It’s always a humbling experience whenever I visit the jungle. Last weekend I was in the jungle named Kolsa through Zari gate along with my wildlife buddy Narayan and a new friend for life Rituraj. We started our trip at the wee hours of the day at 3.15am sharp. Reached Zari gate at 5.50am, 10m before time and waited till the clock ticked 6. As soon as we entered the gate within the first 10min we encountered a female tigress-Kuwani marking her territory and walking in the midst of the dawn like a real queen. I saw Kuwani very very close at a distance of around 8-10 feet. Her piercing eyes got me spellbound and in spite of clicking pictures, my subconscious mind forced me to roll up the window of the car. Later I was informed that kuwani is the young mother of 4-5m old three beautiful cubs.

Later we registered for our first Safari with Mr Gedam, 57y old caretaker of the Government-run guest house in the middle of the jungle. The luxury of staying in the guest house is to get extra 15-20min while starting and ending the safari. The other biggest advantage is that Zari gate is only one of the few jungles left which allows staying inside the jungle in the guest house.

The past is the history of Mr Gedam who has given 34 years of his life working as a caretaker at Kolsa. He has seen Tadoba-Kolsa at the closest angle which none of us will see in our entire lifetime of wildlife photography. It is rightly said that every person has a story, so was with Gedamkaka.

Gedam Kaka was the typical snobbish, unhygienic, potbellied, middle-aged Government employee who thinks that he owns the guest house. Right at our introduction, he started giving us cold shoulder by saying NO alcohol, NO eggs, NO chicken. No entry in the guest house if you come later than 8pm in the evening. The only food that he can make is Alu sabzi, dal and rice with few rotis of you are lucky. This was very painful to hear and to follow but when I did a real introspect of why the rules and why the law. The charge of the guest house was a mere 700/- for the night and if Gedamkaka was not strict any tom dick and harry would stay and do illegal activities. This was possible only when I removed the glasses which was seeing only the strictness and rigidity of Gedamkaka. When I sat with him and had a heart to heart discussion, I realised Gedamkaka has been seeing winters, summers and rains year after year for more than 34 years. He has gone through the thick and thin when fighting with the villagers to protect the wilderness of the guesthouse and the wildlife. He has spent his time staying away from his family ( wife and two children). He stays in the jungle has literally behaved like a Tiger who was the reason for the production of the children but the upbringing was done by the tigress (Mrs Gedam), he feels very bad when I spoke about this. He was worried about not able to do anything if he had left a “secured” job. What did the secured job give him??- according to him it provided him with an umbrella to provide an engineering education to his daughter who got married to an Ordinance factory employee and his son is studying at the local college. I felt very good when I realised that Gedamkaka got an excellent return on his investment of 34yrs in the forest of central India. This belief was shattered when at the time of departing he asked if I can spare a packet of biscuit which he wants to take home for his grandchild…..so this was The Past.

During my trip, I saw 7 cubs, 4 cubs of the Shivanjari tigress and 3 cubs of the Kuwani Tigress.