Listening with Andrew & Sarah at Bandipur, pt.1
Feb 21st, 2008 by andrew skeoch
Bandipur NP
An Introduction (from Andrew)
Richard and Prue are both our neighbours and very good friends. Over the last seven years we have helped each other build our homes, and enjoyed the seasons of the bush together. Richard’s home-brewed beer has been raised to toast many a shared evening meal, and our ensuing discussions about life, purpose and creative expression have influenced us all deeply.
We have seen them enter a new phase of their lives. Their retirement began with the building of a small art studio, were they can now regularly be found at the printing press, sorting mosaic tiles, or exploring the possibilites of oil paints. Nature and place is a focus of this enquiry, and has taken them on their own field trips in search of inspiration, from the Australian bush to Spain and Japan.
When Sarah and I mentioned our plans for a 3 month field trip to India in 2006, they surprised us with their interest in seeing India themselves someday. So (taking a somewhat deeper breath than usual), we extended an invitation for them to join us for part of it, offering to act as guides and mentors on an adventure that we all knew would take them well beyond their ‘comfort zones’.
They were wonderful travelling companions, taking all that India had to offer with curiosity, engagement and good humour. On our return, Richard offered to draw on his journal notes and share his experiences of our time recording in Bandipur National Park…
Listening and watching with Andrew & Sarah in India.
(by Richard Sullivan)
Before we travelled to India we were aware of Sarah’s and Andrews’ deep love and respect for the natural world, and their commitment and desire for this to be the kernel of their work with Listening Earth. Their work involves much fieldwork, and it is certainly ‘work’ in the senses of effort and industry, and bringing about ‘good works’.
Andrew began this work before we departed, contacting groups in India that were interested in nature sound recording. The day after we arrived in Mumbai in October, Andrew gave a presentation about the work of Listening Earth to one of these groups. The audience not only responded warmly, but included us as new-found friends, inviting us to join them at Sanjay Ghandi National Park the following day, and introducing us to a network of fellow ‘wildlifers’. This would lead to further presentations and personal connections as our journey unfolded.
Our experiences at Bandipur National Park in Southern Karnataka, provide a vignette of our time in India with Sarah and Andrew. They capture the character of many of the relationships we experienced with people and place in India.
The land area of Bandipur forest was once the Maharaja of Mysore’s private hunting reserve. It is now one of India’s premier wildlife refuges, administered under Project Tiger which protects special breeding areas for tigers in twenty-three of India’s National Parks.
Whilst Project Tiger has been a success for wildlife conservation, we found that it posed special problems for wildlife sound recordists. Because of the threats of poaching and the impact of visitors, Project Tiger reserves are very strictly administered, with a night-time curfew that precludes pre-dawn entry to the park. How were we then to set up for recording before the ’song rise’ with the sun, and before the noises of people and traffic in the distance could infiltrate Andrew’s very sensitive microphones?
Andrew had to work very hard with the park’s officers to get them to understand what was necessary for nature sound recording. While they were friendly and co-operative, at first they regarded Andrew and Sarah as they might any foreign tourists. But it was the connections Andrew had made with Indian wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists that opened the doors. Andrew also explained that the work of Listening Earth supported and promoted the ecological work being done by Indians who are great benefactors of National Parks – people whose aegis had led us to Bandipur.
Two of these people we had met in Bangalore, and were aptly named Krishna (Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu; the Preserver and Restorer). They were spoken of as ‘KN’ and ‘KP’. They are wealthy, dedicated, and experienced in education and negotiations with people at all levels of society. They negotiate with people ranging from politicians to poor farmers, about economics, ecology and justice for people, animals and the land. They are the sort of people who were influenced by reading the stories of Jim Corbett when they were young, and who have lived through the ups and downs of Project Tiger as it flourished under Indira Ghandi’s patronage from 1973, and slackened after she was assassinated in 1984. People like KN and KP are well respected in Indian conservation circles, and have influence at the local level.
Richard interviewing Krishna Narain at his estate near Bangalore.
Andrew’s contact with KP led to an offer for us to stay at his lodge on the boundary of Bandipur NP. The lodge itself turned out to be spectacularly located, and afford us simple comfort. We were supported by a staff of three local village men who cooked and maintained the property, and were familiar with looking after people who were there to study and reflect upon the natural world.