The Sunbird

 

Blue Skies
greens and browns
my window frames.

Quiet sunbird!
Yellow breast reflecting in
my window frames.

Watching sunbird
Catching her reflections, in
my window panes.

Working moms
exchanging glances, through
my window frames.

A moment's experience
a connection in a blink, through
those window frames.

Female, Purple-rumped Sunbird Leptocoma zeylonica

The Achaleswar temple at Mt Abu and the fascinating story of the attacking bees

 6th December 2023

Mt Abu

As usual, I was confused, I had understood that we were going walking to Guru Shikhar, which is the highest point on the Aravallis near Mt Abu, but instead we were here.  

The colourful elephants at the entrance did not raise my enthusiasm to go in.

I peered through the covered tunnel passage to see this.  Still not enthused enough to remove shoes and go in, I hung around outside initially until Arjun hurried back out and said that we were being given a history talk of the place by Mr Daivat Singh of Sirohi!  

And so in I went and was so glad I did, as we were enthralled with some great storytelling  of legend and history of the Achaleswar temple, told with humour, personality and objectivity.

The previous night at dinner, Nino,  had shared some legends of Mount Abu - Arbuda the serpent who saved Nandi over here, and another one about how Devi Parvati's lips (arbuda) fell here, and hence Arbuda, became Abu....

And now, we heard of the legends related to this temple.  The region was prone to tremors and instability and the local chieftains prayed to Kashi Vishwanath, who stabilised the hills by placing one toe...and so it moved from chal  to achal or stability.  (The deity within is not a typical lingam but a toe like protrusion in a hollow. The hollow is the hole caused by the toe if I got it right, and goes all the way to naraka)

The legendary bees of Mount Abu

Another Alauddin Khilji story.  As he was making his way from Ahmedadabd, his henchmen mentioned about the riches of  the temples of Mount Abu, and so up he came with his 1200 plus horsemen, looted Delawara temples and set his sight on Achaleswar.  The local warriors were only 100 strong, and decided that rather than dying and causing bloodshed at the temple, to go and meet the incoming troops head on, and so off they went, fighting ferociously - and miraculously the angry bees of Abu came buzzing along and attacked and stung the Khilji forces, and only them...making them turn tail, surrender arms and basically leave the place.

I mulled and pondered and decided those must have been those rock bees - Apis dorsata - the "rajput" bees - aggressive defenders of their territory!

The surrendered arms and other weapons were melted into a Trishul and offered at the temple, the account goes.  

The bees of the rocks of Mount Abu also caused another hair raising adventure, which I read here.

Re-discovering the beautiful marble carvings

These marble carvings seen below were hidden behind chunaam and plaster and revealed only in 1979 by accident!  Mr Daivat and even Priya remember the chunaam pillars and facades.  Some "damage" accidentally displaying what was under.  Since then, they have been slowly and carefully cleaned and the beauty revealed.

Whether this was done to protect the pillars from harm or it was an act of careless beautification was unclear.  It's quite astonishing how there is so little documentation at institutional level...everything is word of mouth.  Quite contrary to the British obsession with classifying and documenting?

I admired the delicate filigree-like rosettes, monkeys, Devis, apsaras and assorted figures around the doorway.  Marble slabs, whittled away with perfect artistry.

There are two new restored figurines - find them.

And these delicate drawings, with bricks underneath

I was fascinated with this lovely couple - welcoming smiles - a Very Greek beard (according to me).  Is this Agni, and is that a lightning bolt in his hand, I wondered... hmm but no potbelly of Agni, the ears look like that of a Learned man...so anyways I do not know who he or the beautiful lady are.

I loved the aesthetics of this.  The arms of the dancers bring a movement, and made my eye travel upwards.

OK, now this waist is unreal.

There was a crooked house...In today's context...Koteswar would be appropriate.

Achalgarh fort..way up there.

And so we emerged out from the 13th century again, back to 21st century India, greeted by a different kind of Nandi, 

and Lucky's Wax Museum! 

Anyways, the moral of this story for me was never judge a temple by the well meaning beautifications outside.

We wound our way up some beautiful Aravali landscapes - scrubby, with small lakes in the valleys.

We shared a ride with Arjun and Gapi in their little chariot that Arjun hustled around the hill curves with skill and casual ease (while I kind of hung on) - we were now up on our way to Guru Shikar - the highest point in the vicinity, where we encountered further 21st century Indian architecture and garbage (lack of) management.

It was advisable to keep one's eyes on the distant vistas and admire the spectacular views.

In averting my gaze from the foreground muck, I almost missed the Brown Rock Chat sitting on the rock and posing this way and that.  She cheered me up, but also made me feel so shameful...how we spoil things for every creature on this planet, uff!

The delightful Wordsworth Lodge was where we headed for lunch.  The website has the Wordsworth story in a nutshell.  Some lovely pictures too.

There is a romantic history behind this lovely Boutique Hotel, hidden on a forested foothill of Gurushikar, the tallest mountain in the Aravali Range. In 1965, an English woman named Diana Wordsworth, a collateral descendant of the poet William Wordsworth, travelled to India to work on a film about the Ganga and fell in love with the country and with a colonel in the Indian Army, Buddha Sen. The couple resolved to retire together and began a search for a likely spot in one hill station or another. At a chance meeting with Fateh Singh Rathore, who would one day become India’s best-known defender of the tiger but was then a young game ranger stationed at Mount Abu, he suggested they consider Rajasthan’s best-known hill station, instead.

​

​He helped them find the perfect spot on which to build their home. It was designed to complement the unique landscape by a rising young Mumbai architect named Rumy Shroff, but Fateh helped with every aspect of its construction. Sadly, the colonel passed away before the house was finished and when Diana Wordsworth died in 1984 she left it to Fateh whom she had come to see as her surrogate son.​

​

Now, Fateh’s son, Dr. Goverdhan Singh Rathore, has lovingly restored and renovated Wordsworth Lodge so that visitors can experience for themselves the spectacular views and serene natural surroundings just as they were more than half a century ago.

I sunk into a chair on the verandah surrounded by trees, breathed the foresty air and watched.

I was also being watched.  A grey langur mother and baby stared, alert to danger.

A Treepie watched, hoping for some morsels.

And it was on to lunch - and then much confusion about walking or driving to Trevor Tal, or back to the hotel etc etc.

 

The history of Mount Abu as told by Mr Daivat Singh Deora

I wondered how Mount Abu had all those princely houses clustered together, and I discovered this video with an explanation.

We met Mr Daivat Singh and his lovely wife Kirti, and enjoyed their gracious hospitality and tremendous food on our visit to Kesar Bhawan as well.  What an enchanting evening that was - a gracious setting that is Kesar Bhawan.

Pictures of the Bhawan here.

"Kesar Bhawan Palace was built in the year 1868 A.D. by His Highness Maharajadhiraj Maharao Umed Singhji of Sirohi. It has been converted into an eco-friendly heritage hotel by Maharaj Daivat Singh of Sirohi whose ancestor Maharao Lumbha conquered the hill of Abu in the year 1311 A.D. and brought the area in the domain of the princely State of Sirohi, which was founded in the year 1206 A.D. by Rao Manning Rai."

I was so busy savouring the delicious fare that I did not photograph the evidence of those lovely fresh green puris whose name I don't remember, the unique smoky khadi, hot missi rotis....and the large array of desserts not eaten.

 

Rainforests finally gain a friend

Paying to keep forests intact - that idea I like.  An economic value to protecting natural reserves is probably the way forward?

Rainforests provide a public good. The world should pay to conserve them

At last, good news from the Brazilian Amazon. In the first eight months of 2023, the pace of deforestation has fallen by nearly 50% compared with last year. This reflects a change of government. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022, was an outspoken chum of the loggers and ranchers who are slicing down and burning the rainforest. Not only did he make no effort to stop them; he went out of his way to hobble the agencies charged with policing environmental crimes.

 

His ejection by voters last year gave the Amazon a much-needed respite. His successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, actually cares about conservation. As we report this week, gun-toting federal agents are once again making a serious effort to shut down illegal mining operations and blow up their equipment.

But muscle, on its own, is not enough. To establish something resembling the rule of law in the Amazon, Lula is trying to clarify who owns it. This is long overdue. Currently, at least 22 separate Brazilian agencies register land claims there. They barely talk to each other, so vast swathes of the forest are subject to overlapping claims. And a whopping 29% of the Brazilian Amazon is “undesignated”, meaning it is public land but no one has decided whether it should be a nature reserve, an indigenous reserve, or something else.

Deforestation tends to be worst in areas where property rights are hazy. A lack of clarity about who owns a plot of forest makes it harder to assign blame for torching it. And a tradition of local officials tolerating land-grabbing encourages more of it. Ranchers seek to establish facts on the ground by chopping down trees, burning the undergrowth and putting cows on the newly created pasture. Many hope that even if their actions are illegal, they will eventually be recognised as the owners of the land, because this has often happened in the past.

Lula is trying to change these incentives. He is pushing to designate undesignated land as protected, and to integrate all the property registers into one coherent system. It is a huge task, involving clever use of satellite data and digital technology. It is also politically fraught, since many state and local politicians are cosy with the farming and wildcat mining lobbies and will jealously guard their influence over how land is apportioned. But it is an essential step towards imposing order on one of Earth’s most important biomes. The Amazon is a huge carbon store, a treasure vault of biodiversity and an essential regulator of the rainfall that feeds South America. Losing it would be a global catastrophe–and scientists fear it may be near a “tipping point”, when so much forest has disappeared that the water cycle that sustains it breaks down.

Which is why the rest of the world should help pay to preserve it. At the cop on December 1st, Lula asked for money to give local people in developing countries economic alternatives to cutting down rainforests. His environment minister outlined an ambitious plan: a $250bn fund that would pay a fixed sum per hectare of forest to countries that prevent their forests from shrinking more than a very small amount each year. The funding for this, Brazil hopes, would come from sovereign wealth funds. Several African leaders are making similar appeals, some involving debt relief in return for nature conservation.

Lula is unlikely to raise $250bn—it is far more than has been offered before. And not all the governments asking for cash are likely to spend it wisely. But there is a decent chance that Brazil could make good use of external financing, which it sorely needs. No amount of enforcement will stop people from chopping down trees if they see no other way of making a living—illegal miners whose equipment is blown up by the environmental police may simply go to work on beef farms carved out of the rainforest. Also, if Lula’s efforts to save the trees are all stick and no carrot, he is more likely to lose the next election to a more Bolsonaro-like rival. So rich countries should chip in. And Brazil, for its part, should be more open to foreign advice, expertise and help on the ground than it has been in the past. It is not too late to save the Amazon, but the clock hands are whirring like the teeth of a chainsaw. ■

Birding at Mt Abu

 

5th December - grounds of the Lake Palace Hotel

This was midday after we checked in - we had the place to ourselves and wandered down to the little pons at the entrance.

Blue skies and clean air...we hung on to that - so precious.  Michaung had finally blown away from Chennai, after dumping some 430mm of water in 35 hours, we read.  

The city was more or less submerged. The water and lakes had reclaimed what was rightfully theirs.  Where could we pump the water - it would go from this street to the next... 

It was hard to comprehend that nightmare while we were here.

The little lake where we saw wagtail and lapwings on the rocks and moorhens in the water.  Not much else though.

Nakki lake "baba" carriages.

Nakki lake in the evening setting sun.  Nice and peaceful, not too much bird life.  

Gandhi's ashes immersed here - I read online - dont know if it is accurate - but there is this Gandhi "ghat".

Toad Rock - behind the palms reminded me of the RV rocks and their names.

The palace all lit up the we returned.  A beautiful sight

Wed 6 Dec 2023 8:14 AM checklist - Indian yellow Tits and Oriental Turtle Doves were the highlight of my morning stroll.

7th December - The red-breasted flycatcher flitted among the trees, in the morning, and a brown-headed barbet called in the evening.  

We did not see the Green munia - despite searching for it at two locations.

Trevor's Tank list.  

All it takes is a few trees - Mumbai birds

eBird India Checklist - 3 Dec 2023 - Dosti flamingo complex - 14 species

I didn't see the flamingos since the Sewri spot is now inaccessible.  

Dosti flamingo complex
03-Dec-2023
6:46 PM
Traveling
2.01 km
66 Minutes
All birds reported? Yes
Comments: Empty plots around have fig trees


30 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
1 Asian Koel
6 Black Kite
1 Coppersmith Barbet
1 Alexandrine Parakeet
7 Rose-ringed Parakeet
1 Spot-breasted Fantail (White-spotted Fantail)
9 House Crow
2 Common Tailorbird
1 Blyth's Reed Warbler
2 Red-vented Bulbul
5 Purple-rumped Sunbird
6 Indian Silverbill (White-throated Munia)
25 House Sparrow

Number of Taxa: 14

In the heart of Sewri, it just takes a couple of fig trees and a Jackfruit to create a little haven for birds, it seems. 

The Alexandrine, the Silverbills and the fantail were such a delight. 

A Mocis frugalis - Sugarcane Looper -Identified via iNaturalist - spent the night on our room curtain.

A Blue pea vine had these beautiful blooms.

The Banyan did not have much bird activity and I wondered why.

It was the Jackfruit corner that was buzzing with sparrows, babblers, sunbirds and the fantail,

Green Munia: The Gullible Beauty of the Scrub Forest | Roundglass Sustain

I have not seen them as yet. 😓 We ent hunting for them, but missed them.

https://roundglasssustain.com/

Green Munia: The Gullible Beauty of the Scrub Forest

24 Sep 2023

The green munia Amandava formosa is a tiny bird of about 10 cm, with a distinctive green-and yellow colour with black-barred flanks and a reddish bill. Females are duller with indistinctly barred flanks. Owing to colouration and size, it can be easily identified from other munias and small birds.  Its generic name has an interesting story. During the British rule, lots of birds were exported to Europe from Ahmedabad. Amandava is a corruption of Ahmedabad from where first few specimens were obtained. In Latin formosa means beautiful, and beautiful this little bird is! Some taxonomists categorise all munias under genus Amandava or "avadavat" (another corruption of Ahmedabad). This is why the munia species are also called green avadavat and red avadavat (Amandava amandava). However, I prefer to use the old term munia as it sounds more Indian and munia for many people means "little".

The green munia is the official mascot of Rajasthan's Mount Abu Sanctuary. It is usually spotted amidst its rocky landscape. Locally it is also known as 'haria' after its greenish-yellow wings.
Cover Photo: The green munia is a tiny, brightly-coloured bird with a melodious call — a high pitched warble, followed by a prolonged trill. Unfortunately it is these features that have made it a popular caged bird and victim of pet-trade in India.

However, what's more important than a debate over its name is the crisis this bird is currently facing. This little bird is certainly in great trouble because of its beauty and simplicity. It is a popular cage bird, like all munias, so it is trapped in large numbers. It is also a naïve bird. The whole flock can be trapped easily as it is rather gullible. If a trapper is not able to trap all the birds the first time, the second or third attempt will bring all the birds of the flock in his net. The bird usually hangs around in a small area. As Dr Rajat Bhargava, ornithologist with BNHS and an expert on green munia wrote in my book, Threatened Birds of India in 2012, "Green Munia is a naive bird and can be easily approached in the wild and trapped. Trapped birds if released after a day behave like tame birds and do not fly far. Over a period of three to four weeks, they become so tame in captivity that they start pairing (which takes much longer in other munias)."

Illegal trade is one of the biggest threats to the green munia. Even 250 years ago, large numbers were sent to Europe from Ahmedabad via the Surat port. Export was officially banned in 1981, but Rajat Bhargava found that the bird is still often traded both in the domestic and export markets. An annual minimum of 2,000-3,000 birds were smuggled out of India to Europe and America in the 1990s. High mortality has been noted in trapped birds. Trapping for trade has extirpated several populations.

The green munia is an endemic bird. It found only in southern Rajasthan, central Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, southern Bihar and historically up to West Bengal, south to southern Maharashtra and northern Andhra Pradesh. It is resident, very locally and unevenly distributed and on the whole uncommon. It lives in dry scrub forests, scrubby edges of marginal crop fields and uncultivated fields.  It is listed in Schedule IV of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, whereby its hunting and trapping is totally prohibited. BirdLife International and IUCN list it Vulnerable in the Red List.

Rajat Bhargava who has been studying and monitoring the green munia for almost 30 years has a major project on this species to find its total population in the wild. His preliminary results are not encouraging. It does not exist in most of the areas where he had seen it in 1990s and 2000s, due to illegal trapping. Besides trapping, habitat destruction is also a major reason — no one gives much attention to scrub forests, which is where the munia is commonly found. It feeds on small grass seeds, but thanks to overgrazing, grass is not allowed to reach the seeding stage.

Hunting, trapping or trade of the green munia is an illegal and a punishable offence. It is also protected against trafficking by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Considering its declining status, a conservation breeding programme should be started. In fact, it is already underway by the Rajasthan Forest Department with two pairs in Gulab Bagh, Udaipur. It is just a start. We have to wait for many years before results begin to show. Interestingly, the Green Avadavat Breeders Group under the umbrella of Queensland Finch Society in Australia has been breeding the birds for many decades. Before the export of live birds was banned in India, the green munia was exported to many countries, including Australia.  There is already a stock of nearly 100 individuals there. We need to collaborate with Australians to exchange experience and upgrade our conservation breeding programme. However, if we are successful in breeding, conservation efforts will not succeed unless its habitat is protected and trapping is totally curtailed. Released birds usually disappear as they are either eaten by natural predators or trapped by cunning bird traders.

Conservation breeding is never the first option for saving a species – it is, in fact, the last resort. If it has to be done, it should be done by experts, and at the stage when wild birds are still there. The idea is that wild population would be supplemented by conservation breeding. It has been shown in many such programmes that captive-bred individuals mix easily with the wild birds and also quickly learn the trick of survival in the wild.

The plight of the green munia has again shown to us the plight of many such neglected species (in all taxa, not only birds) that are dying out, unsung, out of view, out of our mind. For every species, we need indomitable conservation champions like Rajat Bhargava. Only time will tell whether Rajat will see his beloved green munia back or only document its extinction.

eBird -- Sterling Mt Abu -- 04-and -5 Dec-2023

Sterling Mt Abu 
04-Dec-2023 
4:35 PM 
Traveling 
0.87 km 
58 Minutes 
All birds reported? Yes 

30 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 
15 Laughing Dove (Little Brown Dove) 
8 Red-wattled Lapwing 
1 Changeable Hawk-Eagle 
1 White-throated Kingfisher 
5 Rose-ringed Parakeet 
1 Ashy Drongo 
4 Red-rumped Swallow 
2 Red-vented Bulbul 1 Indian Robin
15 Jungle babbler 
35 House Sparrow
1 Gray Wagtail
1 Little Cormorant

Number of Taxa: 15

We walked down from Sterling onto Pilgrim Road. A casual stroll after an afternoon snooze that followed an overnight train journey that reminded us that India had over one billion people. People who are generally courteous and adjusting, but with no sense of 'personal space'. Interestingly, no in your face aggression that I was mentally steeling myself for, as we jockeyed for seats and luggage space in an overcrowded compartment, with the usual negotiations for those lower berths.

What a help to have Vish lift those bags with ease. 😄

So, it was good to be out and on our feet, relative quiet, and bird song A little nullah flowed by the roadside.

It was a sunny evening with clear blue skies. In contrast to the battering my dear Chennai was receiving at the hands of Cycline Michaung. I missed Vish, working in hazy Mumbai, whom we left behind.

Cacti, lantana, neem, palm trees dotted the rocky hill face. 

 

The Changeable Hawk Eagle was the highlight of our stroll. Sitting in a neem tree, while the babblers moved in agitated fashion all around.

5th December bird checklist

The CHE flew across the nullah - we probably startled it, and fixed us with a glare.  The parakeets and babblers feasted on grains put on the temple wall, buffaloes with immense horns made their way up the hillside, and we stayed out of their way.

We were off to the other side of Mt Abu - closer to Delwara temples,  later in the day.   

The missing lions of Kuno and the human cost

PD writes and quotes Ravi Chellam.  Only the marginalised and disadvantaged will be treated like this.  Both human and animal.

In Kuno Park – no one gets the lion’s share

It’s been 23 years since mainly Sahariya Adivasi and Dalit families in forest villages of Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district were displaced from their homes to make way for lions…that have still not arrived

You don’t keep the King of the Jungle waiting.

The lions were coming. All the way from Gujarat. And everyone else had to move on to make their entry painless.

And that seemed a good thing. Even if the villages like Paira inside Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park were uncertain of how it would all go.

“After the great cats arrive, this area will become famous. We will get jobs as guides. We can run shops and eateries in this location. Our families will thrive.” That’s Raghulal Jatav, in his 70s, talking to us in Agara village outside the Kuno Park.

“We will get good quality irrigated land, all-weather roads, electricity for the whole village, and all civic amenities,” Raghulal says.

“That’s what the sarkar [government] assured us, anyway,” he says.

And so the people of Paira and some 1,600 families across 24 villages vacated their homes in the Kuno National Park. They were mainly Sahariya Adivasis, and Dalits and poor OBCs. Their journey into exile was a hurried one.

Tractors were brought in, and the forest dwellers piled many generations of possessions to hastily leave their functioning homes behind. They also left primary schools, hand pumps, wells, and land they had tilled for generations. Even cattle were abandoned. For they would be a burden to feed without the ample grazing resources of the forest.

Twenty-three years later, they’re still waiting for the lions.

Raghulal Jatav was among those displaced from Paira village in Kuno National Park in 1999.

Raghulal (seated on the charpoy), with his son Sultan, and neighbours, in the new hamlet of Paira Jatav set up on the outskirts of Agara village

Left: Raghulal Jatav was among those displaced from Paira village in Kuno National Park in 1999. Right: Raghulal (seated on the charpoy), with his son Sultan, and neighbours, in the new hamlet of Paira Jatav set up on the outskirts of Agara village

“The government lied to us,” says Raghulal, seated on a charpoy outside his son’s home. He’s not even angry anymore. Just tired of waiting for the state to honour its promises. Thousands of poor, marginalised people like Raghulal – himself a Dalit – gave up their lands, their homes, their livelihoods.

But Raghulal’s loss was not Kuno National Park’s gain. No one has got the lion’s share. Not even the great cats themselves. They never came.

Lions once roamed the forests of central, northern and western India. Today, though, the Asiatic lion ( Panthera leo leo ) can only be found in the forests of Gir. And in its surrounding landscapes covering 30,000 square kilometres in the Saurashtra peninsular region in Gujarat. Less than six per cent of that area – 1,883 sq. km – is their last protected home. A fact that sends wildlife biologists and conservationists into a cold sweat.

The 674 Asiatic lions recorded here are listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s leading conservation agency. And wildlife researcher Dr. Faiyaz A. Khudsar points to a clear and present danger. “Conservation Biology clearly suggests that if a small population is restricted to a single site, it faces a variety of extinction threats,” he says.

Khudsar is referring to multiple threats the great cats face. These include an outbreak of canine distemper virus, forest fires, climate change, local rebellion and more. Such dangers, he says, could swiftly decimate this fragile population. That is a nightmare scenario for India as images of the lion dominate our official state emblems and seals.

There is no alternative to Kuno as an additional home for the lions, insists Khudsar. As he puts it: “It is essential to reintroduce a few prides [of lions] throughout their historical geographical ranges to promote genetic vigour.”

A police outpost at Kuno has images of lions although no lions exist here.

Map of Kuno at the forest office, marked with resettlement sites for the displaced

Left: A police outpost at Kuno has images of lions although no lions exist here. Right: Map of Kuno at the forest office, marked with resettlement sites for the displaced

Though the idea goes back much earlier – it was around 1993-95 that a translocation plan was drawn up. Under that plan, some lions would be moved from Gir to Kuno 1,000 kilometres away. Dr. Yadvendradev Jhala, dean of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) says that from a list of nine possible locations, Kuno was found best suited for this plan.

The WII is the technical arm of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and state wildlife departments. It has played an important role in the reintroduction of tigers in Sariska, Panna, Gaur in Bandhavgarh, and Barasingha in Satpura.

“Kuno’s overall size [a contiguous habitat of around 6,800 sq. km], its relatively low levels of human disturbance, no highways running through it, all these made it a fine location,” says conservation scientist Dr. Ravi Chellam. He has tracked these mighty mammals for four decades.

Other positive factors: “Good quality and diversity of habitats – grasslands, bamboo, wet patches. And then there are perennial massive tributaries to the Chambal [river] and diverse species of prey. All these made this sanctuary ready to play host to lions,” he says.

However, thousands of people would have first had to be moved out of Kuno sanctuary. Displacing and relocating them miles away from the forests on which they depended, was done in a few years.

Twenty-three years later, though, the lions are yet to show up.

An abandoned temple in the old Paira village at Kuno National Park

Sultan Jatav's old school in Paira, deserted 23 years ago

Left: An abandoned temple in the old Paira village at Kuno National Park. Right: Sultan Jatav's old school in Paira, deserted 23 years ago

For the residents of the 24 villages within Kuno, the first hint of a possible displacement came in 1998. That was when forest rangers around here began speaking of the sanctuary turning into a national park – with zero human presence.

“We said we have lived with lions [in the past]. Also with tigers and other animals. Why do we have to move?” asks Mangu Adivasi. He is a Sahariya in his 40s, and among those displaced.

In early 1999, not waiting for the villagers to be convinced, the forest department began clearing large tracts of land outside the Kuno boundary. Trees were felled and land was levelled with J.C. Bamford excavators (JCBs).

“The relocation was voluntary, I personally supervised it,” says J.S. Chouhan. In 1999, he was the district forest officer for Kuno. He is presently the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and chief wildlife warden of Madhya Pradesh.

To sweeten the pill of displacement, each family was told that their unit would get two hectares of ploughed and irrigated land. All male children above the age of 18 would also be eligible for this. They would also be entitled to Rs. 38,000 to build a new house and Rs. 2,000 to transport their belongings. Their new villages, they were assured, would have all civic amenities.

And then the Palpur police station was deactivated. “It set off alarm bells as dacoits are feared in this area,” says Syed Merajuddin, 43. He was a young social worker in the area at that time.

The host villages were neither consulted on, nor compensated, for the influx. Nor for the loss of access to forests which had now been levelled

Watch video: Kuno's people: displaced for lions that never came

The summer of 1999 arrived. Just as they were readying to plant their next crop, the residents of Kuno instead began to shift. They arrived in and around Agara and set up homes in blue polythene shacks. They would live here for the next 2-3 years.

“The revenue department initially did not recognise the new owners of the land and so records were not given. It took 7-8 years for other departments like health, education, and irrigation to get moving,” says Merajuddin. He went on to become secretary of the Aadharshila Shiksha Samiti. That’s a non-profit which runs a school for, and works with, the displaced community in host village Agara.

Twenty-three years later, PCCF Chouhan admits that “Village relocation is not the job of the forest department. The government has to own the relocation, only then will the displaced person get the full package. All departments must reach out to the people. It is our duty,” he says, when asked to comment on the unfulfilled promises.

The villages of Umri, Agara, Arrod, Chentikheda and Deori in Vijaypur tehsil of Sheopur district witnessed an influx of thousands of people from the 24 displaced villages. These host villages were neither consulted on, nor compensated, for the influx. Nor for the loss of access to forests which had now been levelled.

Ram Dayal Jatav and his family moved into the Paira Jatav hamlet outside Agara in June 1999. A decision that the resident of the original Paira in Kuno Park, now in his 50s, still regrets. “The resettlement was not good for us. We faced a lot of problems and still do. Even today we don’t have water in our wells, fencing for our farms. We have to bear the cost of medical emergencies and it is difficult to secure employment. Besides, there are so many other problems,” he says. His voice trails off as he adds: “They did good only for the animals but did nothing good for us.”

Ram Dayal Jatav regrets leaving his village and taking the resettlement package.

The Paira Jatav hamlet where exiled Dalit families now live

Left: Ram Dayal Jatav regrets leaving his village and taking the resettlement package. Right: The Paira Jatav hamlet where exiled Dalit families now live

Raghulal Jatav says the loss of identity has been the hardest blow: “It has been 23 years and apart from not getting what we were promised, even our independent gram sabhas were merged into existing ones here.”

He has been fighting the declassification of the 24 villages including his own Paira. According to Raghulal, when the new gram panchayat was formed in 2008, Paira was stripped of its title as a revenue village. Its residents were then added to existing panchayats in four hamlets. “This was how we lost our panchayat .”

A pain that PCCF Chouhan says he has tried to remedy. “I have reached out to many people in the government to give them back their own panchayat . I tell them [state departments], ‘you shouldn't have done this’. Even this year I tried,” he says.

Without their own panchayat , the displaced face a complex legal and political battle for their voices to be heard.

Mangu Adivasi says that after the displacement “the forest closed down for us. We used to sell grass as fodder, but now we don’t get enough to keep even one cow.” There’s also the loss of grazing, firewood, non-timber forest produce, and more.

Social scientist Prof. Asmita Kabra points out the irony: “People were made to leave their homes as the forest department was worried about possible losses to cattle [from the lions thought to be coming]. But ultimately, the cattle were left behind as there was no grazing outside for them.”

Mangu Adivasi lives in the Paira Adivasi hamlet now.

Gita Jatav (in the pink saree) and Harjaniya Jatav travel far to secure firewood for their homes

Left: Mangu Adivasi lives in the Paira Adivasi hamlet now. Right: Gita Jatav (in the pink saree) and Harjaniya Jatav travel far to secure firewood for their homes

The treeline moved further away as land was cleared for cultivation. “Now we have to travel 30-40 kilometres to get firewood. We may have food, but there is no firewood to cook it,” says Kedar Adivasi, a 23-year-old teacher and resident of Aharwani, one of the villages the displaced Sahariyas relocated to.

Gita, in her 50s, and Harjaniya, in her 60s, were very young when they wed and left their homes in Sheopur’s Karahal tehsil to live in the sanctuary. “[Now] we have to go up the hills to get wood. It takes us the whole day and we often get stopped by the forest department. So we have to be discrete,” says Gita.

In their rush to settle things, the forest department bulldozed valuable trees and scrub, recalls Kabra. “The loss of biodiversity was never calculated,” adds the social scientist whose PhD was on displacement, poverty and livelihood security in and around Kuno. She is regarded as the foremost conservation displacement expert on this region.

The loss of access to chir and other trees for collecting gums and resins is a big blow. Chir gond sells at Rs. 200 in the local market, and most families would manage to collect around 4-5 kilos of the resin. “ Gond resin of many different kinds used to be plentiful as were tendu leaves [from which beedis are made ]. So too, fruit like bael, achar, mahua , honey and roots. All this kept us fed and clothed. A kilo of gond we could exchange for five kilos of rice,” says Kedar.

Now many like Kedar’s mother, Kungai Adivasi, who has only a few rain-fed bighas of land in Aharwani , are forced to migrate annually to Morena and Agra cities for work. They labour there on construction sites for a few months every year. “Ten or 20 of us go together during the lean season when there is no agricultural work available here,” says Kungai, who is in her 50s.

Kedar Adivasi and his mother, Kungai Adivasi, outside their home in Aharwani, where displaced Sahariyas settled.

Large tracts of forests were cleared to compensate the relocated people. The loss of biodiversity, fruit bearing trees and firewood is felt by both new residents and host villages

Left: Kedar Adivasi and his mother, Kungai Adivasi, outside their home in Aharwani, where displaced Sahariyas settled. Right: Large tracts of forests were cleared to compensate the relocated people. The loss of biodiversity, fruit bearing trees and firewood is felt by both new residents and host villages

On August 15, 2021, Prime Minister Modi announced ‘ Project Lion ’ in his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort. This would “secure the future of Asiatic lions in the country,” he said.

The prime minister had been the chief minister of Gujarat in 2013 when the Supreme Court had ordered the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to translocate the lions. That should happen, the court said, “within a period of 6 months from today.”  And for the same reason cited in the speech from Red Fort. That is, to secure the future of the Asiatic lions in the country. Then and now, there is no explanation for the Gujarat government’s failure to comply with the order and send some lions to Kuno.

The Gujarat Forest Department website is also silent on any translocation. And an MoEFCC press release in 2019 announced funds of Rs. 97.85 crores for an ‘Asiatic Lion Conservation Project’. But it mentions only the state of Gujarat.

April 15, 2022 marked the ninth year since the Supreme Court judgement in response to a public interest petition filed in 2006 by a Delhi-based organisation. The PIL sought “direction to the Gujarat government for sharing a few prides of Asiatic lions to Kuno.”

“After the Supreme Court's 2013 judgement, an expert committee [was set up] to oversee the reintroduction of lions in Kuno. However, the expert committee has not met for the past two and a half years. And Gujarat has not accepted the action plan,” said WII’s Jhala.

In January 2022, the government announced that African cheetahs would be brought to Kuno as there were no Asiatic cheetahs left in India.

A poster of 'Chintu Cheetah' announcing that cheetahs (African) are expected in the national park

Left: In January 2022, the government announced that African cheetahs would be brought to Kuno as there were no Asiatic cheetahs left in India. Right: A poster of 'Chintu Cheetah' announcing that cheetahs (African) are expected in the national park

Instead, Kuno has been named as the location for the arrival of African cheetahs this year. Despite the same SC judgement saying, “The order of MoEFCC to introduce African Cheetahs into Kuno cannot stand in the eye of Law and the same is quashed.”

The dire warnings of conservationists are already coming true as a 2020 report on Project Lion suggests. The report by the WII and the governments of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, is quite worried about the situation. It says the “recent outbreak of Babesiosis and CDV [canine distemper virus] in Gir has already resulted in mortality of at least more than 60 lions during [the] past two years.”

“Only human hubris is stopping the translocation,” says wildlife biologist Ravi Chellam. He had served as the expert scientific adviser to the forest bench of the apex court in deciding the translocation. A conservation scientist and CEO of Metastring Foundation, Chellam has watched and waited for the lions to be translocated.

“Lions have been through a period of high risk, and now the population has built up. But in conservation, unfortunately, you can never relax. Especially with endangered species – because the threats are ever present. This is a science of eternal vigilance,” says Chellam, who is also a member of the Biodiversity Collaborative.

Left: A signboard of the old Paira village in the national park. Right: Most of the homes in the emptied village have crumbled, but a painted doorway is still standing

“Manushya ko bhaga diya par sher nahin aaya! [Humans were chased out, but no lions came].”

Mangu Adivasi makes jokes about losing his home in Kuno, but there is no laughter in his voice. He has even taken a few blows to the head at a protest demanding that the government fulfil its promises or let them return. “Many times we thought we would go back.”

The protest, on August 15, 2008, was a final attempt to nudge the needle on rightful compensation. “[Then] we decided that we would leave the land given to us, and we wanted our old land back. We knew there was a law that allowed us to go back within 10 years of displacement,” says Raghulal.

Having lost that chance, Raghulal has not given up and has spent his own money and time to correct the situation. He’s gone to the district and tehsil offices multiple times. He’s even been to the election commission in Bhopal to plead the case of their panchayat . But nothing has come of it.

Not having a political voice has made it easier to ignore and silence those displaced. “No one has even asked us how we are, if we have any problems, or anything. No one comes here. If we go to the forest office, we don’t find any officials there,” says Ram Dayal. “When we do meet them, they assure us that they will immediately do our work. But nothing has been done for 23 years.”

Cover photo: Sultan Jatav sitting at the site of his family's home that no longer exists in the old Paira village.

The reporter would like to thank Saurabh Chowdhury for his invaluable help in researching this piece and with translations.