Nearly 150 forest guides from Kanha and Bandhavgarh national parks in Madhya Pradesh are fearing the financial strain they would face during the upcoming monsoon break of these reserves from July 1 when they desperately look for alternate means of livelihood.
"We have a monthly salary of Rs 7,500 and during the three month break we have to live on what we earned through the year," says Rajesh Dwivedi, a senior guide at Bandhavgarh National Park.
"I have an experience of over 12 years in the park but my condition remains the same. All the guides dread this three-month break when the parks shut," says Dwivedi.
He says that tourism is their main source of livelihood and when the parks shut down during monsoon it just increases their financial difficulties.
"Whatever we save through the year gets spent during these three months, we are left with nothing to plan future of our children," he says.
Ramesh Dhuve, another guide at Bandhavgarh national park, also solely depends upon saving from rest of the year for surviving during the break.
"We know the jungle and we love our job as guide but the money we get from here is not enough," says Dhuve, who now he plans to start working for resorts that have come up in the area and leave his job as a guide.
One of the other alternate means the guides look for is temporary migration to nearby cities like Bhopal and Jabalpur but they face difficulty in finding job for a period of three months.
"We can't migrate to work in cities for these three months as no one hires us for such a short period of time," says Rishi Solanki, a guide at Kanha National park.
The authorities, however, say that as they are registered and not regular employees, it isn't their responsibility of take care of them during the three months the parks are closed.
"As they are not our regular employees it isn't our responsibility to give them salary for the months when the park is shut," says J S Chauhan, Field Director, Kanha National Park.
But the guides insist that the authorities should look from their point of view and understand how difficult it gets for them to survive during the monsoon break.
"We work very hard through the year, help officials in taking care of wild animals, informing them of any suspicious activities. We are paid to do that but it is because of our sincerity and hard work that poaching in the jungle has nearly vanished and tiger population is rapidly increasing," says Santhosh Yadav, another guide at Kanha National Park.
"We want authorities to acknowledge our role and think about our condition also during the monsoon break," he adds.
Few guides have an alternate source of income in form of
farming but the land is not very fertile and by end of the day these guides are also not able to meet their needs, says Ajay Kumar, a guide at the Bandhavgarh National Park.
One such guide is Mahesh Singh who turns to farming for these three months but with reduced fertility and low produce, the income from the land is not enough.
"The money we earn through farming can act as a pocket money but not be a substitute to our jobs at the jungle," says Singh.
Even for Singh, who is a senior guide at Bandhavgarh, it is that time of the year when he desperately looks for alternate means of livelihood.
Singh who is the only earning member in a family of six is one of many guards who survives on their saving through the year an the extra money he earns through farming during these three months. He is among the fortunate ones to have extra pocket money but most of the guides solely depend upon their savings from their jobs as guides during the break.
Kanha and Bandhavgarh tiger reserves are two of the most popular national parks in the country. These reserves have an annual tourist intake of over 1,50,000. The guides form the lifeline of the park. They are well acquainted with the forest hence are able to guide the tourists, said a naturist with the Kanha National Park.
Many of these guides grew up inside forest, they recognise the movements and sounds of the animal making their experience unique, says the naturist.
Kanha Tiger Reserve is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh. The lush sal and bamboo forests, grassy meadows and ravines of Kanha provided inspiration to Rudyard Kipling for his famous novel Jungle Book.
Bandhavgarh National Park on the other hand has one of the highest tiger population in the country. The park has a large breeding population of leopards, and various species of deer. There are around 150 guides in both the parks. Kanha national park has around 85 guides and Bandhavgarh national park has 40 guides.
The national parks across the country shuts down from July till September during monsoon and mating season of animals.
During this time census of animals is also carried out. According to the recent census, Madhya Pradesh now has 308 tigers against 257 in 2010.
