Life in the wild: How it all began

Surveys in Koyna have always been special. Most parts are accessible by only boat and hence it has a special impact on my mind and body every time I have visited Koyna. The forest department generously provided us a boat to survey interior forests of Koyna. I am certain that the team can never forget how we started the boat journey. It took almost two hours to reach our destination spot, majorly because it started raining. And when it rains in Sahaydri, it pours. The wind, the heavy shower, made the beginning exciting and the whole trip memorable. The boatmen advised us not to close the windows of the boat as that might tilt the boat causing it to tumble and flip. So we kept them open and were soaking wet sitting inside the boat, but we could not care less. It was such a refreshing trip. The rains hit us as we started Personally working in Koyna have always been challenging, I have had to climb really steep forests but upon descent and reaching the boat and river, I felt refreshed and ...

I have been fortunate enough to spend some exciting times in the wild. But only few incidents will come close to an encounter I had with my teammates in Sahyadri. It was in April 2017. It was almost dusk and after a long day of walking and travelling by boat in the scorching heat, we lay on the boat just lazying out. The boat was anchored to a secluded island and our boatman went to a nearby village to spend the night.  We decided to spend a night on the boat. After having dinner as rice and daal, we dozed off on the boat.  I, suddenly, woke up to some loud water splash sounds.  I could see some fuzzy reflections in the water, and something was approaching our stranded boat.  It took me no time to realise that it was a group of animals, and that too sloth bears. Stories of being attacked by sloth bears were pretty common in the region and I had heard so many of them. Most forest rangers and watchmen have had similar experiences.  Honestly I was scared and woke u...

The Sahyadris boast a splendid milieu of landscapes; an amalgamation of spectacular mountain peaks, thirst quenching rives, picturesque waterfalls and serene woods. Not only does it house rare and endemic flora and fauna, it provides the much needed escape to drab city-dweller. To find an opportunity to spend a substantial amount of time here is an incredibly humbling feeling. After spending one night in Karad, we visited Chandoli National Park, the next day, where my team had already been staying for about two weeks. Our project study site was  the Sahyadri Tiger Reserve which is formed by combining two important protected areas in western Maharashtra - the Chandoli National Park and Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary. The next morning was reconnaissance survey time or as we call it recce time. We had a month to complete it. My team had already completed surveying one of the ranges and we had four more to survey. We spent two nights at Chandoli range and then visited Koyna range for our nex...

It all started towards the end of the year 2016 when I volunteered to join a team that was undertaking a primate census in Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary of Assam in India. The census was coordinated by Dr Narayan Sharma of Cotton University. I felt exceptionally enthusiastic during the primate surveys because within weeks, I was about to begin a new phase of my research career at the prestigious Wildlife Institute of India. Just about 6-8 weeks prior to the census, I had attended an interview to join the wildlife institute as a junior research fellow. This was a time when the Indian Prime Minister had announced demonetization and as common citizens we were all struggling to exchange our cash from the banks. I remember I had gone to a bank on the day of the interview, it was a hustle at the bank. I somehow managed to attend a telephonic interview with the project PI who is now my PhD supervisor. After a few days of the interview, sitting on a bus en route Gauhati University, I c...