Why locals gets menials job in Hotel Industry.

This is a big question. Many people complaint about this but hardly ever try to understand it. In-fact one cant understand it until you face it. Same question I asked the local Hoteliers and one of them told me the truth. I agree with him and I also have the same opinion about them. Hoteliers claim that 70% of their staff is local. Yes it will be because 70% jobs of total staff strength are always goes to lower staff that comes under House Keeping, Kitchen and Restaurant-Room Service. (Waiter, Kitchen helpers, sweepers Gardner's,watchman etc.) Rarely locals are employed on managerial posts.
Major complaint against the staff is about their habit of holiday. A simple function at home is more important for them than their job. Other thing is their loyalty. They never respect their own work. That's the reason for complaints in House keeping and Restaurant. Never follows the working guidelines. Booze and smoking are hard to give away.
A hotelier wants smooth operation of services at his place. He doesn't wants any hassle in his business. Management wants staff to be present on all working days except their weekly off day. 
So in nutshell I want to say that people show lots of sympathy with the villagers and think they are very simple and honest people while the reality is altogether different. One can realise it only by facing them. 

Tigers in Buffer zone of Bandhavgarh National Park

A part of sky on eastern horizon was bright blue this morning. I thought this could be a good day to explore the Buffer Zone area of Bandhavgarh National Park. Tala village was still a sleep. No reason for them to be up. Most of activities in Tala village dies on 1st july morning. Dhaba's dont open in the morning and neither the samoasa's are fried till 0930 - 10.00  in the morning. After passing the park road junction on main road I saw a glimpse of something yellow behind the bush. I said to myself that it can't be here so to clear my doubts I just turned left and to my surprise surprise, yes he was there. Quickly I lift the camera took a picture to move on.
Jungle has become lush green. Every pit in the jungle has turned in to a perfect water hole. Spotted Deer are all scattered here and there as they don't have to face any competition for food for few months.  I heard some alarm calls between Siddhbaba and Thauni. If it's not a leopard that this could be Vijya, Bamera or Mukunda male. Spotted deer , Langur monkey and Muntjac calls were confirming the presence of a predator. I left after I heard calls moving further away. Thauni meadow has turned in to a good habitat in the monsoon. We saw not one or two but three male Spotted Deer preaching. They are all in rut.  
Bhadrashila pool has attracted lot of birds in the monsoon. Black Ibis must be nesting near by as they are collecting nest material from the pool bank. 
Badhaini hill looks very close to Mahaman village. This village comes under buffer zone. Village dogs are chasing doves and other birds in the field. Some boys are playing near tamarind tree. there is no sign of any tiger movement here. No pugmarks but a tiger is standing on a platform.
I just went to Khitauli and believe it or not I photographed another Tiger there.
So when you will see these pictures you will realise that these are the Tigers we see at present in Buffer zone and they are there all the time.

e

  

Why we complaint about our Broadband services??

In Tala village we are always the first to complain about Broadband services provided by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, a Govt of India owned company. Sometimes we have to send the email to highest authority in the state and believe it or not it works. I have no idea whether this email reaches to concerned person or not but I often get a phone call from his office asking about our Broadband. Again I have n idea whether he knows the importance of this broadband in this village or not but for the locals living here it has become an important part of their livelihood.

Let me tell you first about Tala village.

Tala is situated near main entrance gate of Bandhavgarh National Park and this gate got it's name Tala only becauseit's in close vicinty of Tala village.

Why Broadband is so Important here??

100 % population of Tala village survives on jobs created by Tourism Industry. Hoteliers needs Broadband for all their reservations and communication with their clients and agents and mainly for booking of Online Park entry. Guides, Drivers and Tourists uses broadband to look on Facebook or some other site for the latest news of the park. Instead of asking 50 different people about the park news it's quicker to look at Facebook or on some other social site about Tiger sightings of the day. Some people or so obsessed that they put the picture within an hour coming out of the park.

 Forest department does all his Park entries online so without broadband sometimes park opens late or tourists looses their valuable time waiting at booking window. Every minute waiting at the gate cost Rs 15.54 for an Indian and for foreigner it's Rs 25.83. If broadband services are out of order in the evening then many tourists can,t get their entry online and they lose out the morning safari some time.

Many people like me are 100% dependent on Broadband for our survival. I need to send my pictures to different agencies and Kay my wife updates Bandhavgarh Diary every day on tigernation.org. For us Broadband has become an essential thing in our life. It's like an office key. Without Broadband our office doesn't get open and we looses day's work.

I will say that our country did not invented this technology but as far as the users are concerns they are growing day by day. We are running this system on a borrowed technology in this country. We may have the latest equipments but we are failed to make a good use of them.

Why and where we are lacking in it??

We are lacking because of our mentality of Chalta he. Our technicians don't check the system regularly. They know about the fault in their own office only when someone complaints. It's laziness only because of the Job Security.

I often wonder that how come a person becomes more efficient while working in private company??

 Because there they are answerable to someone.

So they should be here. Are they not??

Why we could not develop that culture in our Govt departments??

I can't answer this question. I am failed to understand the mentality of these people.

 Probably this country has produced too many white collared workers??

So the internet in village Tala today (31st July 2012)is still out of order since last 26 hours.

Leh Laddakh and Dharamshala.

I left Tala in mid June to lead a Tour of Photographers visiting Leh Laddakh. I was really nervous about this tour as how my body will cope with this high altitude situation. You don't want to be sick while leading a tour.
On our first day in Delhi we visited Jama Masjid. Group had some really nice pictures from that visit. Other places that were visited in Delhi were spice market, Humayun's Tomb,Lotus Temple and a Shanti town for some nice colourful doors and wall paintings.
Flight to Leh gives you an idea about the topography of the area. Snow capped mountain peak and snaky village trails looks nice from that height.
We stayed at Hotel Mansarovar. Free WI FI in reception area was a great relief for many guests staying there. Taste wise food was always good but sometimes they serve a pretty odd menu. many of the small Hotels in India are managed by non-professionals who had no idea of anything related to Catering and Housekeeping. Owner at Mansarovar is very helpful and courteous gentleman. He helped us a lot even some time going out of his way. That's the beauty of these people. While camping once we were served Omelet with Pan cake and no Toast or bread. Although this was a different caterer. When you are camping just don't go to look in to the kitchen or the place where they wash utensils.

One of our friend told us that he stopped his tour to Laddakh only because the services were not up to the standard or he was cheated for every service. We had the same problem. We should have had the cars for our entire trip means group could use cars for entire day but a simple de tour may cost you extra half day charge if you are not careful. It was very frustrating. I will suggest people to do some homework on Google and support the local people who provide accommodation in their houses. I think that accommodation will be better than camping. these houses have electricity so easy to charge your batteries. I did this while camping and offered them Rs 50 for each camera and laptop battery and twenty for mobile phone. That was a fantastic arrangement at Hemis and Kurzok village. I am always in favor to support the locals in Tourism.With more support they will be able to provide better facilities to you on your next visit. In Ladakh it's better to have a solar panel for charging your battery. In-fact taxi drivers can do this easily for extra income if they fit a solar panel at car roof and batteries are charged while travelling. 

Most of the Hotels, except Mansarovar in Leh, I stayed were run by most inefficient owners. I always found Housekeeping and service in dining hall little poor. 
When you are visiting these monasteries keep looking for wall paintings. They are superb.
In one of the monastery when me and Jeremy were photographing prayer none of our camera could record the video. God knows what mistake we were doing??  It happened with me twice.
After Ladakh we went to Dharamshala to see His Holiness Dalai Lama's birthday celebration. None of the tourists were allowed to go with camera or any other electronic gadget. I applied for photographers pass. They asked me to show my published work? It was difficult. 

His Holiness Dalai Lama shook hand with every person who came across to him that day. I also got the chance.  
I should have wrote my diary everyday but I was never in a good mood of doing so due to my physical fitness. I was always in pain and worried about my own health. I had to go to doctor thrice in this tour. Now all those things are in my head but words are not coming through. Sorry for that.  


    

Shaki aka Bokha

Shaki aka Bokha was first sighted on 11th January 2003 in the company of K2 called Juhi. That day I was not in the park. Kay saw him at Kadipaani. When they saw these two tigers coming out on road this male looked very surprised and shocked in presence of a vehicle. Neither Kay nor guide Manjeet knew this Tiger. They both decided to give him a wide berth so he doesn't disappear so quickly. They watched him from a very close quarter for more than an hour. Picture from that sighting still hangs in Manjeet's house.
Since then he started visiting this area. First time when he was seen he came in in pursue of following a female means he must have been strong enough to ward off other challenges. We reckon he was minimum 5 years old at that time. He was similar age to Sundar aka B2. 
He always had a little limp in one of his feet and he never had right upper canine. He preferred to walk on soft part of the road so either in middle of the road or on side of the road where soft dirt gets collected.

Jobi and Mukunda must have pressurised him initially to move out of his territory. He moved towards Bhadrashila and later in Khitauli zone behind Garhpuri but lack of prey brought him back to his old area. Remember in old age if they gets a chance they prefer to move in their own area from where they started their territory. It's not a thumb rule but often they are found there when they are old and see their end. He was looking for soft prey there but never intended to kill human as prey. Two people who got killed in that area were not eaten by the Tiger. None of them were chased/stalked and attacked by a Tiger. They both were an accident. Geeta Bai w/o Tilak Raj was attacked while she was collecting Tendu Disopyros melanoxylon leaves and Jamuna s/o Lakshman was attacked while grazing his cattle. None of the these two people were stalked by Tiger. 
Shaki aka Bokha died his natural death. He had some fight with some other Tiger. He knew that he is not strong enough to defeat his opponent so he must have decided to ran away that's why he got these superficial wounds on his right rump.

         He was suffering with arthritis, septicemia, infections from his injuries and Jaundice were major cause of his death. His organs must have stopped working.He died to a slow death. Food which he ate 2 days back did not moved out of his stomach.

 In this heat he must have been feeling very hot and dehydrated that's why he came to a stream, cooled off and crunched his thirst before saying final Good Bye to this world.

Prey base,

Some very immature wildlifer challanged my observation about prey base in Tala range. He says that he saw hundreds of Deer in Chakradhara and Rajbehra meadow. In his opinion Prey base is more than enough for the Tigers in Tala Range.
Now the question arises that if there is enough prey then why this tigress dont stay in Chakradhara as Sita or Pyari use to do?? Similarly why Jaya is not seen in Rajbehra??
This morning Shashi was seen coming back in Tala range. Some people saw him near Siddh baba. Later tourists of Tala zone saw him near Jamuniya.
Few weeks before he was seen  eating a cattle behind Tala village. Has he done the same again or he was looking for a company with Nalini??
Danbar Brander has written about cattle kill in his book Wild animals in central india.
" The great mass of Tigers are partly cattle killers and partly game eaters, but some animals living in forests such as are found in Mandla and Balaghat, where game is very abundant, hardly ever kill cattle. On the other hand many parts of the province now contain little or no game, and in such places the Tiger lives on nothing but cattle , and follows the herds about as these are shifted for water and grazing. In tracts of this nature tigers are particularly liable to develop in to man eaters."
I will say that this statement tell us the true story of Bandhavgarh. The reason for cattle lifting is very much proved here.
Now what we are seeing in Chakradhara and Rajbehra is the case of No Tiger in that area. If you see these herds minutely then you will find that more than 60% population of Spotted Deer is of  about 6 months old. Means fawn born after October 2011have increased the population. Survival rate of these fawns was almost 100% due to constant absence of all predators. We have not seen Jackal in Chakradhara meadow since last 2 season. And one should forget about Dhole, Wolf and Leopard in Chakradhara meadow. 

Yoshila lost her third cub.

This is the case of high tiger density and poor prey base in the area. She lost her second cub on 12th March 2012 night on the dispute over a cattle kill and this one got killed on a Sambar kill on 9th May.
My brother Hariom was in the park that morning and he brought the news that a tiger cub is found dead in Sukhi Patiya area. He photographed a cub on 7th evening. Next day he photographed Blue Eyed. Some tourist saw a Tiger sitting behind the bamboo, barely they could see some stripes, Forest labour checked and they saw a Tiger sitting so they ran for their life. 
On 12th Morning Elephant people found an carcass, half of the body was already eaten, remaining body fermented due to heat. It was difficult to find any stripe for identification. Maggots were dropping. they were already about a cm long. 

Yoshila had three cubs in her first litter. One female and two male. Female disappeared in last monsoon, one male got killed in March and second one in May. So this is what happens in nature.