The very beginning

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 checked my email and found that I was selected for the post of junior research fellow. I was asked to join immediately but as I had promised to join the primate census team in December 2016, I communicated that I will be joining the wildlife institute in early January 2017. With this  new found enthusiasm, I plunged myself to work dedicatedly before leaving for the institute in Dehradun.  It was an amazing week at the Gibbon sanctuary, great primate sightings, awesome team. This was my first visit to the sanctuary and I can still remember the busy, bustling mornings during the surveys. After a long hard day, everyone would come back tired to the basecamp, but enthusiastic to visit the next morning in full spirits again.

I completed the primate surveys and came back home in Guwahati only to prepare for my visit to Dehradun. My brother had booked tickets to Dehradun and I soon left behind my father and brother back home. I reached Dehradun and was warmly welcomed by a good friend at the Forest Research Institute (FRI). Upon my visit to the wildlife institute, I met with the project PI Dr K. Ramesh who was warm and welcoming. He briefed me about the status of the project and what the team was supposed to do in the first phase of the project in the field. I found out that my teammates had already left for field and I had to travel alone to meet them there. I coordinated with one of the teammates Avinash and quickly booked my tickets to Pune on a Duronto express train. Although my PI had booked a room in the institute guest house, I travelled back every evening to FRI to stay with my friends. It was a rather short stay in Dehradun and I was soon aboard the Duronto express.

I loved the journey in Duronto, it is amongst the fastest trains in India and it took just 24 hours to reach from Delhi to Pune. Upon arrival in Pune, I took an auto-rickshaw to the nearest hotel that I could find and booked a single room. Now I had to get from Pune to Karad town in Satara district. After a telephonic discussion with Avinash, it was decided that they would be visiting Pune from Karad and I would accompany them on the way back. So I explored Pune for two days, ate what I wanted in the city and was ready by the time the guys were planning to arrive in Pune. We met at Swargate bus station in Pune, went for shopping for some field essentials at Decathlon in Wagholi and then boarded a bus which took us to Karad.

I was finally, officially, in the field site.