This was contributed by Madhu Chawla for the May 2012 edition of our club newsletter.
It was a foggy, cold, chilling winter morning. I felt as if my skin was cracking and bones were breaking. All of a sudden, I was sweating. You must be thinking, is she crazy, how can one sweat in a winter morning. I was sweating because I was standing right in front of a giant Royal Bengal Tiger. Friends, that was a dream!
It was on the 1st of January, 2005 and I had planned a trip with four of my friends to Jim Corbett Park. It was for the very first time I was about to visit this famous wildlife sanctuary located in Uttarakhand on the banks of the river Ramganga. I was all excited and could not help but dream about the exotic creatures I was going see in reality.
The road from Ramgarh to Jim Corbett is a beautiful stretch. Wide roads with huge tall trees on both the sides almost touching each other, streams of water flowing here and there on the bed of white pebbles were a treat for the eyes.
We had booked the innermost forest house 'Dhikala' for our stay. When we reached, it was evening and as soon as we got down from the car, the lights went off. Suddenly we saw a lantern flying in the air, actually the watchman of the forest house was carrying it for us.
We went to the cafeteria which was huge and open. I was sipping my coffee and I felt something rubbing against my skin. I turned and found a deer standing. One after another, there were several deers and sambhars surrounding us and having food from our hands. I was so happy for having my dinner with the esteemed residents of Jim Corbett.
One of my friends was a professional photographer and we had booked Elephant Safari so that he could take pictures from a height of all the animals, especially the beautiful tiger. But we were not that lucky,it started drizzling and elephant safari had to be cancelled. The alternative was Open Jeep safari. All we could see was deer, wild boars, monkeys, foxes but not a tiger. Disappointingly, we came back to Delhi.
After a few days of my return, there was news about a tiger killing the watchman of Dhikala and also news about numerous tiger killings. This made me to think as why the man and beast are killing each other. Would our kids ever get to see these beautiful creatures? We would only be showing them on books or on the internet and if we are fortunate a Spielberg might make a blockbuster and we would be happily showing them and telling these beautiful creatures once existed and we greedy humans killed them for our selfish motives.
Friends, we must stand and express ourselves to save our wildlife. And to express ourselves, we must learn to communicate effectively. Toastmasters help us to learn that effective communication. I am proud to be a Toastmaster
