The KANS Army: On a mission to conserve forests
The forest has been the source of many good things in man’s life that he takes for granted. He is connected to the forest the way a child is connected to its mother, he takes and it gives without complaint – unconditionally, without expecting anything in return, at the cost of its existence. Our greed turns to grief as we see our consumerism going out of hand. The once exuberant forests have shrunk and its non-human subjects have given up on survival since they can’t fight us any longer.
At the Denkanikottai lodge
In the midst of the harsh reality of being the perpetrators of this crime there is a minority that is truly concerned. Silence is no longer golden to them, the need to protect nature and wildlife has become their common goal. One such group of devout nature lovers, the Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (KANS), has been consciously trying to contribute towards conservation of forests. It all started with Kenneth Anderson, a wildlife enthusiast who wrote many books about his adventures in
Pug mark of a wild cat
the jungles of Southern India. Readers of his books inspired by his stories and dedicated to nature formed KANS. The society has undertaken many projects in a span of three years – road kill awareness campaigns in Bandipur, biodiversity surveys, tiger census with Tamil Nadu Forest Department, Dabeguli fair pollution control and the recently conducted mammal survey in the Melagiri hills.
The Melagiris are a range of hills on the Eastern Ghats lying between the Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri Districts of Tamil Nadu on one side and bordered by river Cauvery in Karnataka on the other. The forests have mixed vegetation and are home to wild animals such as the Elephants, Dhole, Sloth bear, cheetal, gaur and elephant among others. The past few years have seen the numbers of these animals go down. Poaching, human settlements encroaching on forests, elephant areas exploited for bamboo and merciless forest fires have made the wildlife here endangered.
In a bid to protect these reserve forests, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department (TNFD) has set out to convert them into wildlife sanctuaries. They believe this status is vital to save the dwindling wildlife. The first step towards conversion was to conduct a survey to determine the number of mammals in the area. A shortage of manpower made the TNFD seek the help of KANS for the survey. The society was more than willing to do the job and quickly put together 100 volunteers within ten days. The whole lot set out to Mathigiri, near Hosur for briefings on how to conduct the survey.
The survey included collecting direct and indirect evidence of the presence of elephant, deer, bear and carnivores such as tiger, leopard, fox and panther. Direct evidence was sighting animals whereas indirect evidence was spotting elephant dung and footprints, other animal scat and pugmarks.
Arun Menon, one of the co-ordinators for the survey, says that the areas demarcated for the survey called beats were selected on the basis of mammal density; the areas with highest density were chosen. The volunteers were divided into groups of two and assigned to different beats. People from all walks of life had come to participate; from homemakers to CEOs.
Environment science student Chaitra jumped at the opportunity to be a part of the survey, “It’s a rare opportunity where the local people are invited for conservation work by the forest department, I didn’t want to miss it at any cost,” she says. Sriram, a techie with Tektronix talks about his motivation to be a part of the survey, “I am passionate about wildlife and understand how important it is to conserve forests for the future.” The best part of the whole experience was getting the opportunity to meet people whom you have never met before, who share a common goal – conserving mother earth says Bharath one of the volunteers who works for Subex.
The terrain was tough and those with prior trekking experience didn’t feel the hardship faced by the first-timers. Some felt that the major obstacle was language; the watchers and guards accompanying them spoke Tamil which many of volunteers didn’t.
After two days of spotting elephant, deer, giant squirrel, and rare birds such as the changeable hawk eagle, flower peckers in the forest, some of them were reluctant to go back home. Geetanjali Dhar, who is into wildlife tourism and was also part of the tiger census, last year, echoed everybody’s sentiment when she said “for a wildlife lover like me the best part is being in the jungle”. One volunteer called the whole experience poetically satisfying.
In the end it was a small effort in the big scheme of things which helped in getting one step closer to safeguard nature against its worst enemy – Man.
