6 days at Nagzira Wildlife Reserve; day 6
Feb 21st, 2008 by andrew skeoch
Our last morning at Nagzira. If we are to obtain any further recordings here, this will be our last opportunity. We decide to make for the narrow valley, and arrive there just after dawn. The birdsong is subdued, but in hopes that it will pick up once the first sunlight hits the jungle, I set up the microphones. Radisham squats with me as we plug in the gear and begin listening. We have a problem. I’m hearing something amplified through the mics I don’t want to hear – hindi pop music, probably played through a bull-horn speaker and drifting from a nearby village. Radisham can hear it too now, and he gives me a happy head wiggle. Its Sunday, village holiday.
Knowing this location will be useless, we move to another likely spot, but the music is equally audible there too. Fighting off despondancy, I notice a small track that leads around the shoulder of a hill, and it occurs to me that it may afford some acoustic shelter. However Radisham tells me the road is closed, “not permission”. We compromise. Leaving the car on the main track, I walk the few hundred meters around the hill, place the recorder and walk back.
This strategy is surprisingly successful, with the microphones left in the forest to collect the surrounding ambience, I record around two hours of beautiful birdsong.
Nagzira morning birdsong, with Pigeons, Parakeets, Langurs, Fantails, Prinias & Oriole.
Returning to the canteen, we meet up with a radiant Rajeet. He has seen his second tiger, and this time used his mobile phone to record it walking slowly along the forest track in the half light. We’re delighted for him, he’s been a great companion and has patiently awaited a sighting of the great animal.
By now, Satish is reminding us of someone else. We start calling him 007, Satish Bond; charming, suave, and invincible behind the wheel. He loves it, and great mirth ensues. That afternoon, we return to Nagpur ready for tomorrow’s flight to Gujurat. Satish is dumbfounded that after all the problems we still give him a substantial tip. We are treated with a last beaming smile before he leaves us.
Tomorrow will be the beginning of our time exploring the desert landscapes of the Rann of Kutch. And it will also be Christmas Day, somewhat of a non-event in most of India. It seems a fitting way of summing up our time Maharashtra, in which so many of our efforts have led to anti-climaxes. We have approached each day as a precious opportunity to gather recordings and images, and so the disappointments have been heartbreaking for us. Nevertheless, it has been a rich experience, both in terms of our engagement with nature and insights into Indian culture and character. More than anything though, we have learned about ourselves, how to balance action with acceptance, responding to situations positively without exhausting ourselves in indignant frustration. Reflecting on all this now, viewing the photographs and listening to our recordings, we realise that our days at Nagzira have not been as ‘fruitless’ as we had once thought.
(We anticipate publishing some more of our recordings from Nagzira in the near future)
Jack…
Your article is very good…
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