In the dense forests of Gir, a team of motivated young women can be heard revving up their engines and setting out on night patrol armed with tranquiliser guns. They run like deers, are agile like leopards and can climb trees faster than monkeys. The only woman forest guards’ team in India, they have rescued over 600 lions and cubs from distress. Deebashree Mohanty speaks with these bravehearts about their adventurous life
It was around 11 pm when Kiran Pathija was summoned to fetch an ailing cub from a very sensitive area in the middle of the Gir forest. A cub had fallen into a ditch and had injured itself badly requiring immediate attention. Without thinking twice, she set out for the rescue mission.
“I found her, did the needful and revved up my patrol vehicle to get back to the head office. That’s when I heard her. The lioness was right behind my bike. I could feel her breath. She was not happy about being disturbed at night, nor could she recognise me as a forester. Her growl deepened and for the first time in three years, I could feel the sweat trickling down my neck. I stopped the engine, got down from the bike and looked straight into the eyes of the lioness. She was huge, weighing about 120 kg. The moment she started to advance towards me, I started shouting, almost hurtling noises to make her feel intimidated. There are lion-specific sounds that we are taught during out training and I put all that to good use. She backtracked after 15 long minutes. Those minutes felt like hours,” Kiran, one of the best forest guards in Gir, tells you recalling her fearful moment.
For a 20-something girl from a non-descript village in Junagadh, she is a daredevil and Kiran says, “I have always been one.” The gritty girl aced her forest tests impressing everyone on the interview panel. “I have never been afraid of animals. I have seen a lot of farm creatures but I had never seen a lion or tiger in my life. But during my on-ground training when I was brought face to face with a pride, my jaws dropped in awe. I was taken aback with their majesty and not because I was afraid,” she says. Pathija even caught a python by its tail to show her mentors how she could be a handy guard at this 1,800 sq km forest land in the heart of Saurashtra.
Pathija has many other girls for company, most hailing from a cluster of villages around Junagadh. These girls are homely, passionate about animals and bravehearts which makes them the numero uno choice for this profession. A forester’s work in Gir includes rescuing vulnerable lions, healing defenceless cubs and assisting villagers open to wild animal attacks.
“It is a risky profession but we consider that as a perk,” Pathija says. The other thing about these girls is that they are well-educated. She, for instance, was pursuing her under graduation in Sanskrit when the professor chanced upon an advertisement and coaxed Kiran to give the exam. “I had always wanted to wear akhaki uniform. Whenever I saw guards or policewomen, I wanted to be one. I thought it was the uniform that gave them the power. This opportunity came knocking at an opportune moment. I was undecided whether I should pursue higher studies or take up a profession to support my big family. The job of a forest guard came with a lot of perks, so, I decided to try my luck there,” she says. Initially, the panel thought she was too young for the job but she convinced them otherwise when she caught a live cub and got it to the medical centre for treatment on her own.
Being in the thick of fauna has fascinated leader Raseela Vadher. “Animals se daar nahin lagta (not scared of animals at all). They are innocent. It is us humans who complicate matters for ourselves,” the woman spearheading this campaign says with a lot of confidence. Ask her what brought her here in this remote habitat and bang comes the reply. “It happened by chance but I feel I belong to this place. I had accompanied my younger brother who flunked his physical test. The person in-charge said I appeared more fit than he was. So, I decided to give it a try,” Vadher says.
She has been motivating her all-woman team for the past three years and has many accolades to her name but Vadher says the biggest prize she has ever received is having animals as best friends. Given her agility and way with the animals, Vadher is a perfect pick for the job. “My manager keeps telling me that I have some connection with animals. They listen to me a lot and we share a bond. lionesses are never happy to let anyone touch their babies but if it is me, they are secure. They allow me to nurse their young ones, treat them whenever necessary and bring them to the medical centre,” she says.
The 28-year-old woman tells you how like any other mother, even the lioness needs assurance that her child is going to be looked after. “You need to make her understand that the child will be back to the mother shortly. The way you do it matters. Some use code language, while others, like me, make eye contact and express genuine concern,” Vadher, a mother herself, tells you.
It was never easy for her to convince her parents and fiancée about the profession she had opted for herself. “From where I come, this is considered to be a man’s job. It is unthinkable that women could take care of endangered species and run around in the park on a motorbike. My mother was very sceptical. She felt I was risking a lot for not too much income. She was also apprehensive that I would not find a groom. Thankfully, everything fell into place. My husband encourages me to give my best,” she says. During a meeting with her would-be in-laws, Vadher remembers telling them that her animals were like her babies and she would go to any extent to take care of them. “That won them over, I guess,” she says.
Vadher warns you that fake concern could backfire almost immediately. “That is one loophole of the job. At any given time and during any season, one can’t take this job lying down. The moment you lose concentration or treat an animal with disrespect, your connection is lost. They are intelligent beings who can sense well-meaning people,” she says. The young woman had had many tough moments, especially during the start of her career.
“Monkeys can be a tricky proposition, is something that I learnt the hard way. last year, I was asked to bring a monkey to the medical centre. What was supposed to be a half-hour exercise took the whole day. This particular monkey was a mischievous one and it kept hopping around making it impossible to shoot a tranquiliser. I had to climb atop 12 trees to finally get an aim and tranquilise the little thing. We laughed about it at the camp at night. But during the exercise, it was no fun,” she recalls.
Apart from monkeys, leopards are also swift runners and pose a problem if they need to be tranquilised or monitored. In Gir, small villages are situated in close proximity to the dense forest making it possible for animals to enter human habitats. Vadher recounts her experience concerning a leopard which entered a half-built home, causing a lot of tension among village folks.
“We got information that a leopard had entered a half-built home. Villagers were petrified by the time I reached there. The clever leopard had hidden behind rubble so that it couldn’t be tracked easily. Two rangers went in but to no avail. The moment, I entered the home, I could sense it but still not to be seen. After almost 45 minutes of searching, we found him. He was adamant, not wanting to move from this new-found ‘home’. It took us a whole lot of coaxing to get him out and back into the forest. People had gathered in numbers making it difficult for me to lift the animal and carry it to our van. We managed to take it out in a few hours’ time but it was a demanding situation” she recounts.
As for the lions, they are the least of the worry. “lions don’t like to meander into disturbed territories. They are happy in the place they have marked for themselves,” Kiran who enjoys night patrolling more than the day’s work, states. The girls, who are almost like soulmates, find the thrill of night patrolling to be the biggest perk in their profile.
Darshana Kagda agrees. For a woman who had never even seen a snake in her life, it was an unbelievable experience to watch animals in their natural habitats and in such close proximity. In the first week of her joining this service, she was asked to be on night patrol. Initially, Darshana was a little apprehensive but took it up as an adventure. It turned out to be more. The woman was perched atop a 17-foot high tree, waiting to see why a lioness had not come out from her home in search of food or water. It was a cause of concern because she was fragile.
“I kept waiting on the tree expecting the animal to be around her habitat. But after a couple of hours, I still couldn’t locate her. Hassled, I started my decent to go looking for the lioness on foot. To my surprise, she was waiting for me near the tree stump. I realised that the entire time I spent on top of the tree waiting to catch a glimpse of the lioness, she was waiting for me down below looking straight at me. That incident is a joke in my circuit,” Kagda recalls.
The women tell you that more than horror tales concerning animals, it is soft stories and jokes that feature prominently in forest guards’ circle. Pathija, for instance, says her newborn baby has found friends in cubs. “Instead ofmeow, my child reacts to hsssh, a sound we make for the cubs. She calls them with her fingers,” she says. Her husband, in the same profession, is supportive and appreciates the efforts to perform this job.
“He calls me sherni because I have learnt the fighting spirit from the company I keep. I treat animals with the same passion that I would treat my child. They acknowledge and respond the same way,” she tells you.
Vadher, too, is known to be a mother figure to the wild ones. She tirelessly goes about patrolling. “My duty is to ensure that the animals are safe. There is no fixed job description. Timings can get awry but that is routine. The day I decided to be a part of this service, the first thing I had to give up on was fear. The second, was comfort,” she tells you. It is through her guidance and support that the rest of the team has crossed major frontiers. Otherwise, the job can become very monotonous.
“There is enough work to keep us on our feet the entire day. But we still require a lot of motivation to run into the middle of forest and bring in injured animals. That is where the leader comes in,” Kagda, also from the same area as the other two women, tells you. The fallouts of this job are many — they tend to often fall sick often, get rashes and cuts and wounds have become a part of their job, not to mention the risk factor being high. “But, it’s a Government job, so security is there. It is adventurous, a lot of people envy the work that we are doing. And it is a service to the community,” Vadher says.
So, when is a good time for a tourist to spot a lion in the forest coverIJ “Never come during the mating period. They are very moody in those times and prefer to be left alone in their habitat. Evening times are best to spot a pride,” the leader advises.
Catch the series on this all-woman forest guards of Gir on Animal Planetfrom September 14, 2015 at 9 pm