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Magazine
ECO-WATCH
The defiant one
S. THEODORE BASKARAN
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As outsiders in a wildlife sanctuary, it is we humans who have to watch our step…
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It is amazing what you can achieve if you make the visitors and sanctuary staff follow the rules.
Photo: S. Theodore Baskaran
Like an ebony carving: The gaur inside Kanha.
It had rained the previous night. An unusual winter rain. With the mist still hanging on to the tree canopy, the jungle looked magical. We were on the mud track that snaked through the Sal forest in the Kanha Tiger Reserve.
When we negotiated a bend, there was an adult gaur, drinking off one of the puddles on the road. We stopped. The gaur, a female, took its time to drink and then turned and stood in the middle of the road, looking at us. The driver drove close, hoping that it would move away. No. It did not move but simply stood. In Kanha the rules of the sanctuary are followed strictly. No honking. . The driver reversed and we waited. A rocket- tailed drongo kept up a concert in varied notes, like a medley. From a distance a red jungle fowl called.
Distrust of humans
It is amazing what you can achieve if you make the visitors and sanctuary staff follow the rules. One rule is that no one gets off the vehicle inside the sanctuary. So, over the years, the animals and birds have grown trusting. They seem to accept the vehicle as a harmless something. The moment the profile of the vehicle changes, like a hand protruding, then there is problem. They seem to distrust human being, the biped. Claude Martin, who had studied the Barasingha of Kanha in the early 1970s, was with us in the jeep. He told us that he used to swim in the Banjar River that flows through the sanctuary. There were occasions when he stood with just his head above water and the deer and sometimes even a tiger did not bother when they came to drink. Another rule is that the jeep should never go off the mud track. The drivers follow this scrupulously.
Located in the Satpura ranges, The Kanha Tiger Reserve has been protected since 1933. A central Indian forest, with all its wealth, is being show-cased here.
It’s a vast stretch of moist, deciduous forest, interspersed with grass lands which sustain the Barasingha, a large deer that is endemic to this forest. But it is for its tiger population that Kanha is known and attracts visitors from the world over. This was one of the first nine reserves to come under Project Tiger when it was implemented in 1973. Later, the sanctuary was expanded, basically by repatriating the villages in the periphery. In a unique move, the money collected from the tourists is ploughed back to the development of these resettled villages. In the forest you see evidences of a village that has once been, like a platform around a banyan tree or the remains of a brick house overgrown with creepers. Many youngsters from the local Ghond tribe work as guides. Their bushcraft and knowledge of natural history is remarkable. Without binoculars our guide could identify each bird just by its flight pattern or silhouette.
This stretch of forest teems with ungulates, including the gaur. Often mistakenly called the bison, the gaur is not a buffalo as the bison is. It is a wild ox. It flourishes all over India in the dense forests. Its only enemy in the jungle is the tiger which can bring down even a full grown gaur. Once hunted for its horn and meat, the gaur is one of the very visible ungulates of this sanctuary. Later that day we were to see a large herd of gaur, about 30 heads, close to the sanctuary entrance.
Stirring experience
The gaur blocking our path continued to stand still, like a gigantic ebony carving. To see this magnificent animal so close is a stirring experience. Meanwhile one more jeep full of tourists joined us. After what appeared to be a long time our driver hit upon an idea. He opened the jeep door a few inches and slammed it shut. The noise, quite out of place in the forest, startled the stoic gaur. She moved rather reluctantly and started walking downhill.
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