Tadoba Safari Day

The next project was at Tadoba and this was my second visit. We reached quite late today morning owing to a late start, untimely rains, and a bus driver who drove really slow. The rains made the weather extremely appealing... so we stayed up at night to enjoy it, chatting about school and other topics. We were able to get in the safari at 9 instead of 6 in the morning. The afternoon session of the safari was spent enjoying the forest and trying to battle the burning sun. The forest was enjoyable; it always is for me. What I see and what i feel is a feeling very deep within of great peace and joy.

The evening was spent on some relaxation and a rehearsal and prep event for the project the next day. Man living in harmony with nature and dealing with conflicts with animals is complex. You cannot move them out, but you can suggest how they can make their lives easier. Dealing with people in villages who are aggressive, angry, and sometimes very exaggerated is a matter of concern, though not something impossible.

We had no fixed agenda. We would jump into the situation with the information we had gathered, questions planned, solutions pushed to the back of the mind, approach discussed, ready to listen but not react. Suggest but not push and facilitate a conversation between the aggrieved villagers and reluctant forest department. The parameters were infinite and there was no guessing how things could go. We could only try to understand the situation and bring some consequence to the discussion. There were lines we could not cross, dependencies we could not eliminate, and incidents we could not undo. But if we could instill hope and bring people forward to take care of themselves we would have gone a long way.

What would actually happen would be a matter of consequence. I was skeptical but hopeful.