Day 1 - Land of the Tiger, India
- Joanne Short
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Here we are in India ready to learn all about ‘The Land of The Tiger’.
Our journey was long - we flew in to the capital of India, New Delhi and then took a shorter flight down to Nagpur, the geographical centre of India. In fact, we drove past a monument called ‘The Zero Mile’ which represents the exact central spot!
We arrived at night and were immediately immersed in the vibrant, busy local colours and life - lots of bustling traffic and horn blowing. It immediately felt like a lot of fun!
We were welcomed at the airport and driven to Silari near to the Pench National Safari park, by our wonderful host for the week Mandar Pingle. Mandar works for the Satpuda Foundation, a conservation organisation who work closely with the communities and schools close to the safari park, helping educate them about the wildlife, especially about living alongside the tigers living in the local forest.
After a fantastic night‘s sleep we were up and running, excited for what was in store for us today.
Our first port of call was the Satpuda Foundation community centre. This is a centre where community resource, wildlife research and education takes place and where visiting staff and guests stay.
We were introduced to other members of the team and we walked around the grounds looking at the native trees and fruits and looking at the small manmade lake that they have constructed. Although only small, it already helps with the local ecology. Because there is a wet and a dry season here the water is collected during the wet season and attracts animals to come and drink in the dry season. It is also used for watering the new trees that they are planting in the grounds around the centre to increase habitat and biodiversity.
Our next port of call was the Gond Community Centre where we learnt all about Gond Art and its history. The word Gond signifies ‘hill people’ due to their preference of inhabiting hilly terrains. Being a nomadic tribe, Gonds often moved from place to place - they are an indigenous people, dispersed widely across parts of India and are one of India’s largest tribal groups. The Gond people have a strong tradition of storytelling, songs and art. Their art is very much based on the amalgamation of plants, people and animals, coexistence art- this is a way of demonstrating how important they are to one another. In their art they depict animals morphing into plants or into other animals - for example a peacock with its tail like a tree or an antelope with snakes for antlers or a fish with bull’s horns. The paintings are beautiful - brightly coloured and highly patterned.
This centre is where the local schools bring their classes to teach the children about their ancestory and where they come from and what their history is.
There is also a museum here telling the story of the tiger and its life cycle, and explaining its importance in the jungle community. This is a way of teaching young people how to respect the wild animals and to teach them the importance of conservation - sometimes this means the children will go home and tell their parents all about it so that they can learn about it too.
After a busy day learning about many new things ourselves, it was time to go back to our accommodation and get some sleep, ready for another exciting day tomorrow.
So today was a new day and we were ready for our next exciting adventure! We were definitely not disappointed!
The excitement started with a short drive through a controlled zone on the edge of the Pench forest which was to take us to Kolitmara village, a tribal Gond village alongside The Pench River. Little did we know that it was on the other side of the river and we were to be rowed across in a big rowing boat style raft, alongside another 6 people plus a motorbike! We were told not to worry at all because the maximum load was 20 people and 3 motorbikes!
The trip across the river was so beautiful and so calm. On one side of the river some local ladies were doing their washing, scrubbing the clothes on a rock and then banging them hard. On the other side we could hear music playing. This weekend is a national holiday and so there are lots of celebrations taking place.
We walked about half a kilometre to the village, carrying John’s painting gear ready for him to embark on his first painting of the trip. After walking around the village to see what was there and what exactly John wanted to include in his painting, we settled on a place with a view across part of the village with lots of people coming and going who would look fantastic in their colourful clothes in his painting.
As soon as we arrived and set up the easel children came to see what was going on. Gradually more and more people were fascinated by us and what we were doing and suddenly John was surrounded by a very interested audience.
He wasn’t put off by all the attention and dug in until he has achieved what he had been aiming for, a painting portraying a Gond Village full of colour and life.
The whole while that John was painting there as a wedding taking place just up the road. The ladies all looked amazing in their incredibly bright and colourful saris. It really added a lot of colour and movement into John,s painting.
After he had finished painting - we had actually run out of time, but John made sure that he had collected as much visual material and ideas to be able to finish the painting in the morning - we were treated to a dance display by a group of children from the local school. This dance group is sponsored by the Satpuda Foundation and did a wonderful display - they all wore yellow costumes because yellow is considered a colour of birth and rejuvenation. In fact yellow can be seen in many shrines in the area and many of the villages have yellow bunting hanged between the buildings.
So after a very busy day of being treated like superstars we had another quiet row back cross the river (no motorbike this time!) The sun was beginning to settle down for the day and the colour of the light was beautifully soft… it was the perfect end to a very full and fun day.
Remember to send in your class questions and we will answer those in the next blog and video, and give your school a name check too!
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