Friends of Ranthambore

WWF-India has been working for quite a few years now with people around Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. It has been helping wean people of marginal communities from depending on forest resources. There have been many positive results with many villagers willing to walk with WWF-India to conserve Ranthambore's forests.

A large number of people enter Ranthambore National park every day, mainly for religious purposes.

Outside the park a large no: of people are dependant on it mainly for fuel wood. Seen here is a view in Dungri village, Khandar Tehsil, Sawai Madhopur District.

Camel carts on a road adjoining the park boundaries.

A women's self help group in Dungri village, Khandar Tehsil, Sawai Madhopur District. The group makes paper bags from used newspaper and sells it to newarby market. This way they save some money to use for domestic purpose. Earlier they used to cut fuelwood from forest and sell it to make money. Also, they are planning to buy subsidised LPG cooking stoves and cylinders with the money they make from the paper bags. Currently they use fuelwood for their fuel needs.

A beaming Guddi Yogi, a leading contributor to this self-help group proudly shows off her work.

Noori has been among the ones to encourage her fellow villagers to start the alternative livelihood.

A group of enthusiastic villagers at Dungri Village.

Lima Rosalind, has been heading the livelihood project of WWF-India in Sawai Madhopur District for a long time now. Here she is with Guddi Yogi, a self-help group member of Dungri Village.

A family that wants to shift to horticulture from agriculture to prevent crop depradation. WWF-India will be helping these villagers to fence their farm land till the trees are mature and can withstand crop raids by wild herbivores.

WWF-India staff inspecting a farmland whose owners are being helped.

The WWF-India team visiting the field. From left: Diwakar Sharma, Ameen Ahmed, Sukeerti, Pradeep Singh. In the back ground are the forests of Sawai Mansingh Wildlife Sanctuary.

With temperatures around 45 degree centigrade, an effective way to prevent sun stroke is to cover one self from head to toe and leave little for sun to directly sap the heat.

The 'Khush Haar' women's self help group at Falodi village in Sawai Madhopur District is doing excellent work again. These women were also earlier dependant on the forests of Ranthambore Tiger Reserve adjoining their village. Now they make cloth bags, small mats, table clothes, cushion covers and ropes which are marketed to tourists visiting Sawai Madhopur Town. Seen above is Begum, a leading member of the group.

Begum at work

Begum, proudly displaying fruits of her hard work.

Another product by the self-help group of Falodi village.

Of Ranthambore's Monitor Lizards and Crocodiles

Apart from tigers and birds, there are many things that can be seen with ease in summer in Ranthambore National Park. Like, Crocodiles and Monitor Lizards. Below are some images of the same.

Some birds of Ranthambore

Although Ranthambore National Park is known world over for its wild tigers, the park is also a haven for birds. Many of the birds here can be seen and photographed from close distances. This is particularly true in summers around water holes.

Rolling for love...or death?

Black Drongos (Dicrurus macrocercus) are known for their pugnacity. I have seen them scare away all and sundry who approach their nests, once even a Brahminy Kite. But I never knew they were actually serious about fighting till I bumped into this pair last week, right in the middle of a game road in Ranthambore National Park.

We observed them from our rented Gypsy for nearly 6 minutes. All along, these two birds had locked their beaks, were rolling over and over and screaming at the top of their voice.

Many safari vehicles had to take a detour off the game road as these determined birds refused to budge.

I though this was a very intense battle, the likes of which I have rarely witnessed in birds of the same species.

We had to leave the place as I had non-birders in my vehicle. But at that point I some how felt that one of them might have been been fatally wounded by the other. This was until I forwarded the above picture series to different emailing groups.

Is this war...or love?

Well-known birder Shyamal.L, who is the person behind the wonderful software Birdspot forwarded me a note from the Journal of Bombay Natural History Society (JBNHS). I am reproducing the same below...

Shukkur,EAA & Joseph,KJ (1978). "Breeding biology of the Black Drongo". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 75 (4): 1212-1226.

"... signs of courtship. Such pairs indulge in duetting and vigorous pursuit flights. ...... A nesting pair indulges in vigorous courtship activities. Such birds chase each other in flight and bring their bills and wings into contact as though in sham fight. In the course of this their wings get interlocked and the pair may fall to the ground. "

This is more weirder than the acts of them fighting intense duels for someone from the opposite sex. There is no way I can tell if the birds involved in the action I captured were of the different sex. If they were, then boy, these are not only fighters but some real 'bloody' love making birds as well!