Recently, when I visited Tadoba, I had a heated argument with one of my fellow travelers who is also an avid reader, about overall management and maintenance of the forest(s).
It’s often debated that for a country to progress, the party in power should always have an equally capable opposition.
After my conversation with him, my thoughts went haywire. I just couldn’t pin point the epi center of this whole chapter that was unfolding. No one knows when and where to start from. How do we clear the mess, if we can’t find the source. Are we just meant to be reactive?
A mere 20% of the jungle remains open to the public. Yet, seldom it feels like it belongs to the animals. Humans rule this jungle. Few episodes of killings and encounters create the ripples of fear but the animal with an over-developed brain being most powerful has the capacity to overcome this hurdle easily.
They have banned plastics inside the jungle, yet they never check the lunch boxes we carry for plastic bottles. The resorts/home stays continue to provide plastic bottles with an assurance from the tourist that they would be returned. Many are returned but what about the ones that are not? They don’t check if people are carrying wafers or chocolates, wrappers of which are more harmful as animals remain at risk of swallowing.
Like everywhere else, even here there are ways of getting things done. There is a practice of paying rupees 500 to disable the GPS of the vehicle so that it becomes easier to track the animal. Why do I know this? I paid those 500, once. Since I have visited the place back to back a couple of times now and we usually prefer to remain loyal to people who give us the best services, this time the situation was exploited a little. The driver and the guide thought we would be thrilled to get close to the tigress by reaching the location faster than anyone else whilst we traced her. The speed of 30kmph changed to 60kmph creating a wave of unnatural sounds and vibrations and increasing the rate of exhausts from the jeeps. Fortunately or unfortunately, the tigress was undaunted and continued with her flamboyant road show. Whether to be happy or sad about this is a personal choice, isn’t it?
Whether to throw the wrapper out from the jeep is a personal choice too and so is whether to have your voices overpower the silence of the jungle.
Again who is to blame?
Who is to blame?
On the contrary humans are taking efforts. There are efforts to reduce waste and give the animals the best possible comfort within the nature. There are drives, drives for awareness, volunteering and many such efforts and initiatives. There are bins kept in every jeep for disposal of waste. There is a place to stop and have your food. There is also a speed limit and above all this are those trained people who accompany you, and for most of them the only source of daily wages is the jungle and allied activities. They have to keep the jungle alive in it’s state of the art form. Yet, we continue to read about teasing, destruction and poaching in our own jungles.
Increase the charges on the safari .
Provide fancy but ergonomically not so fancy glass bottles at the entry gate.
Question people at the gate about cell phones and plastics.
Can either from the above list be a solution?
Yes and no. Is trying to do something better, than not doing anything at all?
I am still thinking.
Dipika Pathak 