yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

As Pankaj (Sekhsaria) and I continued out telephonic chats over the book ( Protected Area (PA) Update – A Compilation ) we discussed how we would break the monotony and make the book interesting. The book, in the first section, moves from one state to another; each of the states was to have information collated from the PA Update. We felt the need to bring in an introduction of sorts to the state. List of PAs was needed but stand-alone it appeared somewhat dry and the pieces (which form the second section) were out of contention since a healthy number focused on the ‘region’ as opposed to a state in particular. A sketch map for each state was agreed upon and then we also decided to cull in ‘historical pieces’ for each state. Together these three (sketch map, list of PAs and the historical piece) would ‘begin’ each state in the book. While the word-limit that we agreed to made me feel, at times,  I was doing anything but justice to the piece I loved put in many an afternoon going

Lion centric debates, in recent weeks, have been triggered by the Supreme Court verdict that could finally see lions in Kuno (Sheopur) and Valmik Thapar's "Exotic Aliens : The Lion and the Cheetah in India" which questions these two species as ever having been local. During a recent trip to Nagaland I came across both Lions and Tigers on the walls; while Tigers occur in the state the presence of Lions (on the walls) was surprising for sure! Share some images below ~ These are from the Tourist Lodge at Ungma (Mokokchung) These from a hotel in Mokokchung  And these from 2 separate villages in Zunheboto  (miss the names now and dont want to postpone the post) R A Lorrain's 1912 classic '5 Years in Unknown Jungles' mentions lions in south Mizoram; look forward to interesting readings and interactions on Nagaland!

Memories from the past  Share fun and energy of Bal Mela we organized during 2004 at. This was at Samrakshan's Agraa field base  in Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh.  Bal Mela : February 2004  Once the date for the Bal Mela was finalized, during the month of January things started falling into place and everyone in the team began chipping in with their efforts, individually as well as through weekly meetings. The way we perceived it, the Bal Mela this year was to be a litmus test for the dictum "how we do a task is more important that what result we bring out from it". To put this belief into practice, we tried to ensure that a large part of the arrangements for the event were taken care of by the teachers and the village level workers. The  role of the Samrakshan coordinators was  limited to tying the loose ends and overall coordination. It was really invigorating to see the village level workers and teachers allocate responsibilities among themselves and diligentl