thoughts

16/ September/08Life is up to something…something really decisive and significant…ma gut feel says that…cannot figure out what it may be…What I can see is, life has thrown me now at a different place for something very unusual and challenging…life here in Panchi is too slow…things are so simple…Catastrophic change for me…from ma tinsel town hot and happening Mumbai to this lonely heaven…I miss ma fast life…I miss ma friends…ma family…ma love the SGNP…May be Mother Nature wants me to play a role in her scheme of things that she has decided for me…may be I need to accept it now…

19/June/ 08:Cannot identify what I am right now that precisely…mammoth confusion …a clutter…Clouds that would need mountains of courage and struggle to obtain clarity and eliminate ambiguity…don’t know what I wud achieve…perform or perish??…unable to discern where this trail leads me…Cannot envisage how triumph is like…I am still to buy the taste, tang and flavor of it…Have acquired a number of passions from past few years in living…photography…Wildlife…filmmaking…not even close to being even an amateur in any of these…I am still learning…Trying to slice a method and approach…wish to create a niche … May be 10 years down the line…if u subsist… and even I live to tell the tale…I would after that be capable to affirm things I am actually into…Life is just a mesmerizing expedition as far as contemporary times are concerned…

05/June/08:"Life is not definiable...it alters its face every so often…just only some days in the past, I felt my subsistence on earth was going nowhere…now I sense I am precise awake on track…may be few days down, LIFE may stump me again…

way towards death

Many a times I can see people carving their way towards death…the death of humanity…
I feel sad and equally surprised…why can’t this be seen by 99% of other human beings…
Extinction must have been a normal process…but if it happens with the humans, the reasons would be far from being natural…
Just compare the timeline-ruling span of dinosaurs with the self praising intelligent humans…Dinos survived for 183 million years while humans are not even 5 Million years old…

Just a diminutive discharge of carbon due to blazing of wood…a loss of just a petite space of carbon sink by cutting only some trees…a small misalignment of forest ecology due to infrastructure consuming the forest cover…and a minute delay due to the unhurried accomplishments of the policy makers…might sound not that significant and noteworthy…
But, small things that may not matter to a intelligent human brain may be of great substance to the processing of nature…

Each creature on earth runs towards death...death of the community…death of the population…death of the species…but it seems humans are running much faster…
The amount of change that we as humans bring and impose on mother Earth is directly proportional to the speed that we run towards the death…the death of human race…

I feel miserable, I am not seeing the Earth as beautiful as my parents and grandparents have seen…
I feel terrible realizing that my children would see the most worst phase of the Planet at least not the way I know it …

And it’s horrifying to make out that my grandkids (and probably of many others) may not obtain life to see the the living planet…
Because by then the EARTH WOULD STILL BE THERE, BUT THE HUMANS WON’T BE PRESENT...

Sunday at Salim Ali point

This Sunday was another memorable day to conclude after whole weeks exhausting work exercise. As lifes days are building up, amidst this fast forward world full of competition and race against time, it’s getting more and more traumatic.
With little space around these days, juggle between study and work has been a task getting tougher.
A hope that “this shall too pass” and the days after would be brighter has kept me strong and fighting.

But a Sunday is always enough. The forest takes in all stress and grants a huge relief every time.

This Sunday morning I went to Godrej-Mangroves with a dear Mentor/Friend for a nature trail that he was leading. It was simply appreciative to see little kids being so passionate and well informed about several concepts of nature not well understood even by many of the experts. Impressive to notice the efforts taken by the teacher in charge to arrange such programs for little kids and provide them with opportunity of life time.

After the Godrej visit, left with no intention to go back home, I made it to CEC, the Conservation Education Centre of BNHS sandwiched between Borivili National Park and Film City.

I have been visiting this place since past 4 years and as a result know almost each and every piece of this land. Being such confident and comfortable about this place I prefer to splurge my good time here.

Almost a dull afternoon with little sun around, I started for Salim Ali point, about 30 minutes trek from CEC building. Forest always shows its distinct beauty no matter how many times you visit the same place again and again. This evening was another engrossing event on this trail. Welcomed by the beautiful sight Small blue Kingfisher and Scaly Breasted Munia I knew I will definitely have a great time. The Moon moth ahead made my day.

Nature is very magnificent and mysterious and this principle gets stronger each time I come across life forms evolved and adapted to perfection. The Comman nawab caterpillar is one such appearance. The animal is strangely so inconspicuous with such perfectly carved survival skill of camouflaging; absolutely a match to the leaf of its habitat, the Acacia catechu (Kattha tree). The beauty of this animal cannot be described in words.

As I walked ahead clicking as many as picture I could, a peacock crossing the forest road in its full gait was further addition to enthralling trip. There was still more to come, the mongoose; Mongoose in a forest will be a rare sight few years afterward as most of the mongoose sightings that we would do will be on Paint Brushes.

Just then I remembered a friend of mine telling me about how BMC went ga-ga about Snake menace at Elephant caves and how they have reached solution by planning to release Mongooses to control the increasing snake population. I think still we have to spend another 100 years to bring in needed awareness and common sense to our policy making people and also to common man.

Lots of things to see and lots of things to be passionate about. The Owl moth, the Yellow Orange tip butterfly, the Oakleaf, the Giant wood spider; almost everything of forest is stunning and inspirational.

Finally walking through the wonderful wilderness thicket I reached Salim Ali Point. I could see Vihar Lake from there.

Sitting for a while, I thought about lot of things.

The Global warming agendas are repeatedly made and amended but still nothing has yet reached to the hearts and heads of common man.
Environment Education industry budding up like any other business but still not reaching those more than 75% kids who study in Municipal schools and don’t have any access…
EIAs made compulsory, public hearing obligatory, but still the whole thing going haywire, like child’s play; with negligible authenticity proposals are passed crushing all hopes and means of wildlife survival.
Whole policymaking process is still much away from the accomplishment, understanding and requirement of much affected common man. Environment Policy making is still worse better not to think about.

Forest department lacks funds, passionate people lack opportunities, Common man lacks awareness, Students lack quality education, NGOs lack proper management and Mother Nature lacking recuperation space and time.

There can be lot to be cynical about, I understand that somewhere we should be positive and expect the best outcome.

But, practically there is no scope for development and success, unless and until we provide revision towards atleast 3 very basic and much required things for the Environment Conservation Movement.
Transparent and justifiable policy making process and genuine subject oriented policy makers.
Authentic, Reliable, Lawful, un-influenced Environment Impact Assessment process with existing emphasis on public hearing and EIA reports.
Free Environment Education for majority of municipal school students and other required people who cannot afford to pay the growing environment education trade. It’s environment education quality on which is dependent the message that will go across the masses generating much desired consciousness.

Exploring wide range of thoughts I realized about the passing time.
The sun was going faint.
I had to respect wilderness and leave the place. Thus I left and within 45 minutes returned back to the fast as usual life with replenished vigor to carry on with another working week.

The Mahashivratri Plight

The Mahashivratri Plight:

Mahashivratri has an enormous significance amidst the Hindu civilization. It is celebrated each year with a great faith and enthusiasm. Hindu mythology might have evolved taking in to consideration the well being and conservation of natural resources and forests; the presence of all major worship sights are good example to support the fact.
People worshipped the temples, feared the presence of god and thus also ended up respecting the forest and wildlife around.
The so called sadhus may have been outstanding conservationists.
But, ages down the line, the ancient concept got weaker…
The ideology died, philosophy deteriorated…..
People wanting to be with their beloved gods failed to see the real divine …Mother Nature

The current situation is at a stage, where the presence of gods cud be observed as one of the critical explanations for the continuous decline and corrosion of forest and wildlife.
And thus to protect and safeguard our forest from the mighty “Bakhts” , these days we require volunteers as an extra arm along with the forest department and sometimes even Police.
And these so called “Bakhts” are so over dedicated and passionate that they can’t see anything other then the gods that they have made and the ways of worship that they have decided upon…

This year fortunate enough I landed up at very admirable place to volunteer for Mahashivratri….the Yeoor hills.
I knew my job wud be a rough task as I have been continuously taking a note about the happenings at Yeoor.
I got posted at Mama-Banjha dargah site and along with a friend volunteer got stationed at a place (some Patanga baba owns that place) just below the two dargahs...

Being there for the initial 1st hour…we realized that not much people are coming there…
What a sigh of relief..!!!!!!!
We thought of number of things we can do …
We can have a good time exploring the area…or can go birding around...

And then the two Forest Staff (A forest Guard and a Forest Watchmen) who were supposed to accompany us to that place, arrived just about couple of hours late…
…they said they were busy fighting a forest fire…and we understood what they meant...

Two hrs more and we had to eradicate our plans…I could not imagine why the people who were supposed to worship Shiva required visiting the Dargah…

We kept on checking people…confiscated polythene bags, Match boxes, Cigarette packs and everything that could cause a forest fire…some of the elderly bunches even threatened us ..Presence of guard with us was strength those times…
Meanwhile we also managed to develop a good rapport with few young chaps around …who helped a lot…

And then, there was a forest fire and I asked our guard to accompany me…although the forest watchman was concerned enough and readily agreed, ….but Mr. Forest guard (who had lot to tell about many naturalists and environmentalists) was too tired (I guess the 1st fire fight was enough for him)… he kept on suggesting numerous ideas and ways to put off the fire… anyway by that time the interested young boys went down and the forest fire was successfully exterminated.

In the meantime…we also confiscated few alcohol bottles …and just after few hours we had 11 bottles of diverse brands.
It seemed people after their time with Lord Shiva wanted to have their own time and that to in a forest…Now I can presume it could have a been an exceptional opportunity for them ..No where in the world they could get this pleasure…
(Forest (read privacy) + social, religious support + Beer + XXX = Fire) and that to free of cost….
So I don’t know how I can explain people who still don’t want to understand….
Cigarettes, Beer, Desi daru, Drugs during this day of worship????
During Mahashivratri???
For Whom????
For gods???

Is this the “Bhakti”, is this dedication to god…or is this spiritual passion and enthusiasm…??????
Now which religious organization can answer this question…???
Who is supposed to make me understand this attitude…???

All these bottles were anyway given back to the people they belonged to... (The Guard suggested me that)...

After whole dayzz hard work...we decided to scale up the peak and visit mama-bhanja dargah…
Tiresome trek but worthy when u reach the point…what a beautiful forest out there I cant put in plain words…I could see Tulsi and Vihar lakes from there…
Also on way up I came across few leopard scats indicating the presence of the top carnivore…a Eurasian Marsh harrier was a fascinating sight...

Reaching the dargah...it seemed we were celebrities…
The dargah wallhas there greeted us, made us sit below the beautiful Jackfruit tree…
And then came following the Chai-pani (not the usual famous Chai-pani, but the actual one)...The Nashta was so tasty…chai even better...
My friend thought about the Indian culture; what best hospitality traditions we have...
And then came following the ironical statement to the Forest Guard… “Sahab Hamara bhi zara khayal rakhna” to which our gentleman Guard nodded positively…

Now I got it …and I had to explain my friend the reason behind this hospitality….
Actually thanks to some of our elder environmentalists that, there is already a case filed by the Forest department lying in the high court against these two dargahs and the lower Patanga baba dargah…

This hospitality we got and the same hospitality our Mr. Forest Guard might be getting everyday is all due to this case…

Another place that I felt very bad was, about the Forest watchman who was also accompanying us.
The forests watchmen in National park I feel, work very hard…even this guy with us, was so active throughout the day...ready for all work...
And the knowledge of the forest that he had was simply awesome…
These people put in lot of efforts and just do not rest in their uniform like many guards around (any way, the watchmen do not get any uniform)

The Guard that was with us said, that just a year ago he was targeted by a local timber mafia several times when he tried to oppose them…even he was beaten up once..
And the worst part is, when he tried to put this to the ears of Forest Department, they simply told them to file a police case and they cannot do anything in that…that is watchmen’s job!!!!!…
So if the department cannot take responsibility of its own employed people…it should not expect them to be honest anyway (and nor should we)
This watchman like many other forest watchmen is still on contract basis although he has been employed since 1992…and even now his salary is mere Rs. 1800/-
So with no security of job as well as life (Just few months ago watchman at the elephant gate was beaten up by bunch of boys),
With negligible payment how can anyone expect them to work…??

And then Forest watchmen are so important…coz they are the grass root staff who have the first hand information…some thing needs to be done here..

There are many other issues like;













The forest department has done Australian Acacia (Exotic species) plantations at the base of the hills near Ram nagar towards the Ayappa temple. The Green patch due to those plantations looks great but, the department should have done some research work before doing this.
The Acacia plantation at that place I can guess might have been planted to add up to the vegetation appearance, but these Acacias finally will hamper the soil quality and will make it acidic…other forest floral diversity wont grow in that area…and thus sooner or later it could also upset the faunal diversity.

There is a hill patch near the plantation which stands out being dry and barren…
I just cannot get the idea…when all other places are being made green (at least to keep the naturalist community quiet) why the hell is this place left barren…
When discussed with the Guard and few other local people around…I got my answer…
Actually this place is adopted by FDCM department and they are supposed to take an initiative and develop this area…but they are doing this from past 1 year (locals told me this) and still no results…I could also see an political outfit’s flag over that hill… this means the FDCM these days I guess have started working with the political parties (or the parties might be volunteering for them or vice a versa)

Elder Authoritative Environmentalists please pay your attention here and please find a solution.
Something is to be seriously done about:-

Ø The Forest watchmen (this group has to be given opportunities),
Ø The Forest Guard (please decide whts to be done)
Ø And also the dargahs … (we require a positive verdict that place is so beautiful)
Ø The Acacia auriculiformis (Australian acacia) plantations … (no more such plantations should be allowed or at least serious and authentic R& D required ahead of such plans)
Ø The FDCM patch (atleast have a look what’s the matter exactly other wise even that area would get encroached)














So this was a day at Yeoor…
Coming out and sharing experiences with other fellow volunteers, I got to know more about various other weird happenings at other sights like the Ayappa temple.
The total count of alcohol bottles rose up to 23...
And not to count the other stuff….

I know this will keep on happening every year…
But I felt happy to realize that this year it reduced a bit…and will keep on reducing as the public becomes aware.

Hoping for the Best…

Will keep on writing,

Hemanth G. Tripathi