Morning when I reached office, Swami sir was sitting there. I was shocked because he used to come down in evening at 5:30 or 6:00 Pm so that he can get his work done from office staff at last moment. He called me to separate room for meeting. He told that I have some information regarding 5 sloth bear cubs with Kalandars somewhere in Bilaspur, Chattisgarh.
Here I should explain about Kalandars, Kalandars are nomadic tribes who use sloth bear cubs for their livelihood. Swami said, “ one of informer Munna is waiting there you just go there get all the paper work organized and bring the cubs to Agra, Forest department will do the seizure”.
Same day evening I left to Bilaspur by train. As usual my train was 2 hr late. I set down on the bench near a coffee shop at platform no. 2. Like any normal Indian man I was watching the girls at the platform. I checked the reservation chart twice to see whether any young girl got set near to my seat. I feel railway station in India represent true India and you can feel the pressure of Indian population there.
You can’t see girls for long time continuously, so I also got bored of seeing the girls. I was reading a sanctuary Asia magazine-the only Indian wildlife magazine. Suddenly I saw a lady she was collecting garbage mainly plastic from the platform. She came and set near to me on a big black color iron box. She took out a thermos and kept there and left the place. I waited there for an hour thermos was still there at last I decided to inform railway police. I crossed the over bridge and reached to platform no 1. Two semi young policemen were setting in GRP office. They were talking something about the most popular issue for Indian males “SEX”. They were reading some hindi newspaper. I tried to stop myself but I couldn’t, I also looked at the half nude photo of Mallika Sherwat. In photo she was wearing a red color top and something else, but I am sure I cant make my handkerchief out of her dress. I interrupted them, “excuse me sir and I explained everything happened at platform no.2”. One policemen said, “very good, you again go to platform no.2, our constable Yadav is there search him and inform him”. I came out of office and then I understood why India is so vulnerable to bomb blasts.
At 11:45 PM my train reached to New Delhi railway station. As the train stopped, people started fighting to enter in the train, even in reservation coach. It was like after flood, government vehicle came with ration and people were fighting for the ration. At last after fighting with few people I entered in a coach. I reached to my seat, it was lower berth. I checked all nearby seats for girls. As usual I was unlucky this coach was full of old people, actually it was like an old age home. As there was nothing to look in the coach I slept at 12:00midnight.
Morning I got up with the sound of Chai chai. The most horrible thing in India railway (if you are not travelling in Shatabdi and Rajdhani) are toilets, whether it’s an AC coach or Non AC coach. You can see all sort of vulgar dialogues written on the wall with modern pictures made by young artists of India. Some great personalities also write their phone number under these special quotes. I finished my work in ten minutes. I only know how I set there for ten minutes. I came back to my seat, ordered a tea. After having a liquid which I supposed to call tea I again slept.
At 9:45 Am our train reached to Raipur railway station. I came out of the railway station it was bit clean and hygienic in comparison to any railway station in UP. I shifted to hotel at MG road. My informer Munna called me at 11:30 AM and I fixed meeting with him to some place in Bilaspur next day morning. Next day I got up early morning and took a bus to Bilaspur. As there are no government transport systems in Chattisgarh so I got good private luxury bus, it took 2 and half hour to reach there. I shifted to hotel Nat raj at main road. I called munna and fixed meeting at 4:00Pm in Purani Bazaar.
At three I left the room and took cycle rickshaw to purani bazaar. I don’t know why but I like to travel in cycle rickshaw. May be because in very less money you can have vehicle and driver following your instructions. One more thing, rickshaw is only vehicle which can go in any narrow road. My Rickshaw wala was Bihari as most of the rickshaw owners of India. It took 20 minutes to reach Purani bazaar. Munna was setting in a Dhaba along with Muslim my other informer. It was a typical Indian dhaba with wooden coats everywhere. We all set on one coat. As usual waiter was hardly 12 year old boy, he came to us and ask, “Sahab Ji kya lao”. He was wearing a red color t shirt and blue jeans. Red t shirt was looking like a black one because I think he didn’t get time to wash it from last couple of weeks or more. I ordered 3 tea and one plate paneer pakora and we started our discussion.
Munna said, “all five bears are near river which is around 25km from this place.” I interrupted him and ask “how old are the bears?. He told, “4 are adults and one cub”. I called Swami, phone ringed thrice and he attended the phone, “Hi Rohit, where are you ?. This is his habit he always ask stupid questions. As I reached to this place for discussion I send him sms. But sometime you know that your boss is asking stupid questions, but still you can’t shout on him. I told him, “sir there is only one cub rest all are adults”. He said, “rohit, It doesn’t matter you do seizure with the department and get the papers to bring these bears to Agra”. I said, “But sir you told me forest department will do the seizure, I have to only get the paper work organized”. From other side of the phone only sound came was beep, beep…………………..he had cut the phone. I was left without any option. I ordered one mineral water in the meantime tea and pakora also came. Muslim took even less than 10 minutes to finish the pakoras. Me and Munna got only one piece. I collected all the details from them. In the meantime I finished my horrible tea, it was more like a sugarcane juice rather than a tea, so sweet and cold.
I took a rickshaw and came back to hotel. Next day morning I took a bus to Raipur and reached to Chief Wildlife Warden Office. This was my first meeting with such a big officer. As I entered in the room I saw a small 4.5 ft man was sitting on a big chair. Small name plate was kept on the table, his name was N.K. Bhagat. I told him about the information; he told he will provide all possible support for this work. It is difficult to find such a nice person at this post. I left the office and took an auto to railway station. It was 12:30 PM at that time and I was feeling hungry I looked around, I saw a board in front of a shop. “Swami Swami Biryani Centre” was written on that board. I don’t know why but I felt good after seeing the board may be because i saw a small dhaba running by the name of your boss. I entered inside the shop it was not at all hygienic although it was a south Indian dhaba. I ordered one chicken biryani. One girl was setting at the entrance of the restaurant with cash box, probably she was owner of the shop cum restaurant. Behind her on the wall some south Indian god’s photo was hanging. My biryani came, as I didn’t had breakfast in morning so I was very hungry, I finished my biryani within 15 minutes. I ordered one more biryani but I couldn’t finished it. I left my biryani and went outside the shop to wash my hands. A big blue color water tank was kept there for customers to wash their hands. Near to this tank big blue color tub was kept for the used plates. I washed my hands and again entered in the shop. I ask the girl, “ How much is the bill ?’. she said 56. I gave her 100 rs note. She asked for a change. I said I don’t have so she went out to get the change. I was waiting there then I saw 12-13 year old boy sitting near the tub. He was having the biryani left by me in the plate. After seeing this how Indian politicians can say that India will be a developed country in 2020. You can’t provide two time meals to your citizens and you say we will be developed country in 2020. In the meantime shop owner also came I told her to give food to the boy from my balance. I entered railway station and took a general train to bilaspur. Train took one and half hour to bilaspur. I shifted to hotel Natraj and informed Munna about my meeting. I called the local DFO and informed him about the situation.
Next day morning I took a taxi to river. I don’t remember the river name, last it turn out to be irrigation canal. As I was acting as Syed Zafar Haider possible muslim buyer, so I was wearing along pathani suit and a typical muslim topi. It took 45 minutes to reach to the destination with taxi. I got down with Munna about I km before river. We asked some local pople about “Bhaloo Wala”. At last near the river bank we saw three tents. All tents were made of blue tarpaulin. One bear was tied outside the tent. I went near the tent and asked the bear owner about the location of other bears. He asked my introduction. I told him that my name is syed zafar haider and I am from Deoria in UP. He told remaining four bears went for street show. I told him that i want to buy a bear, my bear died because of tuberculosis. He said, “I am selling my bear, you can come tomorrow and confirm with other bear owners”. I left the place with Munna within half an hour we reached to our taxi and came back to hotel. On the way I dropped Munna & Muslim to some Dharamshala.
Next day morning I called munna and said, “You go there and check whether all the bear owners are there or not and inform me”. At 11:30 Am I received a call from munna, “Rohit Bhai mall (Bears) hai”. I informed DFO and requested for enforcement team. Within 2.5 hours we were ready with 6 enforcement team members. Although one of the forest guard was carrying a rifle but I was sure that they haven’t used it from centuries. At 3:30 PM we reached to the location, it was not more than 1.5 hr journey from Bilaspur to the location but forest department jeep took 3 hours to cover the distance. Around three km before the location we all set down in a dhaba for discussion.
I started explaining the plan (this was my first anti poaching operation), “ I will go there and tell them that I want to buy a bear cub, when all the bear owners are there. I will give you a miss call you all should come and arrest all the bear owners and also”. One forest guard asked, “Why you sir”. I explained him, “because if you don’t arrest me they will suspect me and in future I won’t be able to do any such operation with this community”. I left the place with munna at 4:00 PM at 5:00 PM we reached to Kalandar settlement.
With Kalandars:
“AssaSalaam Alaokum bhai”, I said. “Waileikum ass Salaam”, one of the bear ownerreplied. I can see only 3 bears and 3 owners. Still two of them were missing, so I thought I will wait for them and spent time in discussing them. I told, “Yahhan kamai nahi hai”. One Kalandar said, ‘ ye kamai ka ilaqa nahi hai, kamai to Raipur mei hai”. One of the Kalandar offered me bidi (I don’t smoke, but 90% of the Kalandars smoke so I also have accept their offer). I took the bidi and started smoking. We discussed all issued, I collected lot of information on bear cub trade in the state f Chattisgarh. The information helped me a lot now in sloth bear cub trade control. Now I have all the information about bear owners. All the bear owners are from Chorbhatti, Bilaspur. They all got these cubs from marvaha range of Amarkantak reserve forest.
In the meantime 2 other Kalandars also came with their bears. I thought this is the right time, now I should inform the enforcement team. I told one Kalandar that I will piss and come. I went 50 m away from the tents behind the bush. I took out the mobile, there was no network. I tried all the options, moved my phone in all directions but not able to get any signal. I came back to Kalandars. They were planning to go to other side of the river. I have to do something. I told them, “ Mei zara thandi chai (Local liquor) peekar aata hoon”. One of them also came with me we went to theka nearby the village. As as I don’t drink so it was totally a different situation for me. We bought an Adha (100ml liquor bottle) in 25 Rs. I made two packs. He finished his pack within fraction of seconds, I was taking smallest sip as I can’t tolerate the smell the smell of liquor. So the whole bottle was finished by the other Kalandar. He bought another bottle soon that was also finished, Now he was full tight, he told me, you know why we are moving, saleem (another Kalandar) had seen forest dept jeep at the chowk”.
I understood this operation is not going to get success, my first operation should not be failure. I have to do something. I said, ‘You carry on I will call my family and come”. I came out of the bar. I saw a small khoka (small wooden shop mainly for selling pan, tobacco, cigrate) with STD facility. I called the ranger and said, “ Sir aajayei ye log jaanei walei hai, jaldi aa jao”. He said, “ok we are reaching”. I came back to theka, basher was almost unconscious. We both left to the river. When I reached to the river I saw they have already packed everything and were waiting for basher. Within 15 min they all were ready to leave.
I was eagerly waiting for the team. In front of my eyes they were going and I was not able to do anything. When team reached they have already crossed 85% of the bridge. They directly stopped the vehicle near me and asked about them. This was the biggest blander he did. Kalandars were seeing all this from the bridge. Now they understood that I am not a Kalandar or I am a Kalandar working with forest department as informer. As now I was out of cover so I told ranger that they are crossing the river, please arrest them. I don’t know why none of the team member was able to see them. In the meantime they have crossed the river and went to the other side. Ranger said to me, “ We can’t arrest them now because now they are not in our division they will inform Raipur division they will arrest them”. I was shocked, wildlife criminals are going in from of you with schedule I species and you are talking about division and all. I took out my phone it was showing single network signal. I called Bhagat Sir, Chief Wildlife Warden because of the network problem it took 10 calls and almost half an hour to explain him the situation.
Once he understood the problem, he called Ranger and gave him good dose,” All divisions comes under me and you are supposed to follow my instructions”. In all this Kalandars have mover far away, we crosses the bridge and enquired about the bear owners. They said, “ aagei gayei hai sahib”. We travelled 10 km by jeep and reached to the main road we all set at one dhaba, the time was 10:30 PM. We all had dinner there. Although there was nnot much food variety available and not food was not hygienic too, but I was so hungry that I had 5 chapati. Two locals were also sitting there and having food. They were taking about everything right from village girls to prime minister of india. Oe of them said, “ you know bear owners are staying in our village”.
I got the information so at 11:30 Pm we all planed to do raid at 12:30 AM. Forest officers were very enthusiast now as they have received ta good lecture from CWLW. We waited for an hour, in the meantime we have arranged one 407 vehicle for transporting the bears. Vehicle reached at 3:30 AAM. I ranger and 3 forest guard left to the location we were sitting on a highway from midnight, this was first time when I spent my whole night on road.
5 tents were there in a big fields. All of them were in deep sleep. I requested one of the forest guard to call one of the Kalandar. Basheer came near to me. Ranger asked, ‘Bhaloo ke kagaz dikhao”. He called other Kalandars too, all of them had shown the copy of their ownership certificates. Ranger was not interested in the raid from begging so he said to me, “they all have ownership certificate so we cant arrest them”. I tried to explain him “sir first they are supposed to carry certificates in original and second he is showing us certificate issued by the name of basher, but how do we know he is basher, there is no photo on the license”. I asked basher to show his voting card, he was not able to show that. So atlast I convinced the ranger to arrest all of them.
In all this we have wasted three hours, and villagers started coming. Actually they were supporting Kalandars, and it is not wrong also as they don’t know the real picture of illegal wildlife trade happening behind this bear dance picture, for them Kalandars are poor people who earn money from street shows and we are harassing them. I have to lead the team now, so I gave duty to two forest guard to manage the crowd. We started loading the bears in truck, Kalandar ladies started crying as today was Ed. I was also bit moved after seeing this, is it correct what I am doing, I am not King Ashoka, but you can’t see ladies and children crying. Especially children they were crying like anything, their fathers were arrested in front of their eyes on Ed, they must be expecting some Edi (Money given to children on Ed) today, they have not seen in their wildest dream that their father will be arrested on Ed. Then I thought I am just doing my duty, if police starts thinking in the same way then no criminals will be arrested. We left the location within next half an hour. We reached Nandanvan, Raipur Zoo at 1:30 PM. We told Kalandars to tie all the bears behind the main office building. We gave them some bread with milk.
Me and ranger started working on the paper work for moving the bears from Raipur to Agra. At 3:30 PM we went back to the Raipur court for taking a court order to shift the bears. Judge has already left the court and next day was Sunday so we have to wait for next two days. But we have already given the application as according to the law we have to submit an application within 24 hrs. I decided to shift to a hotel then and take rset.
Sunday morning I started early morning as I wanted to feed bears myself. I took a bus to nandanvan, bus dropped me to the main road, from there I walked 3km to reach the zoo. At 9:00 Am I reached the zoo. Because of Sunday ranger was not there so I directly went to meet the Kalandars, they have already given the food to the bears. I just played with bears for 15-20 min, this was the first time I was touching the bears, I had never seen bears so closely. I took some photos with my Kodak easy share camera, which I bought in 595/- Rs during my MSC field orientation work.
Then I decided to take a tour of the zoo. There were 6 common leopards in the zoo, when I asked the keeper about the source of leopards. He said all these leopards were rescued from conflict situation and all of them are man eater. I really felt bad about the leopards as they all were in small cages. Leopards are the most suffered animals because of conflict, they gets life imprisonment for entering once in the human settlement. Then I saw a tiger, its paw was half cut, when I asked about it to the keeper. He told me the story that this tiger was rescued from Panna Tiger Reserve, when we reached there to rescue its leg was trapped in the leg hold trap, during the rescue we it lost half paw. These were some of my observations about wildlife in the zoo, I also observed some other things which I would like to share with you. During my trip I saw so many couples in objectionable positions in the zoo, some were sitting on a bench behind the tiger enclosure, some were sitting behind the canteen, some were near the hyaena enclosure. Before this I had seen two more zoos one in Delhi and on in Lucknow, now big part of their income comes from these couples. The most important thing is these people even don’t feel shame, they will do everything without bothering about the movement happening near them. After giving evening food to the bears I left to Raipur. I reached to the hotel at 7:30 Pm.
Next day I reached court early morning, ranger was already there with government advocate. 1:00 PM was our hearing time, but I thought it will be better to talk and explain the issue to judge in advance. Although government advocate was with us all the time, but he was not at all trained to fight wildlife cases, even he was not aware of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972). Before coming to the hearing he bought a small 50/- Rs manual on WPA from nearest stationary shop. Now I know why the conviction rate of is less than 1% in wildlife crime cases. At 2:30 PM judge called us, he hardly gave us 10 min I explained him that these rescued bears are not in healthy condition and for the better care of these bears they have to be shifted to Agra Bear Rescue centre. He was confused or you can say he was not interested in the case, with three hour we received the letter for shifting the bears to ABRF.
My next aim was to arrange the vehicle for shifting the bears. We have arranged a 407 for transporting the bears. Next day early morning I reached to the Nandan Van zoo. Because the Kalandars had been shifted to Raipur jail, so one night before forest guards were shifted four bears to transportation cages, but one bear was in a leopard enclosure. The bear in the enclosure was an ferocious one, it was a challenge for all of us to shift the bear to transport cage from the enclosure. After trying all possible inhumane methods by the forest officials, I decided to enter in the enclosure. Although I was also very afraid as this was the first time when I was handling a bear in such situation, but I was not showing my fear to any forest officials or even to bear, because once a Kalandar told me that if you show your fear to bear then bear will surely try to dominant you. Bear was sitting in a corner with long think plastic rope coming out of its nose. I had seen how Kalandars handle bears before, but now I can say seeing and doing is different especially in case of bear it is really different they are the most unpredictable animals. Already so many people have pulled the rope from outside, even little blood was coming out of the nose, this has made the bear more aggressive, so I decided that I wouldn’t pull the rope, first I will try to pet the bear. I reached near the bear and in first chance itself bear attacked on me, and I have lost my favorite shirt, my first branded shirt, it was not only shirt I also got a scratch mark on the chest…for which later on I have to give several explanations to my parents. I tried again, and same thing happened bear was not even giving me a chance to reach to the rope. But like a hindi films third time got success and the rope was in my hand, I set near the bear and pet her for 20 minutes. I gave some honey to the bear, and then we made a continuous line of honey from the leopard enclosure to the transporting cage, we have kept the transportation cage at the entrance of the enclosure. Both the gates of the cage were open I brought the bear slowly in the cage and came out of the cage from the other door. At last the bear was in transportation cage.
Here I should explain about Kalandars, Kalandars are nomadic tribes who use sloth bear cubs for their livelihood. Swami said, “ one of informer Munna is waiting there you just go there get all the paper work organized and bring the cubs to Agra, Forest department will do the seizure”.
Same day evening I left to Bilaspur by train. As usual my train was 2 hr late. I set down on the bench near a coffee shop at platform no. 2. Like any normal Indian man I was watching the girls at the platform. I checked the reservation chart twice to see whether any young girl got set near to my seat. I feel railway station in India represent true India and you can feel the pressure of Indian population there.
You can’t see girls for long time continuously, so I also got bored of seeing the girls. I was reading a sanctuary Asia magazine-the only Indian wildlife magazine. Suddenly I saw a lady she was collecting garbage mainly plastic from the platform. She came and set near to me on a big black color iron box. She took out a thermos and kept there and left the place. I waited there for an hour thermos was still there at last I decided to inform railway police. I crossed the over bridge and reached to platform no 1. Two semi young policemen were setting in GRP office. They were talking something about the most popular issue for Indian males “SEX”. They were reading some hindi newspaper. I tried to stop myself but I couldn’t, I also looked at the half nude photo of Mallika Sherwat. In photo she was wearing a red color top and something else, but I am sure I cant make my handkerchief out of her dress. I interrupted them, “excuse me sir and I explained everything happened at platform no.2”. One policemen said, “very good, you again go to platform no.2, our constable Yadav is there search him and inform him”. I came out of office and then I understood why India is so vulnerable to bomb blasts.
At 11:45 PM my train reached to New Delhi railway station. As the train stopped, people started fighting to enter in the train, even in reservation coach. It was like after flood, government vehicle came with ration and people were fighting for the ration. At last after fighting with few people I entered in a coach. I reached to my seat, it was lower berth. I checked all nearby seats for girls. As usual I was unlucky this coach was full of old people, actually it was like an old age home. As there was nothing to look in the coach I slept at 12:00midnight.
Morning I got up with the sound of Chai chai. The most horrible thing in India railway (if you are not travelling in Shatabdi and Rajdhani) are toilets, whether it’s an AC coach or Non AC coach. You can see all sort of vulgar dialogues written on the wall with modern pictures made by young artists of India. Some great personalities also write their phone number under these special quotes. I finished my work in ten minutes. I only know how I set there for ten minutes. I came back to my seat, ordered a tea. After having a liquid which I supposed to call tea I again slept.
At 9:45 Am our train reached to Raipur railway station. I came out of the railway station it was bit clean and hygienic in comparison to any railway station in UP. I shifted to hotel at MG road. My informer Munna called me at 11:30 AM and I fixed meeting with him to some place in Bilaspur next day morning. Next day I got up early morning and took a bus to Bilaspur. As there are no government transport systems in Chattisgarh so I got good private luxury bus, it took 2 and half hour to reach there. I shifted to hotel Nat raj at main road. I called munna and fixed meeting at 4:00Pm in Purani Bazaar.
At three I left the room and took cycle rickshaw to purani bazaar. I don’t know why but I like to travel in cycle rickshaw. May be because in very less money you can have vehicle and driver following your instructions. One more thing, rickshaw is only vehicle which can go in any narrow road. My Rickshaw wala was Bihari as most of the rickshaw owners of India. It took 20 minutes to reach Purani bazaar. Munna was setting in a Dhaba along with Muslim my other informer. It was a typical Indian dhaba with wooden coats everywhere. We all set on one coat. As usual waiter was hardly 12 year old boy, he came to us and ask, “Sahab Ji kya lao”. He was wearing a red color t shirt and blue jeans. Red t shirt was looking like a black one because I think he didn’t get time to wash it from last couple of weeks or more. I ordered 3 tea and one plate paneer pakora and we started our discussion.
Munna said, “all five bears are near river which is around 25km from this place.” I interrupted him and ask “how old are the bears?. He told, “4 are adults and one cub”. I called Swami, phone ringed thrice and he attended the phone, “Hi Rohit, where are you ?. This is his habit he always ask stupid questions. As I reached to this place for discussion I send him sms. But sometime you know that your boss is asking stupid questions, but still you can’t shout on him. I told him, “sir there is only one cub rest all are adults”. He said, “rohit, It doesn’t matter you do seizure with the department and get the papers to bring these bears to Agra”. I said, “But sir you told me forest department will do the seizure, I have to only get the paper work organized”. From other side of the phone only sound came was beep, beep…………………..he had cut the phone. I was left without any option. I ordered one mineral water in the meantime tea and pakora also came. Muslim took even less than 10 minutes to finish the pakoras. Me and Munna got only one piece. I collected all the details from them. In the meantime I finished my horrible tea, it was more like a sugarcane juice rather than a tea, so sweet and cold.
I took a rickshaw and came back to hotel. Next day morning I took a bus to Raipur and reached to Chief Wildlife Warden Office. This was my first meeting with such a big officer. As I entered in the room I saw a small 4.5 ft man was sitting on a big chair. Small name plate was kept on the table, his name was N.K. Bhagat. I told him about the information; he told he will provide all possible support for this work. It is difficult to find such a nice person at this post. I left the office and took an auto to railway station. It was 12:30 PM at that time and I was feeling hungry I looked around, I saw a board in front of a shop. “Swami Swami Biryani Centre” was written on that board. I don’t know why but I felt good after seeing the board may be because i saw a small dhaba running by the name of your boss. I entered inside the shop it was not at all hygienic although it was a south Indian dhaba. I ordered one chicken biryani. One girl was setting at the entrance of the restaurant with cash box, probably she was owner of the shop cum restaurant. Behind her on the wall some south Indian god’s photo was hanging. My biryani came, as I didn’t had breakfast in morning so I was very hungry, I finished my biryani within 15 minutes. I ordered one more biryani but I couldn’t finished it. I left my biryani and went outside the shop to wash my hands. A big blue color water tank was kept there for customers to wash their hands. Near to this tank big blue color tub was kept for the used plates. I washed my hands and again entered in the shop. I ask the girl, “ How much is the bill ?’. she said 56. I gave her 100 rs note. She asked for a change. I said I don’t have so she went out to get the change. I was waiting there then I saw 12-13 year old boy sitting near the tub. He was having the biryani left by me in the plate. After seeing this how Indian politicians can say that India will be a developed country in 2020. You can’t provide two time meals to your citizens and you say we will be developed country in 2020. In the meantime shop owner also came I told her to give food to the boy from my balance. I entered railway station and took a general train to bilaspur. Train took one and half hour to bilaspur. I shifted to hotel Natraj and informed Munna about my meeting. I called the local DFO and informed him about the situation.
Next day morning I took a taxi to river. I don’t remember the river name, last it turn out to be irrigation canal. As I was acting as Syed Zafar Haider possible muslim buyer, so I was wearing along pathani suit and a typical muslim topi. It took 45 minutes to reach to the destination with taxi. I got down with Munna about I km before river. We asked some local pople about “Bhaloo Wala”. At last near the river bank we saw three tents. All tents were made of blue tarpaulin. One bear was tied outside the tent. I went near the tent and asked the bear owner about the location of other bears. He asked my introduction. I told him that my name is syed zafar haider and I am from Deoria in UP. He told remaining four bears went for street show. I told him that i want to buy a bear, my bear died because of tuberculosis. He said, “I am selling my bear, you can come tomorrow and confirm with other bear owners”. I left the place with Munna within half an hour we reached to our taxi and came back to hotel. On the way I dropped Munna & Muslim to some Dharamshala.
Next day morning I called munna and said, “You go there and check whether all the bear owners are there or not and inform me”. At 11:30 Am I received a call from munna, “Rohit Bhai mall (Bears) hai”. I informed DFO and requested for enforcement team. Within 2.5 hours we were ready with 6 enforcement team members. Although one of the forest guard was carrying a rifle but I was sure that they haven’t used it from centuries. At 3:30 PM we reached to the location, it was not more than 1.5 hr journey from Bilaspur to the location but forest department jeep took 3 hours to cover the distance. Around three km before the location we all set down in a dhaba for discussion.
I started explaining the plan (this was my first anti poaching operation), “ I will go there and tell them that I want to buy a bear cub, when all the bear owners are there. I will give you a miss call you all should come and arrest all the bear owners and also”. One forest guard asked, “Why you sir”. I explained him, “because if you don’t arrest me they will suspect me and in future I won’t be able to do any such operation with this community”. I left the place with munna at 4:00 PM at 5:00 PM we reached to Kalandar settlement.
With Kalandars:
“AssaSalaam Alaokum bhai”, I said. “Waileikum ass Salaam”, one of the bear ownerreplied. I can see only 3 bears and 3 owners. Still two of them were missing, so I thought I will wait for them and spent time in discussing them. I told, “Yahhan kamai nahi hai”. One Kalandar said, ‘ ye kamai ka ilaqa nahi hai, kamai to Raipur mei hai”. One of the Kalandar offered me bidi (I don’t smoke, but 90% of the Kalandars smoke so I also have accept their offer). I took the bidi and started smoking. We discussed all issued, I collected lot of information on bear cub trade in the state f Chattisgarh. The information helped me a lot now in sloth bear cub trade control. Now I have all the information about bear owners. All the bear owners are from Chorbhatti, Bilaspur. They all got these cubs from marvaha range of Amarkantak reserve forest.
In the meantime 2 other Kalandars also came with their bears. I thought this is the right time, now I should inform the enforcement team. I told one Kalandar that I will piss and come. I went 50 m away from the tents behind the bush. I took out the mobile, there was no network. I tried all the options, moved my phone in all directions but not able to get any signal. I came back to Kalandars. They were planning to go to other side of the river. I have to do something. I told them, “ Mei zara thandi chai (Local liquor) peekar aata hoon”. One of them also came with me we went to theka nearby the village. As as I don’t drink so it was totally a different situation for me. We bought an Adha (100ml liquor bottle) in 25 Rs. I made two packs. He finished his pack within fraction of seconds, I was taking smallest sip as I can’t tolerate the smell the smell of liquor. So the whole bottle was finished by the other Kalandar. He bought another bottle soon that was also finished, Now he was full tight, he told me, you know why we are moving, saleem (another Kalandar) had seen forest dept jeep at the chowk”.
I understood this operation is not going to get success, my first operation should not be failure. I have to do something. I said, ‘You carry on I will call my family and come”. I came out of the bar. I saw a small khoka (small wooden shop mainly for selling pan, tobacco, cigrate) with STD facility. I called the ranger and said, “ Sir aajayei ye log jaanei walei hai, jaldi aa jao”. He said, “ok we are reaching”. I came back to theka, basher was almost unconscious. We both left to the river. When I reached to the river I saw they have already packed everything and were waiting for basher. Within 15 min they all were ready to leave.
I was eagerly waiting for the team. In front of my eyes they were going and I was not able to do anything. When team reached they have already crossed 85% of the bridge. They directly stopped the vehicle near me and asked about them. This was the biggest blander he did. Kalandars were seeing all this from the bridge. Now they understood that I am not a Kalandar or I am a Kalandar working with forest department as informer. As now I was out of cover so I told ranger that they are crossing the river, please arrest them. I don’t know why none of the team member was able to see them. In the meantime they have crossed the river and went to the other side. Ranger said to me, “ We can’t arrest them now because now they are not in our division they will inform Raipur division they will arrest them”. I was shocked, wildlife criminals are going in from of you with schedule I species and you are talking about division and all. I took out my phone it was showing single network signal. I called Bhagat Sir, Chief Wildlife Warden because of the network problem it took 10 calls and almost half an hour to explain him the situation.
Once he understood the problem, he called Ranger and gave him good dose,” All divisions comes under me and you are supposed to follow my instructions”. In all this Kalandars have mover far away, we crosses the bridge and enquired about the bear owners. They said, “ aagei gayei hai sahib”. We travelled 10 km by jeep and reached to the main road we all set at one dhaba, the time was 10:30 PM. We all had dinner there. Although there was nnot much food variety available and not food was not hygienic too, but I was so hungry that I had 5 chapati. Two locals were also sitting there and having food. They were taking about everything right from village girls to prime minister of india. Oe of them said, “ you know bear owners are staying in our village”.
I got the information so at 11:30 Pm we all planed to do raid at 12:30 AM. Forest officers were very enthusiast now as they have received ta good lecture from CWLW. We waited for an hour, in the meantime we have arranged one 407 vehicle for transporting the bears. Vehicle reached at 3:30 AAM. I ranger and 3 forest guard left to the location we were sitting on a highway from midnight, this was first time when I spent my whole night on road.
5 tents were there in a big fields. All of them were in deep sleep. I requested one of the forest guard to call one of the Kalandar. Basheer came near to me. Ranger asked, ‘Bhaloo ke kagaz dikhao”. He called other Kalandars too, all of them had shown the copy of their ownership certificates. Ranger was not interested in the raid from begging so he said to me, “they all have ownership certificate so we cant arrest them”. I tried to explain him “sir first they are supposed to carry certificates in original and second he is showing us certificate issued by the name of basher, but how do we know he is basher, there is no photo on the license”. I asked basher to show his voting card, he was not able to show that. So atlast I convinced the ranger to arrest all of them.
In all this we have wasted three hours, and villagers started coming. Actually they were supporting Kalandars, and it is not wrong also as they don’t know the real picture of illegal wildlife trade happening behind this bear dance picture, for them Kalandars are poor people who earn money from street shows and we are harassing them. I have to lead the team now, so I gave duty to two forest guard to manage the crowd. We started loading the bears in truck, Kalandar ladies started crying as today was Ed. I was also bit moved after seeing this, is it correct what I am doing, I am not King Ashoka, but you can’t see ladies and children crying. Especially children they were crying like anything, their fathers were arrested in front of their eyes on Ed, they must be expecting some Edi (Money given to children on Ed) today, they have not seen in their wildest dream that their father will be arrested on Ed. Then I thought I am just doing my duty, if police starts thinking in the same way then no criminals will be arrested. We left the location within next half an hour. We reached Nandanvan, Raipur Zoo at 1:30 PM. We told Kalandars to tie all the bears behind the main office building. We gave them some bread with milk.
Me and ranger started working on the paper work for moving the bears from Raipur to Agra. At 3:30 PM we went back to the Raipur court for taking a court order to shift the bears. Judge has already left the court and next day was Sunday so we have to wait for next two days. But we have already given the application as according to the law we have to submit an application within 24 hrs. I decided to shift to a hotel then and take rset.
Sunday morning I started early morning as I wanted to feed bears myself. I took a bus to nandanvan, bus dropped me to the main road, from there I walked 3km to reach the zoo. At 9:00 Am I reached the zoo. Because of Sunday ranger was not there so I directly went to meet the Kalandars, they have already given the food to the bears. I just played with bears for 15-20 min, this was the first time I was touching the bears, I had never seen bears so closely. I took some photos with my Kodak easy share camera, which I bought in 595/- Rs during my MSC field orientation work.
Then I decided to take a tour of the zoo. There were 6 common leopards in the zoo, when I asked the keeper about the source of leopards. He said all these leopards were rescued from conflict situation and all of them are man eater. I really felt bad about the leopards as they all were in small cages. Leopards are the most suffered animals because of conflict, they gets life imprisonment for entering once in the human settlement. Then I saw a tiger, its paw was half cut, when I asked about it to the keeper. He told me the story that this tiger was rescued from Panna Tiger Reserve, when we reached there to rescue its leg was trapped in the leg hold trap, during the rescue we it lost half paw. These were some of my observations about wildlife in the zoo, I also observed some other things which I would like to share with you. During my trip I saw so many couples in objectionable positions in the zoo, some were sitting on a bench behind the tiger enclosure, some were sitting behind the canteen, some were near the hyaena enclosure. Before this I had seen two more zoos one in Delhi and on in Lucknow, now big part of their income comes from these couples. The most important thing is these people even don’t feel shame, they will do everything without bothering about the movement happening near them. After giving evening food to the bears I left to Raipur. I reached to the hotel at 7:30 Pm.
Next day I reached court early morning, ranger was already there with government advocate. 1:00 PM was our hearing time, but I thought it will be better to talk and explain the issue to judge in advance. Although government advocate was with us all the time, but he was not at all trained to fight wildlife cases, even he was not aware of the Wildlife Protection Act (1972). Before coming to the hearing he bought a small 50/- Rs manual on WPA from nearest stationary shop. Now I know why the conviction rate of is less than 1% in wildlife crime cases. At 2:30 PM judge called us, he hardly gave us 10 min I explained him that these rescued bears are not in healthy condition and for the better care of these bears they have to be shifted to Agra Bear Rescue centre. He was confused or you can say he was not interested in the case, with three hour we received the letter for shifting the bears to ABRF.
My next aim was to arrange the vehicle for shifting the bears. We have arranged a 407 for transporting the bears. Next day early morning I reached to the Nandan Van zoo. Because the Kalandars had been shifted to Raipur jail, so one night before forest guards were shifted four bears to transportation cages, but one bear was in a leopard enclosure. The bear in the enclosure was an ferocious one, it was a challenge for all of us to shift the bear to transport cage from the enclosure. After trying all possible inhumane methods by the forest officials, I decided to enter in the enclosure. Although I was also very afraid as this was the first time when I was handling a bear in such situation, but I was not showing my fear to any forest officials or even to bear, because once a Kalandar told me that if you show your fear to bear then bear will surely try to dominant you. Bear was sitting in a corner with long think plastic rope coming out of its nose. I had seen how Kalandars handle bears before, but now I can say seeing and doing is different especially in case of bear it is really different they are the most unpredictable animals. Already so many people have pulled the rope from outside, even little blood was coming out of the nose, this has made the bear more aggressive, so I decided that I wouldn’t pull the rope, first I will try to pet the bear. I reached near the bear and in first chance itself bear attacked on me, and I have lost my favorite shirt, my first branded shirt, it was not only shirt I also got a scratch mark on the chest…for which later on I have to give several explanations to my parents. I tried again, and same thing happened bear was not even giving me a chance to reach to the rope. But like a hindi films third time got success and the rope was in my hand, I set near the bear and pet her for 20 minutes. I gave some honey to the bear, and then we made a continuous line of honey from the leopard enclosure to the transporting cage, we have kept the transportation cage at the entrance of the enclosure. Both the gates of the cage were open I brought the bear slowly in the cage and came out of the cage from the other door. At last the bear was in transportation cage.
