Visiting SAI Sanctuary : Closer to the roots & Closer to the thoughts [Day 2]

15th April, 2017 : A very good wild morning...

With no mobile signal and no boring routine I had a very good sleep. My brain was all rejuvenated in just a single day. Nothing else in it, there was the transcript running in my mind and the transcript was of the TedEx speech by Pamela Malhotra. I am a big fan of the following lines of the speech.

"I wanted to share a dream I had.. decades ago. In this dream, I saw house on a small hill... over looking a pond... with a river flowing past.. in a wooded valley.. surrounded by white capped mountains...and the area was full of wild life..."

That's all!!! click on the link and watch the speech. Coming to my morning scheduled, it was planned as below..

1. A morning trek with Pam, followed by lunch
2. Video presentation at the Malhotra's house

Pam, according to me, is a very professional woman when it comes to sticking to the schedules. However, with no chasing timelines these schedules were all flexible. With only two people to manage, making the schedule too flexible may hamper the routine activities in sanctuary. The sanctuary needs the couple more than anybody else. One more interesting thing is, she prays to all the directions daily ( I remember Anil telling this to me).

At the breakfast table...

Small discussions were budding and the discussions were about the differences in the cultures of southern part of Italy and India. Though I like such conversations, didn't want at that moment. 

Execution of the schedule...

1. Morning trek: There were two trekking trails in the sanctuary. One behind the house of Malhotras and the other one was closer to the cottages. The one, now, we went with Pam was the former.
The Camera Traps...
This trail has camera traps. Anything intercepting the infrared beams, the sensor would trigger the camera. There were good number of such camera traps to cover some major wildlife trails in the sanctuary. The cameras were ranging between rudimentary to the advanced ones that are available in the market today.
The trek was not a typical wildlife safari...
I had a previous experience when the people were expecting to see a round table conference of all the animals in the forest during the trek - which is not possible in any sense. The best part about this trek was - nobody was expecting to see plenty of wildlife and hence no sighs. My only wish was to see the age old trees standing tall in the sanctuary. If at all it happened to see animals, I would have considered it a bonus.

I believe, there must be a way to communicate with trees as well. Till, oddly, 115+ years ago no one had a proof that 'trees also have life'. Perhaps, they too can memorise and they too can share age old stories and knowledge with us.. if we can figure out a way to communicate with them.

Coming back to the trek, we saw the camera traps that captured...

1. The attack of Indian wild dogs on the Sambar deer-fawns 
2. The endangered river otters
3. The elephant family marching during one Christmas eve
4. The herd of Gaurs.. so on..

Wide open meadows...

We crossed three meadows and each one was giving a different view to the neighboring Brahmagiri mountain range  - possibly these were the 'white capped mountains' of the dream where the white cap was given by the mist & clouds. Those meadows were uncultivated, wild open spaces covered with brownish/yellowish grass ( not so dense as in savannas. The type of grass was also different) and they host dozens of wild cattle and herds of different species of antelopes.

The Bhrahmagiri range

The friendly poop...
It was in one meadow, we stopped at a 'poop'. The poop gave support to the couples' belief that there was a bear in the sanctuary. Still not very sure of that.
It is a common practice among the folks working in forests to observe the poop. True! poop generally provides very important details about the wildlife such as the food patterns, the type of animal, how long has the animal been there or when it left the place...etc.

During the discussions at this place, I got to know the poop of birds is referred to as 'dropping'. Scat is one another type of poop.. Someone even told poop was friendly to remember than referring to these many different words.

The elephant pond...

As intuitive as its name, a family of elephants often visits the sanctuary and they take control of the mentioned pond. The pond was very placid with a hill range providing a beautiful background. The deepest point in the pond was told to be over 25 feet. We sat in the shade provided by the bamboo shots. There was a small water out let of the pond that made the best healing/meditation music. We spent more than half an hour on its bank. Pam told some past events that took place around the lake and showed some videos in her handy cam. Claudia, too,was telling some stories... Bopanna was picking some seed or a leaf or a branch and telling details about that. Bopanna, being a degree holder in the forestry studies, had a very good knowledge of the plants and animals. Occasionally he used to give some edible fruits to us. I felt it was a good thing to go trekking with Pam and Bopanna together.

The Elephant pond

A short tutorial...

It was after we finished a relatively long break on the bank of the pond, I was struggling with my camera. As I was( even am) not a skilled photographer, I was taking pics in point-n-shoot mode. The worst part was when the cam tried to adjust for  bad light, the flash used to popped up. Being a professional(?),  Claudia took a short tutorial/tour of how to handle the cam in manual mode. I tried to remember some key points.. ;)

• More ISO results in bad quality
• Strict no to higher ISO's unless the light is too less
• Lens take more light when aperture number is low. But no less than 4 or 5.
• Holding the camera... and so on..

The home tree...

In the sanctuary, there had been many a tree lived for several hundred years and one of which hosted us for a little while. The age of that particular tree was 700 years. Pam compared the tree with the home tree in 'Avatar' movie. In the words of Pam - "For us it is like the home tree in Avatar". This was the end of our trek. Pam collected the memory cards from the camera traps and we headed back to the starting point.

The home tree - I think I tried with manual settings :)

Lunch.. after finishing it real quick, I took a stop at a temple of the goddess "Bhagavathi", an incarnation of "Parvathi", on the way to my cottage. I like this goddess as one of our friends told she protects the forests.

2. Video Presentation:
By the time I reached their home, they were not done with their lunch. I utilized the time to explore the forest around that place. Before starting the show, Anil and I had a good chat. I explained him how I got to know about the sanctuary and the story before I reached here in sanctuary. Shanthi was roaming around us during our entire conversation.

Shradda, Shanthi and Lila...
According to the schedule, we were supposed to start the presentation at 5pm. However, it was 5.30+ pm when Anil and I finished discussion. It was feeding time for the three cats...and I thought it would be better to feed them first. The presentation started around 6pm after feeding them. The presentation covered the following videos.

1. The elephant march
2. The Gaur herd
3. The smooth coated otters
4. Some carnivores
5. Indian wild dog family - including seven pups
6. Wild dog pups attacking Sambar fawn and the mother taking on the pups...etc

After the show, I was sent with a torch. It started raining before I reached my cottage.

Dinner time and the discussion continued
It was little late by the time we finished our dinner. Then Claudia started discussing the caste system in India. Perhaps, she watched some videos on youtube before landing in India - it's quite common to know a little about the place that you are going to visit. However, the caste system is not a small and simple topic to wrap up in 15 to 20 mins. People living in the system itself didn't understand it - so there was no point trying to open the Pandora box - but it was made clear that system had changed a little from the past.
If not for politics, caste system could have been eradicated by now - if worked it out with some common sense. Surrounded by many sleepy eyes, we finished the discussion very quick.

Some other things that I got to know...

• Northern part of Italy is more urbanised, whereas Southern part still sticks to the culture to some extent.
• Wages as well as cost of living in north Italy is more.
• Minimum wage( I guess it is for blue-collar work) in the south Italy is between 600 to 700 Euros (approx).
• Southern most part of Italy has more influence of Greek culture - Of course, geographically it is closer.. so on...

Visiting SAI Sanctuary : Closer to the roots & Closer to the thoughts [Day 1]

When you have a strong desire to do something - It just happens. Yes, I visited India's first( probably the only one) private sanctuary - SAI( Save Animals Initiative) Sanctuary - This plan had been in my mind for more than half an year. A couple owns this sanctuary - more than owning it they devoted their lives to the sanctuary. The equation is quite simple here:

'Save the forests, wild life thrives on its own which in turn propagates and nurtures the forests' - such a divine relationship.

This is simple to comprehend but not so simple to put into practice unless one has utmost commitment & is true to the self. Fortunately we have two here: Anil Kumar Malhotra & Pamela Gale Malhotra.

It all started...

When I was thinking of the migration of the elephants from the dry regions of the Bandipur forest to Brahmagiri wild life sanctuary via Kabini reservoir. Brahmagiri wild life sanctuary abounds in terms of vegetation & water sources even during the hot Indian summers. The banks of Kabini reservoir, which lies in Nagarhole national park, set stage for Asia's largest mammal gathering as part of the migration.

Not really sure which search term landed me on the home page of "SAI Sanctuary", but somehow I stumbled upon it. When I made a call to the numbers listed in the website, the voice on the other end suggested me to email the details. Then I thought that's one of those emails for which I would never receive a reply. But surprisingly, I got a reply from Pamela. Email exchanges went on for next 2 to 3 months and finally she locked a day for me - 14th April, 2017.

14th April, 2017...

Awaited this day like a crazy person. Started from Bengalore at 6.30am and reached Theralu village, where sanctuary is located, around 12.30pm. The route suggested by Pam was:

   # Bengalore - Mysuru - Thitimathi - Gonigoppa - Ponnampet - T.Shettigeri - Sanctuary #

There were no suggestions for the route to sanctuary even after reaching T.Shettigeri. A person from the sanctuary escorted me in the final 10km of my journey. I was actually surprised/disappointed how people were not ware of the great work going around - Or it is also possible that I didn't ask in a language that they understand.

Welcome to SAI Sanctuary

1. First things first...

As I reached Theralu village by afternoon, first thing as per the schedule was to finish lunch. Food was outsourced to a near by home stay(?) ( Jungle side). Some of the people in Kodagu / Coorg, especially Kodavas, own massive chunks of land for plantation. One of such people is maintaining the Jungle side home stay. There were two people, accompanied me, who were doing some research on food security, demographics, culture and customs of that place. ( an Indian boy - Bopanna & an Italian woman - Claudia). Along with them it was their driver - one another landlord - and his name is Raja.

After lunch I went to my cottage and was eager to meet the couple.

2. Meeting the couple...

The meeting spot - In front of the house of Malhotras

'The house' was around 1km from my cottage. I reached there by 4.15pm, the scheduled time. Finally I met 'them'. After exchange of formal greetings, I too joined the discussion that's taking place. Probably I was the least educated among all in terms of forestry knowledge. Anil & Pam have been staying with the nature for last three decades, Bopanna is a masters degree holder in forestry studies  and the other lady has organisation of her own. However, my love for the nature is no less than anyone else's. The discussion ended around half past six in the evening. Tons of topics were discussed. The following were a few -

• Transpiration, a natural phenomenon in which plants & trees act as medium to create clouds. Trees absorb water from their roots and releases the water vapor into the atmosphere from the back of their leaves.
• 50% or more contribution of forests in the rain fall across the world - scientists identified this using the chemical signature of the water droplets ( I think I remember it correct). Whereas, the rest of the rain fall is from the Oceans. 
• Easing of the forest clearance rules for setting up projects( know more..)  - it's trading the nature for money and a disaster. My past experiences suggest, it is difficult to make people, who have political bias, believe in the facts. They just don't listen .
• Elephants propagating the forests by pooping the seeds across their migratory areas.
• Slight increase in the tiger population due to the tiger conservation program - Project Tiger
• A good Bengalore vet who visits the sanctuary whenever is required
• Mr Righteousness, ex-CM, approving dam in the past, that could have submerged 25% area of today's Coorg.
• SST's fight against the dam
• Domesticated dogs in the region and how they affect the eco-balance
• Animal/bird rescue stories at the sanctuary.. about the hornbills, parakeets & love birds
• Influence of western civilization  on Indian youth that made them ignore the knowledge given by their ancestors. I personally cannot throw complete blame on the West - there are multitude of reasons such as:
• Misinterpretations of various concepts which in turn led to ignoring the knowledge inculcated by the ancestors
• Irresponsible media & politicians
• Education system to some extent - I remember reading the uses of tree as everything else but what they actually are. Though there were chapters that stressed upon reforestation, I don't remember anybody caring it.
• Ancient Kodava knowledge & Devara Kadu: Kodava ancestors, as any other nature loving clan, used to respect the forests. They preserved certain areas of the forests with a name - Devara Kadu( Sacred Forest) - the sole purpose of which is conservation. 
• God's in chains, a documentary that tells the horrifying lives of elephants in India.

I believe, India is one country where in the animals are treated in an inhumane way in the name of God. People boast of these hideous acts as traditions ( a few years back I was also one such ignorant who had no clue that animals too have their rights).      

I felt that I had spent, almost, more than two hours of quality time discussing these things. It always happens when you speak to the people of your wavelength.

I, along with other visitors, finished my dinner and went back to my cottage. Then I saw a spectacular scene - that was orchestrated by a swarm of fireflies.

After the night fall, my cottage took a plunge in the darkness. It was hard to see anything other than the light coming from my bike. I turned off the ignition and looked around - the trees were fully covered with thousands of these fireflies. It was in my childhood, I saw these creatures in great numbers and this was the first time in recent past.

The fireflies started flashing the light as if they were playing a symphony - however, the outcome was not music but a visual spectacle.

3. Night at my cottage...

My cottage in day light - imagine the absence of it ;)

Cicadas, crickets or whatever... they were making noise and that was the only thing I could hear inside my cottage. Having been disconnected from nature for so long, I could not adjust to the forest initially. I could actually listen to the silence - I mean it. I had a great experience with 'silence'. The extract of my experience is:

   #"Silence greets... silence whispers... speaks..if not understood, it scares... and silence heals..."#

Didn't I scare? Of course, yes. Living alone in the forest, the cottage surroundings and the sounds I heard were new to me. Survival instincts had my body in control - as a result - my body was super alert. My pupil dilated to its max diameter and capturing every single light ray, my ears were listening to even the rustles of the leaves.

The experience I had with silence spawned new thought in my brain: When our ears are super alert they try to listen through the gaps in the sound waves - that situation is very difficult to explain - presence of any sound triggers investigation; absence of any sound lets the ears further pierce the silence.

Finally, I settled down after thinking and recollecting the events of my day for sometime. Later I slept off.. ;)