Champions Trophy, Team India & Confronting our Fears!

 

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“In India different religions don't pray together but they play cricket together.”
― Amit Kalantri.

Above quote by Amit Kalantri, writer of “Wealth of Words” is enough to describe the importance of this game to we Indians! And after a long time I am writing about cricket, i.e. after the T20 world cup win of India & its time of different format, different tourney which is Champions Trophy. No, we haven’t won it yet as the final is three days ahead but my reason of sharing about cricket of late was never about winning a cup or tournament, just the way now I don’t write about tiger sightings when I write about forests (fortunately it’s not tadoba, don’t worry), same way it’s about the experience some games give us (read as me), such is this sharing. Those who are ignorant about format & tournaments of the present-day cricketing world, then three formats are played internationally in cricket, test cricket which is a five-day game, one day cricket which is a fifty overs game for both teams & T20, which is a twenty overs game for both teams. I won’t explain rules of games & such details as if you don’t know that then you can stop reading right now!

Ok, Champions trophy is played between the top eight teams in the ranking in one day format of cricket & at present its going on at the venue Pakistan & Dubai. India & New Zealand have qualified or say reached in the finals which is to be played on coming Sunday i.e. 9^th March 25. My subject of sharing is just one match in this tournament which was Semi-final & was played between India & Australia. On the way to the semis' India beat its arch-rival Pakistan (arch-rival only because of political & religious tension between two countries) & for me it's just a game between a far superior team vs an average team, which India won easily. The story of the semis is different as here the rival was Australia, present world champion of the one-day format & more than that recently has a history of defeating India in knock-out rounds & taking India out of competition, which is the reason for my sharing! I know many people in this country think cricket has been over-glorified & there are other games yet fact remains this game connects people of our country more than any other game & money will flow where people are! And this is equally true with inspiring stories of MSD (plz google) & many youngsters who made fortune via IPL (again plz google) millions of kids & their parents can now dream of making it big by playing cricket which no other games do! So, going ahead with this particular match which is subject of sharing but before that will take you through another such rivalry & its present scenario just to understand the importance of the India Australia match in semis’ of the champions trophy.

18^th April 86, team India has won the world cup of 83 & was on track of becoming a major power in one-day cricket but on this day in Sharjah which has become new battleground for the two age old arch-rivals i.e. India Pakistan, Javed Miandad named Pakistani player hit a six on the last ball of the match & pulled an impossible victory for Pakistan! There are defeats in every war & game but some are so depressing that it takes a lot of time (and courage) for the defeated team to put that defeat behind & become able to play a normal game against that particular opponent! This is what Pakistan did to team India that day with that one sixer, such was the impact of that loss that for years there after barring ICC tournaments Indian team used to always lose any match against Pakistan & add in it the hype built against rivalry between these two nations! But slowly the new blood came in & attitude towards the game changed & so did the outcome of the matches between these two teams. Now the media does create the hype before any match between Pakistan & India but recent history of last decade shows the Indian team has buried the Sharaja last ball six demon of Pakistani team & play fearlessly as well as professionally beating Pak team comfortably in many encounters!

While team India has overcome Pakistani fear factor but at world level another nemesis has been born for them in cricket & that is Australian team. Right from the beginning Aussies are a team of hard-core professionals & if they lack in natural skill & talent then fill that vacuum by sheer their fitness as well determination & aggression! One sign of a champion team is it delivers its best when put in a do or die situation which is a qualifier in any tournament. Barring 2011 ICC World Cup where Indian team beat Aussies in quarter finals, in the last fifteen years everytime Aussie team has beaten team India in the qualifiers & showed us the way out of the tournament. And just not that every time there is some single player which has done the damage of defeating single handedly pulling the game away from team India. When such things happen repeatedly then you start doubting your capacity to win, which was happening with the Indian team is my subject of sharing! May it be semis of T20 or World Cup or Test match Finals, Aussies regularly has denied Indian team the final trophy or way ahead to finals & joke is in the very tournaments the same team gets defeated from Indian team but in rounds! So, it was battle of nerves or say temperament actually & not of skill which is my object of sharing.

This time also the scars of the wound from the world cup finals from the Aussie team haven't healed fully, though the Indian team has won the T20 championship yet we didn’t play against Aussies in the qualifiers there & defeated them in round games only. That’s why when this time in the champions trophy we were put against Aussies in the semis though the media hype was not like India-Pakistan yet for me this was a more crucial match from the pride or let’s say temperament point of view! A day before my friend who doesn’t follow cricket much asked me, what do you think, who will win tomorrow? I replied, logically team India should beat this Aussie team comfortably as their three main bowlers are not playing in the tournament for personal reason & this Aussie team has weakest bowling squad, yet this is Aussie team & they are known for rising their game in death matches, so I give 51% chance to Indian team. The additional 1% is for the changed attitude & professionalism team India has acquired recently! All the Indian team has to do is know that they are a far better team now than the Aussies & believe what they know about themselves & play, which team India did & beat Aussies in the semis, showing them the way out of the tournament! In doing so, we may not have won the champions trophy yet & we may also lose to New Zealand in the finals but for me what team India has won by beating Aussies in the qualifiers is far more than the trophy, it has won its self-confidence about being able to defeat their nemesis! And they haven’t been dependent on one or two players in beating their hardest opponents or others but everybody now plays some role in the game is more important. No more the fan’s faces show clouds of worry when some Virat or Rohit gets out a bowler like Bumrah has been ruled out from playing the entire tournament, yet we beat Aussies & are in finals, is the best outcome for team India!  Not only are they playing like a team but they believe they can beat anybody in any match. This is the team which doesn't bother to hit three sixes in a row when even one wicket can shift the game, which they know wont shift & keep hitting, is my subject of sharing!

To conclude, I won't bother to write about the runs or records made or wickets taken, as Virat Kohali has said after the match, “I don’t think about the numbers or the records, that's a byproduct. I believe in spending more time on the crease & making my team win & what happens in the process may be the records’! This is today’s team India; they are thinking like & playing like professionals & in the process they have learned to handle their fears & overcome them. We all have our fears & enemies too, which sometimes can be even faceless but are very much in our minds. Our fears are the worst enemies we can have as they stop us from believing in our capacities to deliver & if team India can overcome their fears, we also can, is my take away from this match! Though there is a lot to improve for team India, especially on the fielding front as in this match also we dropped nearly five chances while in the group match with New Zealand, that team converted two impossible chances into wickets; but then perfection is an ever-going process, right? So, go ahead team India, I am loving your swag (plz google for meaning) & thanks for making me understand life a shade better every time I watch you play the way you are playing now!

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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/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.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

Think Green, Think Life

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

Traffic Named Cancer but where is the Doctor!

 

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“The way humans hunt for parking and the way animals hunt for food are not as different as you might think.”

― Tom Vanderbilt

“Traffic congestion is caused by vehicles, not by people in themselves.” ― Jane Jacobs

While no need to introduce Jane to our readers (one of the greatest urban planning book writers), Tom T Vanderbilt is an American journalist, blogger, and author of the best-selling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do. Though I have decided not to write about Pune’s traffic yet because of a column in a newspaper made me do so as it said, doesn’t anybody think about doing something right for Pune traffic!  My first answer was, that’s the only problem, as in Pune there are many who can actually think, & many more who think they can think, but very few who act, that’s the main problem for Pune traffic! And then three news made headline on consecutive three days, all related to traffic (in some way), one was a senior minister made statement in press release (though in Mumbai) that govt is thinking of trying Air Taxis (pd cars) as solution of traffic congestion in cities like Pune & Thane. Second news was Hon CM, announced a project of making tunnels joining kharadi to katraj (South East suburbs of Pune) of Rs 4000 crores, saying it will make life of millions of vehicle owners easy by saving their travel time (the later part is important) & latest was High Court dismissed a public petition of making a road connecting Pashan to Kothrud (western suburbs of Pune) which was (is) supposed to cut a biodiversity rich hill in Pune. I thought it’s too much, at least I must write for myself as that much I owe to this city. One thing, I am a civil engg with background or environment & planning but I am not an urban planner, though there is no such thing you can teach as urban planning by reading some books & this statement I am making with due respect to all big names in urban planning! What you need is, some common sense, understanding of people’s needs (todays & future too) & a balanced approach towards life! I have that a bit because for decades I have been working as a civil engg, living in this city, have seen few other cities & am a wild lifer to retain my connection with nature!

Ok, first about traffic, then I am not needed to be Aristotle to tell that traffic is caused by vehicles & vehicles are the outcome of our poor urban planning & weak public transport infrastructure. As why in the first place we need to use private vehicles, if we start looking (read as planning) at the problem of traffic from this angle then half of the battle is won! And then comes our attitude towards life which we call life-style, as all over the world, public transport of a city may be the best yet no Metro of Bus can come to everybody’s door-step & you have to walk a bit to use public transport which Punekars are not ready to accept, is another cause of traffic jams. Ask any Punekar, how much he or she walks everyday to reach the workplace, then most of them walk from the parking lot to their respective visiting place, may it be office or home, so private vehicles are now as inseparable part of our life as our cell phones! And with too many cell phones in use at the same location even the signal gets jammed & we are talking about vehicles, what else you can expect but traffic jams!  So first & foremost Punekar’s start walking a bit & plan your work schedule in better manner is what as a citizen we can do if we don’t want traffic congestions! I know, this may not go in good spirit with most readers as that’s the problem, we want solutions where we won’t have to do anything special or face slightest of discomfort may it be water conservation, tress conservation or traffic jams, it's always somebody else (govt usually) has to solve the problem for us, which wont work, is what I will tell! As govt & so-called public-bodies which collect taxes are definitely responsible but, on that front, also as citizens, what are we doing, is I want to ask Pune’s citizens! Have once we jointly ever gone to some public body or our elected member as a procession/ march for our traffic issues, the answer is, No! And for that first we as citizens must start respecting basic traffic rules as right from not wearing a helmet for our own safety to jumping red signal, driving in wrong lane we end up breaking practically every law of traffic & yet we expect govt to streamline our traffic, great!

Now coming to the govt (Urban Development, PMC, PCMC, PMRDA, PMPML, Police etc) aspect of traffic problem, the most important aspect is, coordination between all these depts of govt & taking responsibility for solving traffic chaos! For e.g., traffic police are at signals but signal controls are with PMC. Traffic police can fine vehicles parked illegally on roads but vehicles of footpaths they won’t act up on! As well CC Tv are there on many signals but maintenance of these TVs’ nobody owns! At the same time when its about road making then the road dept can only make roads but land acquisition for these roads or bridges comes under different dept & giving TDR of land under road again goes with another dept at PMC (or any public body). If any road is built then next day digging is started by drainage, water or MSEDCL dig that road for their purpose, thus list of such chaos is endless & eventually all these contributes to chocking of carriage ways of the road resulting in traffic jams! High time to define one single entity which will be responsible for traffic management & that only will be looking after every traffic issue. Rather high time considering the chaos (read as importance) we are experiencing on traffic front of most of the Metro cities, a new dept itself must be there which will have representation from all depts & experts too which directly can deal with the traffic issues with authority & see that traffic remains smooth.

Obviously any such type of idea takes decades in this country to become a reality, till then make someone from the existing system controller to handle the present scenario, it may be PMC, Collector, but not traffic police for sure as they can’t be loaded with this burden! As all over the world, traffic police’s job is not to control traffic or manage traffic but just punish the people who are breaking traffic laws, except in our country, where traffic police are supposed to handle everything related to traffic with no powers to act on it! I myself have witnessed a traffic police sub-inspector getting scowled by none other than our guardian-minister (don’t ask who & when) as he was shouting at drivers of wrongly parked vehicles which unfortunately happened to be Karyakartas(supporters) of the said minister! So, what you can expect from police at such times as right from processions blocking roads to illegal parking to not allowing pay & park systems on roads, traffic police are helpless! At the same time, seriously, high time not to allow a single vehicle (except cycle) to park on any road without being charged for the parking, or else we won’t be ever getting rid of the traffic congestion issue! As the govt which keeps on increasing taxes in every budget on Cigarettes, Tobacco products & Alcohol(legal sell off course) because they are supposedly hazardous to health of the citizen the why the very govt is not keen on charging for parking on public places (roads) as increasing number of vehicles of all sorts are like growing cancer cells for the city roads & the way overgrown cell kills the human body, same way these vehicle named cells are slowly killing city roads & entire environment & the traffic jams are just one sign of this cancer. Slow speed of vehicles is not just loss of time & fuel but it creates more carbon monoxide making our lungs weak & all these vehicles need physical space so the trees has to give away to accommodate driving & parking space for the vehicles so less oxygen, in nutshell slow poisoning for the citizens & we all are responsible for this cancer of traffic!

Public transport strengthening is another way which again always takes a backseat on the agenda of any govt as one Metro won’t be solving all problems of traffic.

And last but least, is our increasing human population because Dubai & Singapore like cities also have the best public transport but concentration of population makes their roads also crowded with vehicles, yet with two-fold therapy of charging for parking & increasing public transport infra these countries are keeping vehicle cancer at bay!  Finally, our urban policies, which are focused only on TDR & FSI consumption, making the city centres or some regions grow more densely populated & add on parking for these developments while the roads are of same width, which only going to make the city roads die faster! We may build more tunnels, flyovers, missing links of roads, use river for transport (one more joke) & even air-taxis but unless & until we don’t plan to reduce private vehicles’ use, they won’t stop growing, so the urban planning must be focused on humans & trees than cars; then only there is some hope or else the future of our city is smoky for sure, adios with this statutory warning!

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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/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.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

Think Green, Think Life

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Twenty Two Shades of Tadoba!

 

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“There are infinite shades of grey. Writing often appears so black and white” … Rebecca Solnit.

Well, Rebecca, who is an American writer & activist these words may make you think the sharing seems to be about some thinker’s deep philosophy but no, it’s about Tadoba (Not again, many must be saying) & the reason I used this particular quote is entry gates of Tadoba! If you are confused then, the quote is about shades of colour grey & shade is concentration of the colour, so there can be dark grey & light grey & many options in between, same way Tadoba has nearly 22 gates if not infinite & each gate is like some shade of tadoba, showing you the forest differently, is my analogy! It's February & I am fortunate to visit tadoba in this particular month which has become a ritual now (that way visiting tadoba itself has become one) but this period of year is more special! February, by me, is the best month to visit Tadoba as tiger sightings may be a bit less (though I have returned from Tadoba without sighting even in May also) but the forest is like a bridge connecting two different seasons, winter & summer. The grass is all shades of green, yellow & black & if mornings are typically misty the noon’s are hot & evening brings cool breeze! The tigers perfectly get camouflaged in this grass & they love it as this season suits their hunting best. Even with binocs, a tiger hiding in the grass is difficult to sight, no wonder Gaur, Deer & Wild Boars are caught off-guard & there are kills, meant sightings! The grass just has started thinning & drying yet its average height is three to four feet, which easily hides even a big male tiger, unless it comes out of it! 

I am not a photographer by professional terms but one need not have to be as every frame is like a dream unfolding in front of you, sometimes it's best to keep camera aside & watch the wilderness with naked eyes, images get imprinted forever on the hard disk of the brain. I just thank God for making me able to witness these shades of life where somebody's death is somebody's life! Wild life has everything in it, duty, care, compassion, aggression, fitness, alertness but unlike humans it doesn’t have any place for things like cruelty, cheating, sorrow, or bad luck; all it has is survival & celebrate every day with a prize as your life!

 

And speaking about shades, this tadoba trip was unique (read as more unique) because I got to circle the entire tadoba forest, just the way people circle earth (Prithvi pradakshina)! To make you understand tadoba geography, it has two main entry roads, one is from Chandrapur side you can call eastern side & another is from Chimur, western side. Moharli village is on Chandrapur side known as mohrali gate & Kolara village is on Chimur side, known as Kolara gate. These two are gates of core & then there is on northern side Kolsa i.e. Zari & pangdi gates & on southern side Khutwanda gate. So, in total there are four sides to enter the core forest of tadoba with five gates. And eventually outside of this core part of the forest there is a vast expanse of buffer where there are nearly 17 gates, so in total 23 gates are there for the wildlife lovers to explore colours of tadoba! Each of these gates takes you to a different part of the forest & you feel like you are watching a kaleidoscope as each forest is different, with its flora & fauna as well the terrain & it keeps changing as per the season! This time I started from Kolara gate, went to Moharili gate which is 180 degrees opposite & then again travelled to kolara, in the process visiting all the gates & circling entire tadoba, a wonderful experience of seeing all shades of tadoba ion one day! Though I didn’t go inside, buffers, core, gate & are created by humans while nature doesn’t know or define any such thing & you can witness the forest shades changing along the road encircling the region! At the same time the people, the plus & minus for wildlife, all these things you can experience in such a journey, which I did!

 

The road which I travelled has been in great shape & this is the reason it’s a death trap for wild animals. Its Chandrapur-Mul road (a patch of some 60 km) claims maximum road kills as because of good quality of the road speed of vehicles is high & it cuts the forest directly, with no place to cross for wild animals making them exposed to the fast-moving traffic! Indeed, there are signages easily readable all along the road to keep slow & care for wild animals but we all know how much we care for such signages! At the same time this is dangerous even for slow going two-wheeler riders also as an animal like wild boar or Indian gaur if it collides with two-wheeler then chance of injury to the two-wheeler rider is more! The need is, at least clear the shrubs & bushes along the road for 20 ft on both sides so at least the wild animals as well vehicle drivers can see what’s coming on the road & will have some time to apply breaks, provided the drivers are driving at moderate speed! The real solution is net fencing all along the road where it traverses through fields & forest patches & make under passes for wild animals at regular intervals! My own car just got saved as we were travelling at low speed as suddenly a wild boar came running in-front of our car, making our driver skip his heart beat! This part is on the Kolsa side of tadoba & a large number of wild animals often are needed to cross this road because of their basic needs like water, food & shelter & high time we must do something to protect their lives. Even a railway track also passes through this region which already has claimed seven to eight tiger’s lives & equal numbers of sloth bears & leopards, again nothing is being done by railway dept to avoid these deaths! On one side Hon Courts’ (High Court & Supreme Court) are keen on protecting wildlife & asking forest dept to take actions on even the slightest disturbance by tourists but Hon Court, why can’t you take these serious issues where not just disturbance but Tiger’s lives are at threat, is my sincere question to you!

 

Coming back to the gates, my intention was to visit a new gate near Chimur i.e. Shedegaon which is not part of Tadoba project tiger in technical terms but is of great importance as its one side is adjoining to Navegaon buffer of tadoba & another goes to Umred Karhandala & is a corridor for migration of Tigers in MP. This forest comes under territorial forest but as I said such terminologies are for humans while the wild animals know only one thing, safe way of their survival!  Now with a gate there will be tourism in these parts of forest as well the locals will be more careful to keep an eye on the wildlife as that’s how they will earn their livelihood at the same time wild animals will also have a secure path for their transition! With this gate, now the tally must have gone above 22 figure mark but then as I said, it’s just one more shade of Tadoba, so enjoy it to the fullest.

Oh, yes, one good thing, for years the entry road to Mohrali gate was aligned with garbage & human excreta & I have written about it many a times but in this trip, I found no garbage or any foul smelling objects & the road was clean & fresh air, this is big achievement, & congrats to forest dept as well Moharli villagers as cleanliness around villages & forest road is one big support for health of wildlife!  On the journey around Tadoba I witnessed people working in their farms, people walking on roads, people grazing their cattle, people at rivers & lakes for their thirst, people going to temple, school-kids walking to their school & all this with vast forest on their backdrop & I know a tiger is also nearby-by in that forest, silently watching these people & yet both the humans & the tiger are at their ease! This is coexistence at its best at Tadoba & this is why I get drawn towards these forests again & again, adios with this satisfied feeling of being part of that coexistence!

 

Gates of Tadoba Forests!

Moharli, Khutwanda, Kolara, Zari, Pangdi.. Core

Mamla, Agarzari, Dewada, Junona, Adegaon, Zari, Pangadi, Keshlaghar, Somnath, Shirkheda, Belara, Madnapur, Kolara, Alizanza, Navegoan, Shedgaon.

 

You can watch some coexistence moments at the link below also…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72177720323886782/

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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/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html

https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.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

Think Green, Think Life

Fairy Tale of UKWS!

 

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“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
― Albert Einstein.

No introduction is needed for Mr Einstein yet apart from being one of the most intelligent brains ever alive he was a philosopher, kind hearted good human being & he believed in things like fairy tales! I have used his wisdom many times but the above words are just tailor-made for this sharing which is about Fairies, though they are tigresses (what else) & one (rather many) might say how can a fearsome, deadly, dangerous animal like a tiger can even be called a Fairy! But then all such people (read as humans) haven’t understood neither the concept Fairy nor wildlife, is what I will say! Ok, this sharing is about wildlife & tigers & people around forests (don’t worry, it’s not about Tadoba) & this time the forest is Umred Karhandala Wildlife Sanctuary popularly known as UKWS, though unfortunately been in the news for the wrong reasons of late! Most of you must have come across a clip where a tigress with five cubs is walking in between gipsies with title as rare sight of six tigers in tadoba which actually is from UKWS & the clip has been wrongly interpreted by the authorities as the path of tigress with small cubs has been blocked by the tourist vehicles etc etc! Well, that is not subject of sharing as I have already shared my view about it but the subject is the tigress in that clip, F2 is her name, which is by the forest dept & locals call her by name Fairy 2, that’s why the reference of Fairy tales!

The name Fairy 2 has been given by her blood line as her mom was Fairy, a tigress which took IKWS on the world map of wildlife. There was a time, nearly eight years back, first images of a tigress carrying five tiny cubs boldly on the narrow roads (mind these details) of UKWS surfaced on social media, which was FB only then. Sadly our (India’s) wildlife is tiger centric & I am not a judge to comment right or wrong but fact remains every person going to wildlife sanctuaries unless its birding or aqua wildlife wants to see a tiger & seeing six tigers together is not something you get to see often! No wonder, UKWS not only came on the wildlife map, but the entire social life changed here as the tourists started flowing in & came along, the money! If you are not familiar with the geographic location of UKWS (most of you are certainly not) Umred is known for its mineral rich grounds but now many know the forests here are corridors for ages connecting wildlife in Tadoba or Andhra forests or even MP forests. Tigers were here all the time but most of them have been in transit form, rarely making these forests as their home & that’s why UKWS was never on ranking charts of places to be visited for the wildlifers. But come Fairy & things changed as here is a tigress walking boldly on the roads unfazed by the gypsies surrounding her & that too with five cubs which are growing fast. And where in neighbouring forests of Tadoba the cubs are getting separated from their mom in mere one & half years, here there is no pressure of mating from many male tigers around these cubs that have remained with Fairy for nearly two & half years. Outcome was, in the period just before separation when these six tigers used to walk together it’s like a gang of big tigers moving around making the tourists awe about the sight they are looking at & I also was one of them! I have seen Fairy with her five cubs when the cubs were one & half years old & they had problems fitting themselves on the roads of UKWS.

This is why Fairy name must have been given to this tigress as UKWS was a poor sanctuary with its location cut-off from developed urban world, money was scares here & so was tiger sighting but Fairy changed that scene overnight & a place which wasn’t having even a decent hotel for stay now has nearly more than twenty resorts including MTDC! Now you can understand the sentiments of the people towards this tigress which is fondly called as Fairy, as she has changed lives of thousands of these people for good purpose bringing happiness in their families by mere her presence around! For those who doesn’t know details of UKWS, it has two zones Karhandala & Gothengaon & there is another gate Pauni which is on other side of highway but Fairy made her home for the zones of Gothangaon & Karahandala all alone with entire area for herself. This is the story of Fairy 1 & the problem with such cases is once the cubs are grown-up & dispersed to find their own territory then suddenly the sightings get reduced & again tourists dry up, especially when the spread of your forest is small like UKWS has. With Fairy, what she did is unique, she took a step back & gave away parts of the entire forest to her two female siblings one of which is current F@ i.e. Fairy2. Now UKWS has three tigresses with cubs, the Karhandla zone there is a tigress which is known as X1, while Gothengaon zone is ruled by F2 i.e. Fairy 2 & Fairy herself has taken shelter in a corner of forest which extends towards Pavani gate & even buffers.

 Best part of this Fairy tale is about the legacy which F2 is taking ahead as to the surprise of all the wild lifers, few months back tigress F2 appeared on the narrow roads of UKWS (again don’t miss the detailing) with five tiny cubs toddling along & for once the locals thought Fairy herself has appeared as this is the sight for which tourists flock the place & wait for days! And in one such flocking of the tourists the earlier mentioned clip got viral & caused a lot of botheration for the forest dept as well locals too! Coming to the price of being a Fairy which not many tourists are interested in but is very much there & which I witnessed during my recent trip to Gothengaon. Giving birth to five cubs at a time & making them grow is one of the hardest jobs beyond imagination of our human brains also. First, to give them birth all alone, no maid-servant to look after them & then standing to their basic demands like hunger & thirst. When five cubs are there the mom tigress can’t afford them to breast feeding for long as that takes her entire energy out. At the same time, imagine every day you have to feed six stomachs’ that too of the tigers, so each day F2 (and earlier F i.e. Fairy) has to move around for hunting & then the stress of keeping her tiny cubs which are jumping around all the time, behind with nobody to guard them. Indeed, fortunately unlike Tadoba the threats from other predators as well other male tigers are lesser at UKWS yet the cubs are exposed to many dangers such as snake bite & water-bodies to fall in. And the mom has to keep herself safe as well as fit because even if you are queen of forest, it’s just a tag as there is no servant to serve you food here! Recently F2 got injured during a wild boar kill & her nose was swollen with a cut also which was clearly visible when I clicked her. She was in pain but five cubs were in playing mode & the mom in her has to do the job keeping her pain aside. Poor queen, she played with the cubs for a while & the guide told me she hasn’t ate much from the earlier kill as it was as small fawn of deer which was barely enough for the cub, so she was hungry & all she did was got away from the cubs & rested in water body to ease her pain. The wound is at her nose where she couldn’t even lick, the best medicine for the wild animals & yet she put on the show for her cubs, that’s what Fairy is!

Coming to tourism & its so-called disturbance aspect, something I can’t skip from sharing! We have taken a full day safari which means just two vehicles were inside after the morning safari in the entire forest. We saw F2 resting & her cubs playing around but the tigress was fast asleep. And the moment afternoon safari vehicles came inside the forest she was awake on her own & came on the road like she was waiting to put on the show for the tourists as she understood her duty towards the local people also whose earnings (read as life) depends on tiger sightings of the tourists! I am not a man of emotions & understand the hardships of wildlife yet when I was watching F2 bravely putting up the show on all fronts keeping her all pain & troubles aside from my camera lens, my eyes were wet, witnessing the sufferings & hardships the tigress was paying for being Queen of UKWS, & I saluted her from my heart! At the same time those who says wildlife tourism is disturbance to the tigers then with due respect F2 rather seems enjoying people around her & she seems to feel protected in their presence as her cubs are safe now under the eyes of the tourists & guides & gypsy drivers as she left for the hunt leaving her cubs in the hands of us, this is what actual field observance of mine & not some office seated Chat-Gpt writing! At the same time, I might have experienced this behaviour of F2 by accident but the guides & drivers confirmed this is the way she always behaves, which means rather than getting offended or disturbed by the safari vehicles the tigress is rather comfortable with them, & doesn’t look at tourists as intruders rather trusts them that in their presence her cubs will be safe! Another logic to confirm my this statement is, if F2 feels that when she is on walk on road with her cubs the gypsies obstructed her path then she wouldn’t have ever let her cubs out when the vehicles are around but scene is different, every day she is bringing them on road when the gipsies are around, what this indicates, is the question I want to ask all those who hail wildlife tourism as obstruction to wildlife! One reason is, F2 herself is familiar with safari vehicles & tourists cameras focused on ger every move since when she was a cub & she knows this is part of her forest now & she is ok with it, what else we can than this but coexistence!

Yet this doesn’t mean we block the tiger’s path or disturb it or refrain any wild animal from its right on the forest. But that can’t be achieved without following some basic simple rules which can differ from park to park as per geographic situations of the respective forest. In UKWS the roads are very narrow & either we can widen them a bit or we can follow self-discipline by which everybody can have tiger’s sighting by turn keeping our greed away for the best shot! As scene there is such that if F2 or any tiger is on road then only two or three gipsy’s tourists can watch the tiger & those behind will be left with just some part of tigers in sight & if they click photos of such sighting then it’s tagged as obstruction of tiger or wild animals which is not the case actually! High time for forest dept to form a committee of experts who won’t make policies with a biased mind on either aspect of wildlife tourism & define the rules which will make wildlife tourism a fun or say a path for coexistence for all concerned. If forest dept is having some issues on this, the Hon High Court please intervein proactively & ask the forest dept to make right guidelines for individual forest as well at large but with right mindset about wildlife at large & not just some aspect of it.

Will use a quote for first time in twelve years of my writings to conclude,

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
― Neil Gaiman; & here in the story of Fairy of UKWS, the dragon means our wrong attitude toward entire wildlife, is all I want to say as that will be the right end rather start of this Fairy tale of UKWS, adios for now!

-

 Sanjay Deshpande 

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

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