Women forest guides garnering roaring success in tiger reserves
| Date :30-May-2019 |
Chandrapur Bureau:
With women making forays into different fields and also excelling in them, they have just made another addition to the list. Now, women in Maharashtra are also serving as forest guides in tiger reserves, an area dominated by men until now. So now, next time you visit a forest, there is every likelihood that you will get a taste of this change with a female guide steering your tour through the narrow routes of the jungle and updating you with all the jungle trivia. Maharashtra has six tiger reserves namely Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR), Melghat, Bor, Pench, Navegaon-Nagzira and Sahyadri.
A team of women guides from Melghat Tiger Reserve.
Now, TATR, Melgaht and Pench reserves have female guides. While Melghat has 30 women guides, Pench has12 and TATR has 5. This was informed by State Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar in a meeting of the Tiger Reserve Conservation Board recently. The women residing in villages around forest areas are being provided specific training and given an opportunity to serve as forest guides as an attempt towards making them financially independent.
The women are guided on how to engage the tourists during the jungle tour with important and interesting information regarding the wild, being polite with the tourists, giving information about the flora and fauna etc. Sharing her joy while working as a forest guide, P A Borje said, “The connect formed with every family visiting the forest is something invaluable. Many times tourists want to take selfies with us and make us feel like their friend. And we, the guides and drivers are overjoyed on seeing the excitement of the tourists when they spot a tiger or a leopard.” The tourists also bid adieu wishing more power to these women who are becoming a conduit between the jungles and the outer world.