1.

5 INTO THE WILD

By
Kiran Purandare

Hello, dear students, hope you are doing well. Here we will see
your lesson, 1.5 Into the wild by Kiran Purandare. Kiran Purandare is
born in 1961. This extract is taken from his award winning book
‘Sakha-Nagzira’. It is a personal account and encounter with the
majesty of the forest. Kiran Purandare spent 400 days in the wild
Nagzira which outcome is ‘Sahitya Puraskar’ for the book Sakha-
Nagzira. He mentioned his experiences that he underwent in these
jungles. Here the narrator vividly described his one such experience
that he undergoes in the forest of Umberzara. Kiran Purandare is a
writer-cum-bird watcher and a keen to the forest conservation
programme. Kiran Purandare has described his experience in detail of
having been lost in the jungle during the time of dusk when it was
getting dark and terrifying at the sight. He also described that how he
managed to come out of the jungle and reached to the village, Pitezari.
How was that jungle safari…. Let’s see…
The narrator, Kiran Purandare has just completed eight and half
hour long day inside his hide, that is the place from where one can
watch surrounding in the dense Umberzara jungles. He has finished his
day’s work. After taking entries in his jungle dairy of the various
species of birds found in the particular region or habitat. After the day
whole work he is on his return journey towords the town of Pitezari
where he was living. He covered his dent with dry leaves, took out his
essential items and started walking on the familiar path that would go
to his village, Pitezari. He needed to walk carefully without making
any sound as there could be wild animals lurking nearby. So he have to
be as watchful as fox. Because he was aware of the fact that he could
be suddenly attacked by the wild animals. He has to keep his eyes and
ears open to save himself from animals who could catch him unaware
if he was not alert. All of a sudden a familiar sound caught his
attention. It was a languor’s alarm telling him that there was a danger
lurking nearby. The leader of the gang of the languors was sitting on
the tall tree making alarm calls out of fear for life. All the other
languors joined in continuing danger signals. Kiran Purandare
distinctively knew that all this disturbance was created because of the
only one animal’s presence in the vicinity, in the proximity, in the
surrounding area. That was a leopard. Languors are most reliable when
it comes in finding clues about the presence of the top most predator
in the jungle. The majestic huge leopard of Umberzara was out of its
den. The alarm calls of the languors continued loud and clear. The
narrator day quote on one place. He tried to calculate the target site
where the leopard could be and also scanned the area. He walked the
few steps and stopped. He noticed the fresh droppings of an animal on
the path. Thus he was sure that the leopard was nearby. He could also
clearly hear the distinct alarm call of the four horn antelope which
was adding to the kios. The narrator instantly realised that at the
moment he had quite entered in the territory of leopard. But the good
thing was that the big cat was nowhere seen. He kept remembering
that he was all alone. He continued swiftly down the trail. After some
time he encountered a man standing at a distance with the stick in his
hand. He was a familiar native, Raju Eskape from Pitezari village. He
had come to collect firewood but was equally startled and afraid after
having heard the alarm calls of the a languors and other animals and
that is when he decided to retreat and head back to his village. They
both stopped under a kusum tree to take a break. They both felt relax.
After a while they continued walking. Upon reaching a fork both of
them decided to take different routes. Raju took a different trail Kiran
Purandare continued to walk on the same path. He climbed a familiar
hillock and after climbing down took another trail. He walked across a
beautiful Maua tree loaded with reddish brown leaves. The ground
under the tree was clean very well. It was then that he suddenly
realised that he lost his way. He found another dusky trail which took
him through a narrow gully between the hillocks to an open field. The
area was surrounded by hillocks dried forests. Kiran Purandare turned
back to this spot and watched the sun. his walking trail had vanished.
He realised with fear that by now he was completely lost in this jungle.
He tried desperately to get his exact location. But deep down it was
wishfull thinking. The narrator was lost, completely lost in the forest
of Umberzara.
The sun was melting down like a fleeting runner. He felt like
screaming out but there was no one to listen to his sound in this
wilderness. The blossoming boxwood tree, the sound of the cuckoo
bird, the song of the Robin bird, all sounded alien to him because of
his extreme fear. His mind kept telling him to turn back to the trail
that he had left. But unfortunately when he looked back he was not
able to find his pathway. He had no choice but to climb on hillock
before him when he by chance happened to notice the droppings of
the sloth bear. O my God ! this made him aware about the sloth bear of
Umberzara coming out at this hour snipping for food. He became fully
alert and started running down the hillock. After around fifty steps he
found a bright red soil trail. There were marks of bicycle wheels. He
was became happy. There must be a village nearby. He reassured
himself. Many questions popping up in his mind. He climbed one more
hillock, on reaching the top his heart left with joy. He could here the
sound of people talking on a loud speaker. He ran down the hill
towards the sound. The signs of civilization became visible. The tiny,
sleepy village, Pitezari was visible in front of him. The lantern at
Rajaram Bhalavi’s farm. The loud speaker installed for Keshav
Bhalavi’s marriage all were in clear sight. As he approached the village,
the dog got up, barked and ran to welcome him….
“There still exists a jungle where we can get lost, isn’t this our
good luck?” it was a great relief for the narrator, Kiran Purandare to
have return safely back to his village. The first thing he did was take a
long bath to clean himself. That helped him to calm his shaken up
nerves. He then sat down and had his dinner to his heart’s content as
he had been starving. And then finally he fell down on his cot dead
tired talking to himself while chasing at the star studded sky he felt
this generation was indeed lucky that they still exist a jungle where
they can get lost… that’s all the wonderful breath-holding narration of
an adventurous unforgettable night journey into the wild, amidst the
jungle of Umberzara-nagzira by Mr. Kiran Purandare.