Never before has nature been so equitably cherished and despised. As I was contemplating these words, the robust Ambassador car was negotiating cool breeze and mild drizzle in thirty miles per hour, chase for a Fiat. Its another endangered specimen, in the forest of accelerated breed of new-fangled designed car. Nature has always been a source of wonder and woe, prospect and peril, delight and danger. Nature continues to quench our physiological and poignant thirsts, but we also continue to trample them underfoot.

Located 107 km from Jaipur and 200 km from Delhi at Alwar, Sariska Reserve nestles in a picturesque valley of the Aravalli hills, covering 498 sq. km. It is during the spring, the hills are suffused with myriad colours as scarlet flame of the forest and other flowering trees blossom in affluent profusion. Nature comes to life. Within the bounded 498 sq.km includes predators like leopard, hyena, jungle cat, and jackal apart from the non-predators like majestic peacocks, spotted deers and of course the royal tiger. Nature has been governing space for civilization. But the intriguing questionis the process being reversed, civilization governing the space for nature. If so, its scripting a perilous proposition, from whom are we protecting natureis it mankind? Isnt that paradoxically unkind of mankind?

Theres that rub. But in that rub lies the future. More and more people live on the blurry boundary-line between nature and civilization. As human populations continue to grow and to encroach nature, new versions of this conflict will play out around the globe. The wild animals of Sariska Tiger Reserve show us how it can be managed. More important, the tiger of Sariska show us why it matters.

Our culture unlike foreign currencies is not convertible. Culture, is our second nature. It provides us with a habitat of our own making within the larger context of first nature and its primary manifestations: bounded parks and unbounded forests. Through culture we are continuously creating, and recreating a secondary nature of artificially designed or more or less strongly modified ecosystems.

I hadnt had the chance to explore the natures opulence at Sariska. Thirty years has passed by. I knew I was opaque to this opulence. I was increasingly getting animated. The moment had arrived The driver was prompt in revealing his hidden roleI was lucky. He had mastered the dual role, physically navigating the car (as driver) and mentally navigating the passenger (as guide). I was excited.

Life is so much like nature. It offers surprises. But, that is part of keeping things alive. The balancing act If there were no pains, what good would be the gains? If there were no darkness, what good would be the sunshine? Life comes full circle. Lingering thoughts of life I walked into the balcony of Aravalli hotel, I could see, the people leisurely stretching their body, and enjoying the sporadic unruffled breeze, piercing the lush green lawn in the faade of their houses. The cane chairs in the extended balcony were encircling the glass teapot table. The English newspaper quite archaic in its reporting occupied the tablethe local reporting Hindi newspaper more in demand, was missing.

Life is guided by reasons, and at times by mere emotion. Like life, nature feels elastic in the morning (childhood), overexcited by daytime (adolescent), rigid by evening (middle age) and frustrated by night (old age). Both life and nature fights its ups and downs, tides and ebbs, low and high spirits. Life of nature looks intriguing if observed from different angles and diverse frames; familiar yet mysterious, gorgeous yet shabby, pure yet impureNature and Life are not mutually exclusive, so are Sariska and Tiger.

Splendid ruins scattered in the vicinity of Sariska gave it an added interest. It is believed that Dara Shikoh, heir to the Mughal throne was held captive here. The historic Kankwari Fort inside the Reserve is where the Emperor Aurangzeb once imprisoned his brother Dara Shikoh. A marvelous palace complex built in 1902, with a French pavilion and swimming pool, is now a hotel. I was increasingly getting captivated with my guides richness of commentary.

The junked grill adjacent to the Reserves entrance is where the entry tickets were available. Primarily to protect the officers from being mobbed by the excited visitors in eagerness to get a quick glance of the majestic tigers. The security guard at the entrance gate, hands over a five-page bookletstating the facts and figures of the Reserve, the guidelines that needs to be adhered during the tour inside the vast Reserve of dense forestDont venture into the rough terrains, dont just walk into the gradients of the forest, dont climb those dilapidated mountains, warned the gatekeeper.

The creaky wooden gate opened into a bounded wild space. I was amazed; the plants grew freely with the randomness and unpredictability of life itself. Creepers with tiny sapphire flower scrambled onto a trellis over the ironclad. Magenta bougainvillea clustered around a majestic gulmohar tree, which rose up in a blaze of vermilion flowers. A flock of mynahs bickered over juicy, yellow fruits inside the leaves of a gnarled wild tree.

Sariska Tiger Reserve, for the Indian with scant knowledge got qualified with Bill Clintons visit. The custodians had to literally capture a tiger, and leave it in the visible vicinity of the dignitaries, to get a close glance of the royal tiger. The road leading to the Tiger Reserve is bounded by rocky hills, barren terrains intermittently marked with wild shrubbery. Momentarily, I felt undermined that Sariskas beauty of bounty needs foreign qualification for Indians.

The Sariska wildlife sanctuary was established here in 1955 and taken over under Project Tiger in 1979. Twenty-five years on an uneasy truce reigns. An unfortunate coincident today, just twenty-five tigers roam the greater Sariska ecosystembut why does it matter?

Why risk the balance of the park ecosystem and the stability of the surrounding economyfor what? So that tiger could inhabit Sariska? The place was already a gem of open and unspoiled area where hundreds roamed.

Why the tiger?

Because they are tiger, and if there is one animal that embodies all things wild, it is the tiger. If there is one animal that captures the human imagination more than any other, for better or for worse, it is the tiger. They are the creatures of our darkchildhood fables and the walking memory of our not so distant past when survival was a far more tenuous thing. They are fearsome hunters and devoted family members. They are loathed and loved in equal degrees of irrational passion. They are nature, and for that reason alone they are as necessary as the air we breathe. They are tigers, and they do not live for us but for themselves. They pay no mind to the hold they have on us or to our attempts to anthropomorphize them as devil or saint. They are what they are, and they go on about their tiger liveshunting and playing, mating and denning, sleeping and roaringin utter disregard of our curious eyes behind the binoculars. Sariska needs the tiger because theyre tigers, and we need nature the way tiger needs Sariska.

The typical Sariska beat took us to Pandupol. As legend goes, the Pandava brothers found the dense forest of the area a good place to hide in the 13th year of their exile. It was a nostalgic feeling to discover in a place with such historical significance. The slumber thought which was remotely residing in the cervices of my memory bank, excitingly propped up.

Almost two hours had gone by. Legs were slightly skewed towards stiffness. Straightening, stretching and walking few metersinfused a sigh of relief.We splashed the cool water from the pipesinvigorating feeling. We walked to purchase the puja samagreestandard price, ten rupees per packet.

This end of the forest, literally the dead end was the place with immense mythological significance. Its the spot where Hanuman did use his Gada to pierce into the mountain to spring out water; the missing chuck of rock was a visual delight. Hunuman idol with the spread out tail makes the temple inimitable. The unique Hanuman temple beautifully built ensconced in the basking greenery of the deep forest. Suddenly, we found a small human habitant where the custodians of the temple live adjacent to the immaculate temple.

A world without any nightlifewhere the inhabitants inside the deep only enjoy the serene and silence of the deciduous forest. Occasionally disturbing is the weird sounds emanating from the darkness, of the all-encompassing forest.

Circumscribing the Hanuman temple were the monkey brigades cozily carrying their wards under the belly abruptly pounced on us to get a grab of our eateries. Little ones were delicately clinging to their mothers womb sporadically jumped out to get hold of a pie of the thrown piece of food item. Ostensibly dangerous but they were harmless, we didnt provoke them.

It was time we had to leave the place quite before the dusk, as the gushing water has ruined large stretch of the road during the rains. And also being entrenched in the all-embracing awning of wild trees driving fear with each passing minutes in dawning dusk. That didnt disturb my scheduled imagination flight; I was already into a different flight. I realised that the journey was my destination.

I need to believe this, for it is how I know that the changes we inflict on the environment, intentional or otherwise, need not be irreversible. It is how I know that in the future we can find, again and again, as we must, this balance between nature and civilization. There are as per the last census around 10344 human beings in 24 villages in the core zone and 243667 human beings in 246 villages in the buffer zone of Sariska Reserve. There are around 35396 cattle in the core zone and 142998 cattle in the buffer zone as per the last census, and 15,000 odd wild animals in the Sariska Reserve. It is how I know that there will always be human habitant coexisting with wild space and wild life.

I have no cost-benefit analysis of the value of protected wild space like Sariska. I dont pretend to. I believe in the necessity of wild animals for the same reasons I believe in the necessity of human habitants, and these reasons dont fit so well in a cost-benefit-analysis world, but they are rationale that I cannot concede are without merit. It is a hard argument to make, for it leads with the heart and is too often dismissed by those who make more rational arguments.

Its not easy to get up everyday, and do the balancing act, to logic it out and live. Its hard, its always been hard. But, atleast during a journey that becomes your destination There are animals better than us and there are tribals who are less fortunate. We all have different battles but its up to us to choose ours and fight in our ways, nature is no different. Its only a journey into the wild space of Sariska we can understand, the wonderfully evolved co-existence between human population and animal population, amidst the blossomed flora-fauna milieu of the Sariska

***