Tiger Estimation - Any Which Way You Can Spirit Among Volunteers

HYDERABAD: A young couple from Haryana took a 140-km autorickshaw ride from Hyderabad to Mannanur, the gateway to the Amrabad tiger reserve in Telangana, to be part of the All India Tiger Estimation (AITE) that began on January 20.

A student pursuing a degree in forestry in Chhattisgarh, despite the ‘language barrier’, managed to understand the danger sign at the last minute – as the forest guard with him pointed to a tree and finally found the word in Hindi – bhalu (bear). It was a race between the two to climb as high as possible on the nearest tree to escape the notoriously unpredictable animal. “I clambered up higher than him!” according to the student who hails from Bihar.

Young and old volunteers from Telangana and AP, brought together by their love for nature, now call themselves ‘Tiger Trotters’, and could not contain their excitement. Some of them saw a tiger, while others only heard it roar.

The hard terrain, the extremely early start into the forest, and the tiring treks appear to have done little to diminish the enthusiasm of the AITE volunteers. If anything, they cannot wait for the much-longer five-km long one-way trail walks for three days that begin on Friday.

Aditya Pandey is from Bihar, and is pursuing an undergraduate degree in forestry in Chhattisgarh. He doesn’t understand Telugu and the forest guard he is teamed up with barely speaks a few words of English, or struggles with Hindi. But, on Wednesday, somehow the guard got the word right.

There was increasing noise coming in their direction and the guard was pointing to a tree and saying something. When he blurted out the word ‘bhalu’ – sloth bear – Aditya was finally spurred to take action. “He was pointing to a tree and ran to it and climbed it. I understood that there was a bear coming our way and I too ran to the tree and actually climbed higher than him,” Aditya said with a laugh.

At that moment, it was a serious encounter that might have unfolded as bears are known to be the most unpredictable of wild animals, and are known to attack people for no apparent reason. Once the danger passed, the duo clambered down and continued with the line transect walk.

For Dr Sandeep Yadav, and his wife Priyanka Phogat from Hisar, Haryana, volunteers who incidentally travelled the longest distance to be part of the tiger estimation in Telangana, the biggest challenge was getting to Mannaur, gateway to the Amrabad reserve.

“There were no seats on the bus and the conductor said we cannot travel standing. We tried other options like hiring a bike but that did not work out. So we took an autorickshaw from MGBS to Mannanur,” Dr Sandeep said. “We had to get here one way or another,” his wife chimed in. “This is something we wanted to do and are happy doing so and looking forward to trail walks from Friday,” Dr Sandeep added.

Almost everyone has a story of how the tiger estimation is going and what it means for them. For a group of six with five from Hyderabad and one from Vijayawada in AP, the last three days have been nothing short of a deep dive into the tough conditions the forest watchers, assistant beat officers and beat officers face in their daily challenging task of keeping wildlife and the forests safe.

“They do the toughest jobs with the least of bare necessities, staying so deep inside the forest,” K.G. Raju, lighting consultant and former Army officer, said. Everyone else in the ‘Tiger Trotters’ group agreed but not before sharing their experience from Thursday morning.

“We heard a tiger roar so many times,” said one asking the others if they saw the big cat. “Yes” came the answer from another. “Not just did we hear it roar but saw it too. At one point it got a bit scary, there were pugmarks going in two directions, the one we went and the way we were returning.”

The excited conversation continued amidst a late breakfast cooked in the open by the forest watchers. It’s time to take a nap, and get ready for another transect walk in the evening,” another said as the group dispersed into their rooms inside a tall watch tower.