Sanctuary | People
I have to agree! I heard jackals
howling into the night when I
visited you. What other wildlife
do you support here?
Bittu, what we have is recognised as a
tourism destination, but it is in truth a
sanctuary! We have leopards, hyaenas,
jackals, antelopes, black-naped hare,
porcupines, desert fox, and of late,
the occasional wolf. The birdlife is
astounding and we are contemplating
hosting a bird festival here in the
future. You fi gure it out... our naturalists
have seen Indian and Eurasian
Eagle-owls here. A bird list is under
preparation. Sanctuary should help
us put it together!
So you are saying that the
water you use on your campus,
swimming pools included, does
not deplete the ground water
for neighbourhood farmers?
No. We had hydrologists come in and
they confi rm that the water table has
risen dramatically. But we hardly need
any certifi cate from hydrologists. The
villagers are all the certifi cation we need.
They are happy. Their holdings produce
more, their children are healthier, better
educated and gainfully self-employed.
They are less dependent on the vagaries
of the infamous Indian monsoon.
Is this why you were presented
with the Jal Mitra and Gram
Bandhu awards for community
and social service by the
Rajasthan Government?
I guess it was! I truly feel for and work
for both water and for the communities.
Rajasthan is an arid state, but it always
had enough water when people respected
water. Down the decades, that respect
stayed alive within villagers, but many
city-dwellers lost contact with their
roots and in the name of development,
they foisted and continue to foist ideas
on rural Rajasthan that are, let us say,
inappropriate. All I did was organise
villagers, ensure they were gainfully
employed and I took their help to restore
natural vegetation on their lands. Nature
responded by enhancing the recharge of
water during times of plenty. This was
We have leopards, hyaenas, jackals, antelopes, black-naped hare, porcupines, desert fox, and of late, the occasional
wolf. The birdlife is astounding and we are contemplating hosting a bird festival here in the future. You fi gure it out...
our naturalists have seen Indian and Eurasian Eagle Owls here.
ABOVE The Jhalana Reserve Forest in Jaipur is famous for its rich breeding population of
leopards. Sunil Mehta envisions a day when tigers will roam this forest once again.
TOP Sunil (left) with the Forest Minister of Rajasthan, Gajendra Singh Khimsar.COURTESY: SUNIL MEHTAYASH SISODIA