve (1676 sq km). It is located in the northern part of Amravati district in Maharashtra.

Semadoh, as my mum says, is a hindi colloquialism for borders, geographically I cannot say, but metaphorically this place is indeed of "borders," as I could vividly see the two distinct worlds - one that I came from and one that I lived in for seven days.

Travel to Semadoh was a joy ride - from Badnera/Amravati, the landscape on either side of my ST bus was only plains and plateaus and from Paratwada onwards it was only mountains and valley. Indian landscapes have always amazed me with this - anywhere between the radius of 50-60 kms, the landscape just alters and the beauty diversifies. Semadoh is situated on the banks of river Spina.

At Semadoh

From 26 January to 2 February, I was scheduled to be in this forest! I was allotted a beat that was under the supervision of Forester Ms Sheetal Dhande, my camera went berserk taking photos when I would see her in the forester's uniform!

The Semadoh range has around 8 foresters, each has been allotted a beat of roughly around 3000 hectares (30 sq kms), along with three guards and around 8-9 choukidars. Semadoh is one of the five ranges in the division Spina, the other two territorial divisions are Gugamal and Narnala. Along with me the beat was supposed to have two more volunteers, who did not turn up.

My home-sweet-home was the checkpost at Kuwapatti (around 10 kms away from the Semadoh village). Less than 100 sq ft accommodated seven of us, with Your Highness having one room all to myself! At times like these I get inspired to write a book titled "This can happen only in India."



27 January evening, while on a rustic bamboo bench I was cross-examining - how within a span of just 24 hours, I was altogether in a different mental and physical paradigm, with the forest's incessant whistling, dusk falling on treetops, the gridded sky view through a dry canopy, and stars ogling through this grid, in the midst of these glades - was totally ballooned with the thought of being one with the forest for the

next six days...!!



Each day was unique, special and a revelation: the first three days were for carnivorous animals estimation, for which we were given instructions to look for pugmarks, scats and any and all other evidence to estimate the presence of various species of carnivores in our allotted compartment. On an average, every day we climbed (the guards galloped) around 7-8 kms across our allotted area (please see the map below).



Our day would begin at 6 a.m., starting our march at 6.30, all the guards left in different directions, accompanied by one choukidar.

I was fortunate to accompany one on either day, we usually got back by 12.30 - 1 p.m. to our base camp, to have a bath, eat monstrously, write log, fill up forms, meet our forester, either visit her at her quarters in Semadoh or she would visit us at Kuwapatti, both were equally delightful, as that was the only time when our entire team would be together. The last three days we moved along the transect for the herbivore estimation, the guards and we had instructions to cover (to and fro) an allotted transect of 2.5 kms and thus make our observations. (To make it easier, rather than giving you a rundown on each day, I will provide a consolidated version of my overall observation about the forest a little later in my text).





The evenings were for sharing endless talks, as I had a bagful of questions and so did Mr More, one of the guards, who had a strong affinity towards Mumbai - so he would often exhaust me with questions on and about Mumbai. Each time he would pause to dwell on what I said, I tried shifting the conversation asking about the Korku tribesmen, their history, culture and traditions, or to the guards about the forest life, management and their family back home, so this went on for almost all evenings. The evenings were also interspersed with some grocery shopping, cooking, singing folk songs and sighting of flying squirrels - best of all!



Meeting Sundarmala



There was an excellent reason why all three guards stayed together in the same checkpost, in spite of them having one for each. The three checkposts wer Pipalpadav, Kuwapatti and Chadupatti, and we kept meandering between Pipalpadav and Kuwapatti as Chadupatti was home to an elephantess - Sundarmala - which indeed she was, a 55 year old beautiful majestic elephant. She gave us a very touching farewell by taking us on a 4 km ride. Wow! Totally electric.

Random observations

As a southern dry deciduous forest, vegatative diversity varied from around 4-6 tree species per 100 sq mts (approximately), with around 50-60 individuals, the dominant ones are teak, medium sized babool and khaire. The soil is red and with good water retaining capacity. One of the key indicators here is the diversity of shrubs found other than mere lantana, as unlike many forests in the Western Ghats. This certainly confims that there is very little or no human interference. There were some patches, where the diversity was hardly 1-2 species in an area of 100 sq mts. Mainly these were teak and khaire.



Bamboo bushes though planted were well spread across the forest, one of the two species that I noticed has just begun its fatal bloom. The canopy was unusually green due to the November shower. Bird sightings were comparatively poor; the best sighting was of the Serpent Eagle.



Also I must confess I was more gripped in experiencing the core forest than on tracking bird notes. Crows of treepie, bee-eaters, large and small barbets, racket-tailed, ashy and white-bellied drongos...yet the list is quite full.

There were some patches that we visited in the course of our survey which were now completely undisturbed, we were so prone to get lost in the teak labyrinth, eventually getting better with sense of direction. The choukidars seem to have inbuilt binoculars mounted in their eyes. From nowhere they could sight sambars, chital, bison, barking deer, wild boar etc etc...even identifying pugmarks and scats was done by them.



The tigress' territory

My last day's walk was with Thorat, a guard who was allotted the transect near Pipalpadav. It was known that a tigress (whom they are yet to name) has homed in this place since three years now and not bred even once, a lingering indicator of a shrinking gene pool perhaps??

We found fresh pugmarks of her graceful walk all across the banks of a stream that empties near a waterhole named Fitkaripani. One of the Arjuna barks smelt of her territorial marking; the spray was fresh and filled the space with her presence. Drinking water from this stream made me remotely eperience what it is to call a place "my territory" that is not confined to any department, or state, or country. There is no external significance to this territory, but a survival strategy that has worked over evolution, left the place with this thought of oneness and the water within, that has trickled from across forests - an experience that is simply irreplaceable.



Like my little postcard...

Even after extending my stay, like all good things, this too had to come to an end. While I write this to you, I can imagine that the forest will be in its complete fall, simmering golden forest floor with a clear sky embedded in bare branches, the star-kissed sky and the floating flying squirrels, all of these and more is my ticket back there!



I deeply acknowledge Satpuda Foundation/NCSA for sending this angelic invitation, and also my two best friends who came down after my estimation, for whom I happily extended my stay!

Text and photos: Krishna Dave
Melghat Tiger Reserve

This time in Pench...

Cub of the collared tigress. One of last year's litter of four.



Chital stag. Sadly, in their frenzied pursuit of the stripes, few tourists stop to admire these beautiful creatures, no doubt believing that they are relatively "common" and numerous. (Is any wild species really numerous these days?)



Lone Nilgai near Totladoh lake



Golden Jackal



White-eyed Buzzard. Pench is a birder's paradise. Didn't see vultures this time though.



Crested Hawk Eagle (formerly called Changeable Hawk Eagle), clutching a baby langur it had killed.

Photos: Rajashree Khalap
14-15 February, 2010

Our IT education programme launched at Sawra, Pench

Finally - we started the first phase of the IT literacy programme we’ve been planning for villagers near Pench Tiger Reserve.

All of us involved are on a bit of a high, because it's taken quite a lot of co-ordination and it was great to see it go off so well. This is the brainchild of Mumbai volunteer Kirti Chavan. He is too modest to say this himself, so I'm saying it for him. Kirti is an IT professional and one-time trainer with NIIT. Read about his preliminary visit here.

Mumbai volunteer Bipasha Majumder was instrumental in working out our collaboration with the NGO Pratham for this scheme. She works for Pratham and it was she who linked us up, juggling dates and details with amazing persistence. Those who ask what they can do for tiger conservation - here's a possible answer - use your unique skills and position to find the best way you can help the cause.

Here's Kirti's report on the initial training programme, 13, 14, 15 February 2010:

The IT literacy scheme is the latest project of our Employment Cell which teaches new skills to villagers in/around tiger reserves, so they can abandon their traditional forest-destructive livelihoods and at the same time aim for better incomes.

Through this phase we want to impart basic computer education to children of the village. This will not only equip them with new skills but also give them a feel of the progressive world outside the village. As part of the second phase we want to provide specialized training to young adults so that they will be well-equipped to find good jobs in cities.

We selected Sawra village near the reserve boundary as the best site to introduce this programme on a pilot basis. If it works well we will extend it to other villages in the Pench region and then (we hope) to other Reserves as well.

For this project we have collaborated with Pratham, one of the largest NGOs working for education of underprivileged children. As per their model, the trainees selected for the course will (after reaching the required level of competence) then train school children in the village.

On earlier trips to Sawra, Kirti and Sikander Lokhande (Pratham) spoke to children, villagers and school teachers to understand what they wanted to do and what domain of computer literacy would work best for them. The entire exercise was facilitated by SF Conservation Officer Anoop Awasthi, who has a close rapport with the villagers. It was decided that a basic computer learning module was needed which would not only teach children how to use computers but also help them perform better in their school curriculum. As for young adults, there is an immediate need for specialized training which will make them “industry-ready” and will increase their chances of employment. Trainers were identified who could be taught by Pratham and could then act as full-time/part-time trainers who will teach at the village computer centre set up by us.

On 13, 14 and 15 February, two trainers from Pratham visited Sawra with Kirti and carried out their “Train the trainer” programme. Four people did the course: two primary school teachers, Manoj Mankar and Sachin Ambadkar, and two students, Sachin Kodape and Sita Uikey. Trainers Rakhi Mali and Jyoti Phadke shared their lesson plan and teaching tips with them. They did a wonderful job, specially considering that they had to work in a new and unusual environment, and schedule the classes in between power cuts! Do visit our group album to see the photos.

Two desktops had been donated to us for this programme by Mr Bhaskar Shetty (Mumbai) and a laptop by Gautam Berry (Mumbai). We’d like to thank both of them for the donation, and we also thank TCI, who transported them from Mumbai to Amravati without any charge.

The trainees will now practice on assignments and CD-based tutorials for a month, after which Kirti will visit to review their progress. After that they will begin to teach school children.

Feedback about the course has been very encouraging and the children are enthusiastic about this project. This is great news because IT literacy really is a life-changing skill. And needless to say, wildlife there will benefit immensely if these communities stop living off forest resources.

We will need more computers to implement the next stage of this programme. The minimum system requirements are:
Pentium III Computer ( recommended pentium IV upwards )
Processor can be AMD Athelon or Intel or even Celeron
512 MB RAM ( Recommended 1GB )
8GB Hard disk space (Recommended 10GB upwards)
The computer should have CD drive ( working condition) and a USB port

If you can help with this, please email rajashree DOT khalap AT gmail DOT com. Please circulate this to others who may be interested in donating a computer.

Photos: Kirti Chavan
Sawra, Pench Tiger Reserve