The Adventure Trail

In the first week of May,when Milind and Arati Joshi left for the Tadoba Andhari Forest with students of their Exponent tuition classes,they had no inkling of the adventure that lay ahead. Describing the experience as one of the most scariest of her lives,Arati Joshi recounts how her group’s vehicle broke down on a tiger and bear trail. “This was our third trip to Tadoba. We have been to other reserves and forest parks too. But never before have I felt so scared and worried,” she says.

On May 4,the group was divided into two – the boys piled into one jeep and the girls,with Arati being the eldest,into the other jeep. “We headed into the park from the Moharli gate. It is routine to leave at 6 am and be back by 10.30 am. Usually,40 vehicles enter the park on any given day,out of which 27 enter from Moharli Gate,” she says,adding,“Six of us got into one Gypsy but at 7.15 am,the vehicle broke down and refused to start. The guide was not provided with a walkie-talkie. Mobile phones have no coverage there so we had no way of communicating for help.” The next few hours proved to be an ordeal for Joshi and the young girls. Joshi took to the wheel,while the others,along with the guide,pushed the jeep. This they did for almost two kms after which they decided to leave the car and continue walking on.

“We could see tiger and bear pugmarks on the path we were walking on. Later,we learnt that a group even sighted a tigress with her cub at a small waterhole which we crossed. A panther too was spotted on a tree in our path. We were most worried about sloth bears. If a bear attacks,there’s no guarantee that you will survive. We were fortunate that this happened in the morning and not in the evening because after dark,walking through the park would be even more dangerous,” Joshi says as she remembers the fear that gripped them.

“In national parks,no one other than the guide is supposed to alight from the vehicle as it can prove to be very dangerous,and here we were forced to walk for 7-8 km! The guides should be equipped with a communicative device and a noise-making device to at least scare an animal if it comes close to attacking the group,” she says.

After trudging through the park,the group reached a machan where they stopped. They sat around a tree,back-to-back,to keep a watch for animals. “Luckily for us,there are two villages still to be relocated from the park. A villager passed us on his motorcycle,enquired what we were doing and told us how unsafe our situation was. He had a mobile phone but he had to climb a tree to get coverage. We then managed to contact the resort and another vehicle was sent for us,” Joshi says.

In the meantime,her husband’s group frantically waited at the gate of the resort. “My son even cried as it was past 11.30 am and we weren’t back,” Joshi says. They did take up the issue with the forest officials later but were unhappy with their response. “They didn’t admit to the seriousness of the issue and simply said that nothing happens,” she adds,still hoping that measures will be adopted to avoid such instances.