“There, there is a Rhino! Can you see it?” Following his pointed finger, I stared into the extensive grassland and noticed two Cattle Egrets floating on top of the grass, enjoying their free joy ride on an invisible moving cart. The invisible cart turned visible as it slowly moved onto the shorter grassland patch and raised it’s one horn, striking it’s iconic pose, reminding us how it’s the flagship species of this Jaldapara National Park.
“How far is your point from here Ma’am?”
The forest guard’s question suddenly brought me back from my trail of thoughts and I checked in Locus, the mobile based GPS application. “500m in this direction!” I pointed and the fear creeped into all of us immediately.
The camera point is approximately at the location, the Rhinoceros is grazing right now. We all were aware of how aggressive these herbivores are and it is utter stupidity, to knowingly go near a Rhino, especially on foot. Before starting our field work, everyone had repeatedly warned us about all the risks of working in this landscape which was filled with three megaherbivores – Indian Elephant, Gaur (commonly known as Indian Bison) and ofcourse this Greater One-horned Rhinoceros, who all are notoriously violent in nature. Contrary to common misconception, these wild mega-herbivores do not like humans coming in close proximity to them. They invariably will charge and also might kill.
So, I was standing there, my sane mind telling me not to take unnecessary risk and return for this point on some other day. We had already deployed 9 camera points from morning and it was the last one in that forest range.I looked at my teammates to find the same indecisive expression on their faces.
To my surprise, the forest guard said “Lets go! Let’s do this!”
Him being the local and the more experienced one among us for field in this landscape, it brought back some confidence in me and I asked “But what will we do if the rhino charges us?”
So, the plan was, we will walk through the patch of tall grassland, which extends from there upto approximately 300m, and after reaching the shorter grassland patch we will scan for the rhino again, and then plan accordingly - whether to go ahead or run for life!
Even though, this sounds very comical now, it somehow sounded sensible and doable to me back then.
So, the team of enthusiastic wildlifers and forest guards were eager to carry on with the adventure for the day. We were standing on a high woodland and before embarking on our journey through the maze of tall grass, we again scanned one last time,
for animals or any movement among the grassland to ensure our safe passage through.
As soon as we entered the grassland, there was absolutely no visibility and no scope of knowing if even an enormous elephant is standing few meters away from us. We knew, we only have limited risk-free time before encountering another wildlife. Hence, without wasting further time, we three researchers and two forest guards, started running down the narrow mud trails of the grassland.
The grass on both sides stood tall, twice my height, and I realised these trails were actually paths created by elephants and rhinos themselves. The entire mud trail was patterned with footprints of these megaherbivores. My feet looked so tiny as I stepped over those gigantic foot holes on the mud. There were multiple crisscross of these mud trails, where the dense grassland was parting neatly. It felt like someone has run a huge comb haphazardly through the unkempt head of grasses. My heart was skipping a beat everytime we were passing by a junction of trails and I looked anxiously on both sides, to check for a gigantic figure awaiting our arrival. The path was not short but the mixture of uncertainty, anxiousness, variety and vibrancy on the trail kept our minds distracted. One minute I was knee deep inside mud and the next minute I was washing off that mud as I crossed through streams. I still remember how the five of us were so thrilled and laughing our way through these difficulties, enthralled with the joy of such kind of field work.
Finally, we crossed the long grass and emerged into the shorter grassland patch and paused to scan for the rhino and other animals.
The vast green carpet spread infinitely beneath the clouded grey sky. A pleasant cool breeze was blowing and tiny droplets started whizzing along with the wind. The rain, the grey clouded sky against the greenery magically enhanced the aesthetics of the landscape. We all knew how rain was just adding more difficulty on our already risky venture but there were five broad smiles spreading across our faces, devouring the raw beauty of nature. Maybe it is only human to feel such emotions of pleasure in moments like these.
We knew, even if we can’t get the sight of the rhino anymore, it won’t be far away and so we rushed to our camera location. The two forest guards immediately took their positions facing in opposite directions with their loaded guns, while we three without any hesitation started our work. Within minutes, we deployed the camera, calibrated it, sampled the vegetation around and it’s a wrap!
We all returned safely with broad grins and a memory of a thrilling experience to hold on to. As we climbed back onto the high woodland, the forest guard laughingly confessed that it was also first time for him that he walked in this grassland and he was equally excited to have this experience! I stared at him with shock when the reality hit me how I laid my confidence in his plan. I kept on wondering later whether I would have gone ahead if I knew this before. Or, was the false truth, only a push that me and my teammates needed. Was the plan an actually calculated measure or was it an impulsive risky choice? I will leave it for the readers to make the judgement.
But well, as my team returned safely to our basecamp, with our completed list of tasks for the day, we were happily discussing the pleasure of exploring the pristine untouched beauty of the grassland in its own way.
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