Tiger census - Day3

Final day today. We just have 2 spots to cover today so those are our last hopes of any wild encounter. But no luck today either. We did obsurely see a sambhar camouflaged in the bushes and one of saw the hind legs of wild dogs and nilgai - that's about it. It is way back home now for us.
One thing that was observed that even in the deep forest, there's considerable human activity. Be it in the form of poaching, poisoned cattle killing, deforestation or otherwise. We could see clear cut signs of human movement very deep inside the forest. We did retrieve some abandoned bird traps which were laid down for bird hunting. Locals tread into the forest for hunting, firewood and tendu leaves. These leaves are used to make bidis (local and cheap equivalent of a ciggarette). Talking to some of these people, they confessed cutting down trees and using the area for cultivation. One of the women even went ahead and said if she has to clear off some more area to support her family, she would do it without a second thought. Not that these people dont appreciate the value of the forest but they are forced to compromise because of lack of facilities otherwise. We did raise this concern to the forest officials of the area (not that they were not already aware of it) and they ensured they will take this up with the government. What will actually happen, only time will tell.

All through these 3 days when were roaming around in the jungle in search of wildlife, we almost forgot that we are treading into unknown territory. We had almost no protection with us. We were just asked to stick together in order to avoid trouble and getting lost. But we were just 5 or 6 of us. Had a wild animal attacked us, I am not sure what we would have done. In hindsight, the whole exercise does sound quite risky. But in the end, the trip was very much worth it and if opportunity strikes, I would like to do something again. Porbably next time, things will be better planned out.

Rest of the pictures are shared here