In a country of India’s size that practically qualifies little less than a continent, approximately 21.72% of its total geographical extent is under the forest cover. As per the latest ISFR(Indian state of forest report) dating 13 March 2023 the country has added another 2261 square kilometers of its forest cover thus expanding its total green footprint to 7,13,789 square kilometers. It is but natural that majority of country’s population is dependent on agro-forestry and related issues for their subsistence. As on date there are a total of 55 Tiger reserves in the country with the latest addition of ‘Mhadei wildlife sanctuary’ being recognized as the newest of tiger reserve of the country.
Bulk of these tiger reserves or wildlife sanctuaries are spread-out in few states of the country with MP, Maharashtra, Gujarat, WB, Uttrakhand ,UP etc being states that are identified as ‘core’ for the propagation and subsistence of these carnivores in an increasingly polarized world that has gravitated towards profiteering out of these carnivores. Most of these tiger reserves in the above mentioned states are populated by the tribal population that have settled in the ‘Core’ and even Buffer zones’ of these protected areas who see these tiger reserves as a means of livelihood for their families. One such family member belonging to rural background and inhabiting near one of the largest tiger reserves of the country going by the name of ‘Ranthambore national park’ is an epitome of success story that has been endorsed by none other than the erstwhile Maharaja of Jaipur as the best ‘Forest lady guide’ of the country. ‘Suraj Bai Meena’ is that quintessential personification of Indian woman power that has been lying latent only to realize her self-worth on its own.
I happen to pen this article primarily for the simple reason that the resolve shown by this lady was something that I had seen at the STR (Satpura tiger reserve) in Madhai (Hoshangabad) in the year 2011 in the form of local tribal people wherethe ‘Korku’ men were doing a yeoman’s job being typical forest people and knowing the Satpura forest by the back of their hands. Having visited the STR, I was really impressed the way these tribal people were given an opportunity by the MP government to redeem their faith in themselves by way of forest guides both while employed with the state forest department as well as the private tiger safaris operating in the core as well as the buffer zones. In the present case, this lone lady forest guide was one amongst 250 odd guides in Ranthambore and the first one too in the country to mark her presence in such a male dominated profession that called for an extraordinary resilience and fortitude on the part of Suraj Bai Meena.
She tops as being a naturalist too in addition to her primary role of being a forest guide. Already having crossed 16 years of her hard-earned professional service, she had to surmount gargantuan socio-economic hurdles in her life in the initial years to etch self on the professional firmament of such a demanding job 24×7. To the uninitiated,’Ranthambore falls in the ‘Sawai Madhopur’ district of Rajasthan and has been the mainstay of tigers since times of yore. The village of ‘Bhuripahadi’ abutting this national park now has the unique distinction of being an adjunct of Suraj Bai Meena, since she belongs to this village. As per her to become a nature guide she had to clear the forest department exam and only then apply for the vacancies for the ibid job. Having done the same with aplomb she was included for the training of a forest guide by the department without any prejudice to her gender and was subsequently given a forest guide license. The lady has been quite forthright in her assertions of fighting tooth and nail the village people’s dictates that sounded opposition to her plans of becoming a lady forest guide. Her father was taunted by all and sundry with jibes that are unprintable in this article goading him to pull back her daughter from accepting such a task that was only mean for the males.
It has to be understood that Madhya Pradesh during the era when Sura Bai Meena took up her job in 2007 , was categorized as belonging to the category of ‘Bimaru’ states, an acronym reserved for backward states like ‘Bihar, MP, Rajasthan and UP that were synonymous with filth, backwardness, obscurantism and a drag to the national economy as such. Much of the credit for pulling out Madhya Pradesh out of this quagmire of ‘Bimaru’ tag goes to its erstwhile CM, Shivraj Singh Chauhan who removed all stops in heralding the state to a position where it is now everybody’s envy. In the initial years of her service she was hamstrung by a plethora of problems that were an offshoot of her low education, lack of fluency in Hindi as well as English language and the social etiquettes that were hallmark of interacting with foreign tourists.
Being taunted by her fellow male guides was also not helping her much firm up her feet in her job. That’s when her brother plunged into helping her with language diction, etiquettes, keeping tag of foreign tourists’ whims and fancies during the tiger safari and so on. She had the single-minded dedication to come on top of her failings by keeping a diary and reminding herself to better her performance next day by working upon her shortcomings with a missionary zeal. It goes to her credit and doggedness that a girl who learnt English language only in her class 6th completed her 10plus 2 and later on her graduation and masters qualification with a professional degree of B.ED on her own steam counting on her salary that she was able to garner from her job as a lady forest guide cum naturalist at Ranthambore national park.
Getting up at 5 am in the morning she comes back home only after sunset having disposed off her tourists that form part of the roster which is filled in by the forest department. She has to her credit for working with eminent and worldwide companies like ‘New market’, Riviera, Titan, Mount valley, Orange etc. In addition she has had an exposure at the famous hotel of Ranthambore going by the name of ‘Sixth senses’ where the marriage ceremony of Bollywood heroine Katrina Kaif was solemnized. As if this was not enough her working with top notch hotels like Oberoy, Aman E Khas etc has put her in a different league altogether.
But it was the seminal recognition afforded by the erstwhile Maharaja of Jaipur as the ‘Best forest guide’ on her that changed her fortunes forever with world looking at her with a renewed respect. The so called ‘Telikiniki’ or final victory in her professional life was achieved when ‘Google search engine’ made her its ‘Brand ambassador’ on the women’s day and posted it worldwide for the entire planet to witness an Indian woman’s iron resolve to surmount the insurmountable. Her posters of Google were posted on the building of Municipal Corporation of Sawai Madhopur with an invitation by Google for an interview at Mumbai. The lady who had achieved her scholastic qualifications by the sweat of her brow started getting calls from various educational institutions for delivery of lectures on her achievements and as a beacon of hope for rest of the women folk in her area. All of these accolades were due to her living in close proximity with the famous Ranthambore national park and her unwavering resolve to make the best use of the unique USP of this tiger reserve.
This year of 2023 is an important year with regard to completion of 50 years of ‘Project tiger’ when one of the largest conservation efforts in the world was kick started by Mrs Gandhi in cohort with Dr Karan Singh as its first vice-chairman. The icing on the cake was that the first project director of Project tiger Mr KS Sankhla was from the same state as that of Suraj BaiMeena i.e Rajasthan. Though off late Supreme Court empowered committee on conservation (ECC) has been advocating closing downof eco-tourism which as per the wisdom of the committee has been hampering the core zone as well as buffer zones of the 55 tiger reserves of the country, a very considered opinion has to be undertaken by the PM Modi government in this regard.
With fate of lady forest guide like Suraj Bai Meena hanging like a sword of Damocles on her head due to these empowered committees dictates, it would be well within the realm of the government to tread a very fine balancing act between the twin requirements of forest cum tiger conservation and livelihoods of such hard working women of the country. Lady forest guide like ‘Suraj Bai Meena’ is an epitome of the saying of world famous Ralph Waldo Emerson—‘-Do not go where the path may lead. Goinstead where there is no path and leave a trail..’
(The writer is a retired army officer and can be approached on his email at: [email protected])
