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You say you spent half an hour watching a leopard less
than 500 m. from your home in the Borivli National Park, Mumbai
yesterday?
Not one leopard, two! A female and its cub. My life is devoted
to protecting them from humans who encourage the poor to invade
its forests and then say that leopards are causing a problem.
I have been forced to trap over 30 leopards to prevent human-animal
conflicts, but the simplest solution – freeing the forest
of illegal encroachments – is what no one wants. The
Borivli forest supplies Mumbai with pure water. If you remove
leopards, quarry the hills and destroy the forest, where will
the water come from tomorrow?
Why has protecting nature become such an overwhelming mission?
It has not become a mission. I was born with a desire to protect
nature. And as a child, the feeling inside me was that god
was the forest.
And where was this amazing childhood spent?
Our family never really moved away from the tiny village of
Wadepuri, in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. My father
was a farmer and ever since I can remember, I used to hero-worship
the forest officers who would visit our home wearing earth-coloured
uniforms. They walked tall with confidence, yet were gentle
and obviously in love with nature.
You hero-worshipped forest officers and therefore became one?
Nothing is ever so simple. Like everyone else, my life has
had its ups and downs, but yes, I just knew what I was going
to do. This is why I did my B.Sc. in 1967, after which I took
the admission test and joined the forest department.
Who inspired you?
Mr. M.K. Gaikwad, a Range Forest Officer in Kinwat, Nanded.
He taught me about the ways of the forest, to respect nature.
His knowledge of nature did not come from books, but from
experience. I spent endless days in the wilderness with him.
My first few years of the service were filled with hypnotic,
golden days. The British had built bungalows in the forest
where you could sit and nature would come to visit you. The
forests were unspoiled.
Your ancestral home itself must have been some kind of
paradise for such strong emotions to have been nurtured in
you!
I cannot find the words to describe the region in which I
was born. It is close to the Andhra Pradesh-Maharashtra border
and few wildlifers alive today have probably visited the area.
Located on the banks of the Painganga river, it still harbours
beautiful forests. It is a vital tiger habitat that adjoins
the teak forested Kharbi Bitargaon Sanctuary. Just across
the border in Andhra Pradesh is Adilabad. It is my dream to
get this area declared a tiger reserve before it is destroyed.
Count on Sanctuary to start working with you on
this from today! Where does this zest come from? Another person
might have been disillusioned with the daily traumas you face.
You must be referring to the threats to my life and my family
from people whose greed makes them turn against nature. This
is a part of life. I love what I am doing, but more importantly,
I cannot even think of my life having taken any other path.
If I had to sit in an office, I would die faster than from
the threats of those who place personal gain above the survival
of our forests.
People used to hunt in those early days. Were you a shikari?
No. But I do remember an incident as a child. In the nearby
Dhakni village, two tigers had begun stalking village animals
and a shikari called Kankaiya was called in to shoot them.
We were excited by the event and we followed the bullock cart
that carried their bodies through the village. Those were
different days. I do not have anything adverse to say about
the shikaris of yesterday, but those who kill animals
today belong in jail.
How easy was it to become a forest officer?
As with most things in life, if you have the determination,
it is easy. If you are put off by minor problems, it is next
to impossible! You have to sit for an exam and study as hard
as you would if you were trying to get into an engineering
or medical college! Then there are interviews and then the
training period. It is a long process. I was in the famous
Forest College in Dehradun, established by Dr. Brandis.
And what were your earliest postings?
Mr. M.Y. Sohni, head of the Forest College, encouraged me
to opt for Bhandara as my first posting. My mother thought
I would be gone for years, but I was posted at Kinwat itself!
It was like a fairly tale. This was where my dream of joining
the forest service was born and then in 1970, I was posted
right there! I was based in a village called Bhilgaon that
was cocooned by wildlife-rich forests. There were no roads;
I had to travel on foot or by cart!
Were you able to work on wildlife protection in those early
days?
Not really, though poachers did keep away from areas in which
we roamed. These were actually 'tree-cutting postings', in
Nagar, for instance, where I think my forest life really began.
Soon, however, I was transferred to the Bhandara district
with the Forest Development Board, which wanted to convert
miscellaneous forests to teak. As one who is now working full-time
to protect our wildlife, in retrospect, this was a grave error,
but that was the conventional wisdom of the day, as was shikar!
Thank god values have changed.
Do you feel that the forest department is actually protecting
our forests today?
It is. But no one can deny that it has also harmed the forests
by promoting monocultures, for instance. But this thinking
has changed. In the old days, no one looked upon harvesting
trees as destroying the forest. The forest was larger than
life. Just as no one can exhaust the sea, no one ever thought
that the forest might one day be exhausted. My life is now
dedicated to protecting all natural forests.
Did you see tigers and other wildlife routinely as a young
forest officer?
Yes, I did. Not in national parks and sanctuaries as tourists
do today, but behind my home in Wadepuri, while travelling
to and from work! I can still remember the day I was travelling
by jeep from Patdeo to Umarzari at around seven p.m. There,
in our headlights, just off the road, was a leopard with its
prey. I did not stop, but when I reached home, my wife Jyoti
insisted that I take her back to see the cat, which obligingly
waited for us. Soon after Jyoti and I saw the leopard, it
dragged its prey away and left with a small snarl as if to
ask what business we had to be about after dark in its forest!
And when did you see your first tiger?
1975. Project Tiger had been declared two years ago. I loved
driving through dense forests alone on my Bullet motorcycle.
Near Nagzira, just as I turned around a bend in the road,
I saw a tiger 30 m. away sitting like a king surveying its
kingdom. Neither of us felt any threat from each other. I
was mesmerised. I switched off the engine. After five minutes,
the tiger got up, gave me a casual glance and vanished. I
always loved the forest, but that day, I fell in love with
the tiger.
These were remote postings. How did your family take to such
isolation?
When I was posted to Umarzari near Nagzira, my wife and I
knew that we would be isolated from the world and we were
very happy about this. There was no road and it was actually
quite a thrilling experience to arrive by tractor at night.
In fact, it began to rain and as we were crossing a small
river, a flood caused the engine to fail. My son Samir was
only one year old and we had to walk six kilometres to reach
safety. Eventually, I returned with help to drag the tractor
out with bullocks.
Good Lord! Jyoti must be a very special person.
Of course she is, and she and my sons love the forest
as much as I do. She has never complained about the lack of
facilities, though our home was often only a thatched hut.
A young matriculation student was the only teacher that my
son Samir had for some time. There was no electricity; only
hurricane lamps and candles. That was my world. My second
son, Sushil was born in the village and an experienced, elderly
lady performed the delivery. When Sushil grew up and got married,
he went to meet the lady who delivered him. She would not
let him return to the city for eight days!
Surely life was not always a bed of roses...
I don't want roses. I love the thorns and stones of the forest.
When I was posted to the Pitezari centre near Chorkhamara,
I had to walk or cycle 10 km. every day, and would eat a dry
lunch. This was our life for 10 years, but it seemed like
10 days to me. I am amazed that some forest officers ask to
be posted away from forests these days.
And what led you to the point where you are today the Director
of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which is at the centre
of so many storms?
I was posted to Dhule as the DFO (Vigilance) for five years,
where I saw how encroachment was destroying the Satpura forests.
In the name of benefiting tribal people through 'participatory
forestry management', politicians would use the forest as
coinage to win votes. Labourers brought from Madhya Pradesh
were expected to sustain themselves with agriculture while
working for the department. But they never moved away and
slowly forests turned into villages. Roads brought pucca houses,
dispensaries, schools and shops, and the wildlife vanished.
But when you looked at the topographical sheets, they showed
these to be 'reserved forests'! I brought this problem to
the attention of Mr. Swarup Singh Naik, the Forest Minister,
who is of tribal origin and he totally supported my encroachment
removal drive, a battle that I am fighting even today in Borivli
and one that I will continue to fight to the day I die.
But this is labelled as anti-tribal.
You know, Bittu, it was an old freedom fighter, a Bhil
tribal, who filed an appeal in the Supreme Court to restore
the forests of Dhule. Justice Venkata Chellaiyah passed adverse
remarks against the encroachers and this encouraged us to
clear encroachments from 60,000 ha. of forestland. Conversion
of forestland to agriculture is no solution to the problems
of tribals. Only non-tribals benefit from this. Even Dr. B.D.
Sharma agrees with this. He is on record saying that only
forested areas can benefit tribals who do not even know how
to sustain themselves through agriculture. Activists who fight
for tribal rights are urban people who probably feel guilty
about their own good life so they want to bring the city to
the forest 'for the tribals'.
I remember having just such a conversation with you in
Taloda, many years ago...
That is right. You and Debi Goenka came to Taloda in north
Dhule. There were demands to cut down the Taloda forest (where
they have now discovered the Forest Owlet) (see page 30) to
resettle Narmada oustees. Even the Narmada Dharangrast Samiti
was against this. I opposed the felling officially under the
Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
How do you react to tribal activists who claim that wildlife
protection laws have caused malnutrition deaths in Maharashtra?
This is double talk or ignorance on the part of social activists.
They talk of defending the rights of people in forestlands,
but do nothing to protect forests. Melghat is a perfect example.
Everyone knows that the Melghat malnutrition deaths took place
outside the Melghat Tiger Reserve, where public health centres,
roads, schools and dispensaries had come up, but where almost
no forests existed. In the tiger reserve, no malnutrition
deaths took place. I have never had a problem with tribal
people, but I have a very poor opinion of those who pretend
to be their champions, while seeking to quarry stone, sell
timber, build large dams, or for that matter raise funds for
'tribal upliftment' inside protected forests. In the old days,
tribal communities lived without harming the forest. Today,
others harm the forest using the tribal card. It's a one-way
street. Nothing is given back to the forest.
Let's return to Borivli. What is the real story here and
what can "the ordinary citizen" do to help you protect this
incredible city forest?
I have been posted in Borivli since 1993. I got a feel of
the extent of encroachment by roaming around the hutment areas
wearing a kurta pyjama and talking to people. I was
told about the threats to residents from slumlords and was
shocked to see commercial establishments inside the national
park. I went to the then State Forest Minister, Mr. Divekar,
who said that this was a blot on the department. He ordered
a meeting at Mantralaya and that was when the powerbrokers
of the state got together to single me out. People who I had
never heard of in my life threatened me and my family. But
with the minister's help, I set about demolishing hotels,
offices and kirana (grocery) shops in Ambedkar Nagar.
A mob then attacked and killed a labourer of ours.
Did you get adequate government support?
When Mr. Swarup Singh Naik was appointed Forest Minister for
the second time, he instructed me to implement the law. He
continues to support us, as does the police department. Over
the years, I have distributed over 10,000 leaflets informing
people that the properties that they are asked to buy are
illegal. This has ruined the business of the slumlords who
fraudulently issue stamp paper agreements to dupe people.
When demands were made for my transfer, I printed even more
leaflets. People no longer invest in properties here.
Is yours a lone battle?
Not one bit. Everyone except those who seek money, votes or
popularity from encroachments is with us. Debi Goenka and
the Bombay Environment Action Group, which fought and won
a pathbreaking verdict from the courts, have solidly supported
us. The Bombay Natural History Society and now, Mr. Hemendra
Kothari and the Wildlife Conservation Trust are our protective
umbrella. And Sanctuary has helped us through the years, helping
to raise an army of kids to protect Borivli.
Lastly, any regrets?
None. I would live life exactly as I have.
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