TIGERS: CHRONICLES OF "BURNING BRIGHT"

KAMLI

We just set off from the rest house. The sun has not risen yet. While driving on the jungle trail, Jairaj, our guide, instantly held back Bhanu, our driver. The jeepsy was driven backwards. To the left, there happened to be fresh pugmarks of a tiger. Jairaj told us to keep silence, and be on the lookout. Not even a couple of minutes has been passed, an adult female just emerged on the route and swingingly moved towards the left. "That's Kamli," Jairaj whispered. She is the empress of the very patch of wilderness where we have set off to catch up with tigers on this trip.

(Translated from an article by Debdoot Ghosh Thakur, published in "Rabibasoriyo", Anandabazar Patrika, 17 November 2019)

OVER THE last few years, I have been tremendously enjoying the chances of getting the interactions with people, related to the vast domain of wildlife and conservation and, one such occasion happened to occur on 18 November 2018 – on the day of the fourth series of Wildlife Awareness Rally in Kolkata when I got to know Jairaj Singh Parihar. Amiable and entirely committed to his concerns, he is an ace naturalist and a conservation worker in Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve in the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. During a short break before my presentation, we had been enjoying a hearty conversation on Kamli the tigress. Kamli. A name that sufficiently tells about herself — from her ruptured early days as a small cub to a graceful adult, who turned out to be a matriarch of the park in recent days. Recalling my novice days as an enthusiast who used to collect the paper cuttings on several wildlife coverages from popular Bengali and English dailies, I was just piecing together her family dynasty. Now, she has turned out to be the matriarch of the park but the initiation of life that she endured, is awe-striking and inspiring. Here is her story. Today on the auspicious occasion of International Tigers Day, let us be on the trail of Kamli. Read Full Article


VANDE MATARAM: THE STORY OF AN UNSUNG EMPRESS

“When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. You are connected to your child and to all those who touch your lives. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”

— Sophia Loren

WHILE ADVANCING towards our destination in Kanha in January 2018, as I can can remember – Deepak Ganguly, my fellow voyager and ardent tiger lover, urged that we should be definitely paying a visit to Pench while standing at the entrance point of the reserve for a much-needed break. With the cordial hospitality of Omveer Choudhary, an ace guide and one of our friends who shares the same bower of passion for these extreme big cats, we managed to have the evening shift of safari to have a look around in the domain of Mataram, the very aptly attributed Super Mom of Pench. Read Full Article

No comments:

Post a Comment