Whenever I talk about the Elephant estimation program, a wave of emotions cross my mind. During that period, I had a roller-coaster ride of emotions - I was happy, sad, excited, bored, terrified, calm, bold, afraid, irritated, pleased, all within a span of two days. I had learnt few life lessons, came to know about lots of new things and got loads of experiences.
Day1: The Beginning
It all began with me enrolling for the Elephant census program organized by A Rocha India knowing absolutely nothing about what I would be doing there. I started from my house at noon after rushing back from office. I had planned to take my bike but changed the decision at the last moment and decided to take a bus. In tune with Murply's law, all the buses going to that area were like the ones from the Fevicol ad. Finally I managed to squeeze myself into a bus and reach "Koli farm bus stop" by 2:00 in the noon. All the events on that day were in sync with Murphy's law - I had skipped my breakfast, couldn't have lunch in office because of a meeting, couldn't have in house because of lack of time and couldn't catch a bus to reach the destination and have lunch on time. In short, I was dying to have food. Once I got myself registered in DCF office across the road, I rushed (should say "ran like milkha singh") to a nearby dhaba to have lunch. After the lunch, I returned back (late) to the DCF office for the training.
Training started at 2:30 with a formal intro by Dr. Vijay Anand, Director A Rocha India, followed by briefings from DCF and ACF on the Dos and Don'ts. The key takeaway from that talk was to obey the trackers and not to stray in the forest. Then Gopalakrishna, a senior researcher from A Rocha, took over and gave us detailed information on categorization of the Elephants, what should be done when one spots an elephant and how to enter it in the different data sheets that he had distributed. At the end of the training, we had a high tea :). During this break, the organizers were busy segregating people into three groups and they announced this grouping after the break. One of the groups were going to Anekal, other to Harohalli and the third group stayed in the DCF office itself. Anekal batch left first. We waited for more than an hour before the vehicle came back to take us to Harohalli.
Rajath and I chose to come in Chitti's car and she followed the Jeep. It was an arduous journey (even though we were in the car) as there was literally no road. On the way, we first went to the Field study center in Uttarahalli to drop off a few items. It was there we had a chance to witness shooting of a Kannada tv serial. In the 10 minutes of the shoot, there was only one scene and one dialog and so much action - to realize that it was a mega(!) serial was a no-brainer. We then started back to harohalli and in another half an hour we reached Harohalli. Once I got off the car, I was in for a Surprise if not a Shock. The building that we were about to stay had no electricity. That building had three rooms with a 100W light in one room and that too with the power drawn from a neighboring house. Now you would be wondering who stayed in that room - In such a situation you should refer the law of equals. According to the law, if you have group with both ladies & guys, then guys will get the least possible facilities (if there are any). Undoubtedly, we were allocated the rooms withNO light FULL darkness (think positively).Gopal then wanted to meet the group in the room of light to inform us about the place we will be visiting the next day and to brief on what to do there. By the time meeting came to an end, it was already 11.30 in the night. I then went to the room and made my bed. I didn't have a good night's sleep for the past week due to my heavy work load at office and was hoping to get one here. By the time I was about to sleep, Rajath and Sunil were enthusiastically planning to set alarm and wake up at 4 in the morning. I looked at my watch - it was already 12. *Sigh*
Day 2: The action starts
The day started at 4 AM with me getting up and switching off the alarm. The two culprits who had set the alarm were still sleeping. In the 4 hrs I got to try and sleep, I woke up couple of times due to extremely cold weather. I got up and went out to brush my teeth. The water was freezing cold and so I dropped the idea of taking bath. I was ready by 4:20. One by one, everybody got up and got ready. By 6, everyone were out of the building waiting for the pickup vehicle. It took quite sometime for the food packets (Breakfast & lunch) to arrive and by the time we started from that place, it was already 7. Five of us (Aruna, Jerry, Chitti, Lakshmeesha and I) sat in the open end of the jeep, 2 people (Raj and Rajath) within the jeep and Gopal drove the vehicle. I was sitting at the back looking very happy blissfully ignorant about the near future.
The vehicle went from 0 to 80+ in 10 seconds, and from there it was a total adventure ride. I turned and looked at Lakshmeesha, his eyes were already watering. You have to remember we were sitting in the open, travelling at 80+ and facing a very cold air at 7 in the morning. God thought of playing some practical joke on us I think. We took a turn from the main road and entered a muddy road towards the jungle. The roads were really bad but Gopal was determined to drop us before 7:30. The vehicle was jumping up and down and we were clinging to whatever we could hold on to. I could hear all the wires and joints within my body getting disconnected. At the turns, the vehicle showed no signs of slowing down. It was more like Indiana Jones type ride from the movie. I remembered the Indiana Jones ride I took in DisneyLand with all the safety gears on and the American people describing it very adventurous. Guyz, I tell you, this ride was lot different. To add more spice to this ride, thorny bushes started to come up on either side of the path and as an added bonus, you get bruised every now and then.
We were already into the jungle and I could see electric fences on the sides marking the boundary. The road was alongside the fence and at times the road was too narrow that the vehicle was almost touching the fence. Terrific (Terrified!!) moments. Few times I had thought the vehicle had hit a dead end, but it would climb up those rocky surfaces and would continue to the other side. At one point, we encountered a steep slope that we had to get down and push the vehicle. Finally, they dropped Aruna, me and our tracker at a pond and moved away.I was more than happy to have gotten down. I had lots of dreams and plans for that day. But the rest of the day turned out to be radically different from my early morning experience.
Cont....
Day1: The Beginning
It all began with me enrolling for the Elephant census program organized by A Rocha India knowing absolutely nothing about what I would be doing there. I started from my house at noon after rushing back from office. I had planned to take my bike but changed the decision at the last moment and decided to take a bus. In tune with Murply's law, all the buses going to that area were like the ones from the Fevicol ad. Finally I managed to squeeze myself into a bus and reach "Koli farm bus stop" by 2:00 in the noon. All the events on that day were in sync with Murphy's law - I had skipped my breakfast, couldn't have lunch in office because of a meeting, couldn't have in house because of lack of time and couldn't catch a bus to reach the destination and have lunch on time. In short, I was dying to have food. Once I got myself registered in DCF office across the road, I rushed (should say "ran like milkha singh") to a nearby dhaba to have lunch. After the lunch, I returned back (late) to the DCF office for the training.
Training started at 2:30 with a formal intro by Dr. Vijay Anand, Director A Rocha India, followed by briefings from DCF and ACF on the Dos and Don'ts. The key takeaway from that talk was to obey the trackers and not to stray in the forest. Then Gopalakrishna, a senior researcher from A Rocha, took over and gave us detailed information on categorization of the Elephants, what should be done when one spots an elephant and how to enter it in the different data sheets that he had distributed. At the end of the training, we had a high tea :). During this break, the organizers were busy segregating people into three groups and they announced this grouping after the break. One of the groups were going to Anekal, other to Harohalli and the third group stayed in the DCF office itself. Anekal batch left first. We waited for more than an hour before the vehicle came back to take us to Harohalli.
Rajath and I chose to come in Chitti's car and she followed the Jeep. It was an arduous journey (even though we were in the car) as there was literally no road. On the way, we first went to the Field study center in Uttarahalli to drop off a few items. It was there we had a chance to witness shooting of a Kannada tv serial. In the 10 minutes of the shoot, there was only one scene and one dialog and so much action - to realize that it was a mega(!) serial was a no-brainer. We then started back to harohalli and in another half an hour we reached Harohalli. Once I got off the car, I was in for a Surprise if not a Shock. The building that we were about to stay had no electricity. That building had three rooms with a 100W light in one room and that too with the power drawn from a neighboring house. Now you would be wondering who stayed in that room - In such a situation you should refer the law of equals. According to the law, if you have group with both ladies & guys, then guys will get the least possible facilities (if there are any). Undoubtedly, we were allocated the rooms with
Day 2: The action starts
The day started at 4 AM with me getting up and switching off the alarm. The two culprits who had set the alarm were still sleeping. In the 4 hrs I got to try and sleep, I woke up couple of times due to extremely cold weather. I got up and went out to brush my teeth. The water was freezing cold and so I dropped the idea of taking bath. I was ready by 4:20. One by one, everybody got up and got ready. By 6, everyone were out of the building waiting for the pickup vehicle. It took quite sometime for the food packets (Breakfast & lunch) to arrive and by the time we started from that place, it was already 7. Five of us (Aruna, Jerry, Chitti, Lakshmeesha and I) sat in the open end of the jeep, 2 people (Raj and Rajath) within the jeep and Gopal drove the vehicle. I was sitting at the back looking very happy blissfully ignorant about the near future.
The vehicle went from 0 to 80+ in 10 seconds, and from there it was a total adventure ride. I turned and looked at Lakshmeesha, his eyes were already watering. You have to remember we were sitting in the open, travelling at 80+ and facing a very cold air at 7 in the morning. God thought of playing some practical joke on us I think. We took a turn from the main road and entered a muddy road towards the jungle. The roads were really bad but Gopal was determined to drop us before 7:30. The vehicle was jumping up and down and we were clinging to whatever we could hold on to. I could hear all the wires and joints within my body getting disconnected. At the turns, the vehicle showed no signs of slowing down. It was more like Indiana Jones type ride from the movie. I remembered the Indiana Jones ride I took in DisneyLand with all the safety gears on and the American people describing it very adventurous. Guyz, I tell you, this ride was lot different. To add more spice to this ride, thorny bushes started to come up on either side of the path and as an added bonus, you get bruised every now and then.
We were already into the jungle and I could see electric fences on the sides marking the boundary. The road was alongside the fence and at times the road was too narrow that the vehicle was almost touching the fence. Terrific (Terrified!!) moments. Few times I had thought the vehicle had hit a dead end, but it would climb up those rocky surfaces and would continue to the other side. At one point, we encountered a steep slope that we had to get down and push the vehicle. Finally, they dropped Aruna, me and our tracker at a pond and moved away.I was more than happy to have gotten down. I had lots of dreams and plans for that day. But the rest of the day turned out to be radically different from my early morning experience.
Cont....
then what happened ?
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