Man vs. Wild

Hi I am Junaib. I am nine years old and live with my parents in a small village of Chattisgarh. From my early childhood, I wanted to visit ‘Jungle’ (forest) which is very close to my village. Yesterday, when I was going to school I saw few men bringing something like deer’s horns from Jungle. “How come it is possible? How can anybody stay in Jungle? Because there is ‘sher- jungle ka raja’ (Lion- The King of forest)”, I asked my friend, Salima. She laughed and replied, no darling, my dad says now there is nothing left in this ‘jungle’ ‘Sivaye ghass-phus ke’ (except few plants). “You mean there is no lion in the Jungle” I said. “Yes, no lion, no tiger, even deers are hardly seen” she replied.

Amazing that means now I can go to Jungle. I came to home and requested my mother to allow me to visit Jungle because Salima’s dad says there is nothing left in jungle ‘Sivaye ghass-phus ke’ (except few plants). My mum allowed me to visit jungle with my uncle who works in the forest department as a guide.

Next morning, I woke up at 6.00 in the morning. My uncle came at 9.00 to pick me up. I was very excited but for him, it was a routine work, showing wild animals to the tourists. He works tirelessly 15 hours a day and is familiar with each and every corner of the forest. My mother packed some ‘puris’ and fruits for us but I wanted to cook fresh rabbit in jungle as I feel it would add to the charm of forest visit and also because I never tasted rabbit and I heard that it is very yummy.. But when I told this to my uncle, he laughed and said “you know only few lucky tourists could have glimpse of rabbit in forest, you can see them once in a month and that too, if you are lucky. So forget about cooking rabbit and don’t you know that rabbit is an endangered animal, you can’t kill it”

“Hmmm! really’ I replied and we headed towards jungle. We sat on elephant back and started our journey to beautiful green dream place. Even at 2.00 we were able to see couple of deers and few elephants enjoying their morning shower on the bank of river. I found it totally different from whatever I read about forest in my school books and whatever I heard from my mum in her stories. Forget about rabbit, that I was planning to cook, I didn’t even see deers properly. Whenever we tried to go closer to the herd of deers or to some ducks, they ran away. I asked my uncle “Why they are afraid of us? I want to touch them; I want to show my love for them”. He replied, “Because they are afraid of humans’. “But, why, do you know uncle, I was afraid of lion that is why I didn’t visit this jungle before because there were lions. Am I as dangerous as lion”, I said. “No child, man is more dangerous than lion”, he replied. “Oh! really, Is this the reason all lions have disappeared. Man has killed them”. He said “Perhaps, yes”.

I came back with tears in my eyes. I wanted to see different jungle that I had read in the books and imagine in the stories. I had made a very beautiful image of jungle in my mind.

But now, nothing is left ‘sivaye ghass-phus ke” (except few plants). Oh! no, that means, my children would not even see the “ghass-Phus” (plants). Then, I regret that why I had been to jungle. If I would not have gone to this place, the image of green, beautiful and wild jungle would have remained in my mind. It is very easy to live in the dream world but reality is harsh and painful. I think everybody should visit jungle at least once in their lifetime so that they can understand and feel the pains and pleasures of the animals. Why animals are limited to our school books and our dreams? Visit forest and see how much has been changed and how much man has been changed? Earlier, when we were illiterate, when we were tribals, but animals were part of our life. At that time, man killed animals for food but now man kills animals for pleasure. Earlier, we were needy but now we are greedy. And, it has lead to destruction of our beautiful green and wild jungles that we should have preserved for our future generations. But, it is not over yet. We can save “Ghass-Phus” at least. Yes, I will save it and wouldn’t let anybody kill these trees and even small plants because these plants somewhere hold the hope of bringing back our wildlife. I will not let anybody destroy this green cover that is home of our precious wildlife. “If I can’t bring back ‘raja’ (lion) to the jungle, I can at least protect his family.”

By Shilpy Arora