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Since 2021, I have been fortunate enough to be a part of the annual eco-calendrical project, One Planet: for the Coming Ones. It all started with one of the most unexpected junctures that I felt in my left – losing a prime guardian, Amitabha Guha. Mundanely, he is no more with us but his innate voice of inspiration can be heard through this elixir of life. Like I said earlier while rendering my concerns with the last two series of One Planet, thanking Dipa Aunty (Mrs Dipanwita Rakshit) would be too formal a gesture to explicate my affinity with this rendering. She just turned out to be a prime milestone of One Planet.
Three major standpoints that I have been preferring to manifest the authentic voice of this rendering, i) profound documentation of disparate eco days, weeks, years and special decades from multitudinous sources, ii) essence of the literary spark that actually makes the journey an enchanting one and, iii) centralising a theme that can render itself to be the narrative crux of the entire presentation. It has been a real boon that from specific corners all around the world, there have been cordially reciprocal voices to rejoice One Planet's enigma as a memoir. However, a little frustration too is added to the list – despite having a number of sincere hearts around my corner, One Planet is still lacking adequate support (and advocacy at times of course), which is a little uncanny. I am not stating this to explicate only my concern with and contribution to the project, rather, these words are from the heart to genuinely highlight the appeal of mass awareness that is embedded in this rendering. I sincerely hope this tinge of objection will not be stopping me from being the Samuel of life – a renderer of the services without any immediate expectation.
Better to admit, originally meant to be the beholder of a completely complex theme this year, One Planet, due to several shortcomings from my end, an erstwhile trip to Kanha eventually turned out to be the core narrative of this series, rendering it as a graphic travelogue as far as practicable. Last year, it was certainly a galaxy of contributors and photographers as the significant crux of the panel. Nevertheless, as it is always said and believed, catering to home products often turns out to be much sweet. All I want to convey is, that let us have a greener trail in future. Nature needs us. As I mentioned in the epilogue here, "Just as we belong to Nature, so does She to us." Let us renovate that understanding, not as a cursory new year goal, but as a trendsetting intonation that can evoke and invoke an innate brilliance – to be active, and productive as well!
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In Memorium: Attribution by Mrs Dipanwita Rakshit to Late Amitabha Guha
The Beginner’s Luck
Dawn at the heart of India’s one of the most enchanting wild paradises. One of the prominently common scenes here in the tiger reserves is that of the bunch of safari jeeps gathering around the happening spot, always provides a tremendous goosebump to await the upcoming action – wild, untamed and unpredictable! And when the Queen of the meadows eventually turns up on the scene, the urge meets the reality. Framed one is one such moment of sheer adrenaline rush with Dhawajhandi Female (KTR T27) on the trail, looking for her cubs to share a kill that she made that morning.
Avian Contemplation
Circulated across the subcontinent, Indian Rollers are relatively more territorial than most other species of birds. They have a distinctive habit of returning and marking their territory by scatting on the termite mounds like one-horned rhinoceros. The snapped one is seen in such a moment in the Mukki zone of the park.
On the Lookout
In the meadows of the tiger-jungle, the sharp and unified intonation of the alarm calls, coming out from chital sambar, langur monkeys, and occasionally from the Indian peafowls are the perfect prelude to the appearance of any predator. The photographed one is a young chital or spotted deer stag, developing a ‘velvet’ coat on his antlers. Velvet antler is the whole cartilaginous antler in a precalcified growth stage of the Cervidae family including the species of deer such as elk, moose, and caribou. Velvet antler is covered in a hairy, velvet-like "skin" known as velvet and its tines are rounded, because the antler has not calcified or finished developing.
Blue-blooded
In Kanha, Indian peafowls are one of its most common denizens. Sharing the space with several other avian species, the peacocks are one of the graceful enchantment for the bird lovers, coming to this wild haven.
The Watchmen of the Woodlands
Though occasionally there are the ‘false’ alarm calls from the herbivorous, rendering them cautiously chaotic, even in the absence of any big cat, the alarm calls from langurs are never pronounced vaguely. On the trail of finding the cats, langurs’ alarm calls are believed to be the most authentic – always pragmatically directed to the purpose.
A Casual Stroll
The red-wattled lapwing is an Asian lapwing or large plover, a wader. Like other lapwings, they are ground birds that are incapable of perching. Their characteristic loud alarm calls are indicators of human or animal movements and the sounds have been variously rendered as “did he do it” or “pity to do it” leading to the colloquial name of did-he-do-it bird. Usually seen in pairs or small groups and not far from water, they sometimes form large aggregations in the non-breeding season (winter).
Her Majesty on the Move
During one of the evening safaris of this trip, one of our guides suddenly stopped the driver, indicating at a certain point of a place called Manglu-Tirah in the Kanha zone of the reserve about the arrival of the tiger. His assumption was not in vain. Naina, who is otherwise known as Link 8 Female (KTR T75) gradually grace the patch of the ground with her enigmatic charm and royalty. No words are really enough to frame the essence, one is supposed to be left speechless!
Meeting the Mascot
Hard ground swamp deer or barasingha, the state animal of Madhya Pradesh, is rejoicing a revival in Kanha after having been perilously close to extinction for a long time. As per the report of 2020, the species now numbers 800, after five decades of persistent conservation work. Furthermore, the legacy of Bhoorsingh is now spreading through the landscape, finding their feet in Satpura, as well as, in Bore Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh.
A Close Monitoring
When the mind gets the golden chance of venturing out Nature’s own interior, She gets ready to cordially open it up with all Her sweetness and grandeur. In the woodlands of tiger-jungle, it is not only the magnanimous feline grace that steals the heart, there is a whole galaxy of supporting casts too – to be adored. Photographed one is a jungle owlet in the Kanha zone, eagerly staring at the tourist vehicles that are entering to the safari.
The Return of the Blackbucks
Initiated in 2011, a success story that has wildlife lovers cheering is the return of blackbucks at Kanha National Park from the park of Seoni, Madhya Pradesh. After over a decade since they were declared extinct in the National Park, the forest department has successfully re-introduced 27 blackbucks in the Kanha zone. Wildlife experts say this was a very significant development as the blackbucks were declared locally-extinct by the forest department in 2005.
The Twilight Twist
Every time, bidding goodbye to the jungle overwhelms the heart. To wildlife enthusiasts, venturing is but an embracement of desired liberation – a liberation from the barriers of familiarity to the unfathomed primordiality. Thus, the wild hearts’ desire of returning is always aimed towards the leafy tracks, towards stripes and the antlers, wrapped by the age-old greenery. The twilight of the meadows, as framed here, showcasing the commensalism between a sambar deer female and a common mynah, is always entuned with the epitaph of a welcome note – renewed and reciprocal.
The dedicated page on the specal environmental decades and the iconic environmental years – the elixir of One Planet.
Unified by Soul
We have been rejoicing our immense fortune to be on the trail of this humble annual rendition since the last couple of years. In life, those who are mindful, are always offered the golden horizon of bridging up the communicative wavelength of like-mindedness. What can be a better beholder of this altruistic essence than Nature? This year, in the third sequential manifestation of One Planet, we embraced the thought of unveiling the wild treasure of Kanha as a graphic travelogue. Nature’s course of procreation is unending. So is our responsibility to relish Her. Just as we belong to Nature, so does She to us. The encapsulation of this ethos is manifested in this frame of barasingha couple. As it is entitled, “Unified by Soul,” our own affinity with the wilderness is exactly the same. Unifying the wholeness of this assessment, once again, One Planet wishes to be conveyed as a heartfelt memoir of the loving and caring maxims of Ujaan Pathik, our eternal and evergreen friend forever...
One Planet- for the Coming Ones
A tribute to the loving memories of Amitabha Guha, our beloved Ujaan Pathik
Those who made One Planet a reality,
Concept and Attribution
Dipanwita Rakshit
Photography, Theme, Research, Text and Compilation
Pratik Mahapatra
Emblem of One Planet
Sneha Biswas
Calendrical Supervision
Suman De
Background Shots of “In Memorium” and the Page on Special Years and Decades
Jairaj Singh Parihar
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