Not all those who wander are lost
I
know travelling for a genuine reason needs guts which I do pose a lot. On 12 May
2018 We travelled Kuse Rural Municipality, Jajarkot,Nepal for red panda conservation
project. Desolate newly constructed dirt track country road from Khalanga (Headquarter
of Jajarkot) over the highlands alongside took us to almost heaven, Kuse Rural
Municipality. The glistening pyramidal dome of Kuse Muse Mountain, Thakuri culture,
warmhearted, well-behaved, and well-intentioned villagers were there to welcome
us.
We
braved untimely rainfall induced lower temperatures and the high altitude to
scour the wind blasted mountain forests for at least evidences of red panda all
day during our stay for about one months in the field. One day, we had lungs
bursting forests survey for about 5 hours with an eye out for endangered red
panda. One can imagine how tough it is to walk among bamboo clumps with dew
drops and how much energy one can lose doing so. We walked temperate conifer
forest and adjacent broadleaf forest with tall understory of bamboos for
five hours. We came up with some evidences like pellet groups, and scratch
marks. Body soaked with sweat and dresses with dew on bamboo, hunger, thirst,
loss of energy weakness, we fought with these conditions and got our energy
level up and got back to the shelter. After having meal, we slept by the side
of fire inside sleeping bags and local field assistants with few clothes in
sheds roofed with high altitude dry grasses. A heavy rain showers in the
midnight started entering our refuse from the roof. Water started flowing
through our bedding materials. We started searching plastic that we had bought
to use if in case of rain to protect our remaining clothes and food materials.
We somehow were able to manage some space to accommodate us by the side of fire
that we lit again in the midnight. Despite of exhaustion, at that moment, we
were not able to arrange for sound sleep. After 2 hours it stopped raining and
we wrapped our bedding materials with plastic to sleep for next few hours.
Next morning we wake up and had tea and breakfast and planned to
shift next destination for red panda study. We hiked for three hours to the
next shelter. After reaching there, two of us started maintaining its roof and
two went to search for water for preparing food. After getting roof maintained,
we searched for firewood and waited our friends to bring water for about two
hours. We just had two utensils for taking water. After two hours, we found the
guys carrying water in available resources like utensils and plastics. Sudeep,
my colleague later on shared the story about water harvest. They had collected
the water running off the mosses and algae in the big scary rock boulders in
the plastic that they have taken. If they didn’t have plastic, it would have
taken few more hours to get water. At the moment I was in dilemma that prior I
used to read red pandas are distributed close to the water resources. At the
moment, were not in the state of taking pictures. Some non-captured and non-clicked
moments are always beautiful and remembered forever because these are the
moments we had worth experienced. After having meal, we started searching for
red panda and its evidences in the field; we found some evidences or red panda occurrence
there. Apart from pellet and scratch mark, we found skull of sub adult red
panda this time beneath a large Tsuga
tree. The wind stung the toes and bit the nose as we ascended to the red panda
habitats from our shelter.
On the way to forest patches in Ward 8, we halted in school for
drinking water. Ganesh Bahadur Thapa, school teacher, shared his experiences
working with few other researchers before. Early morning he accompanied us and we
ascended the forests. After an hour walk we encountered seven eight fresh
pellets on the ground and again seven eight fresh nearby. We started searching
silently. As defined by Andy Dufresne, hope is a good thing, maybe the
best of things, and no good thing ever dies. Ganesh later on came up with a
good thing, and no good thing ever dies and he informed us about red panda
encounter, we recklessly ascended up holding camera and the moment just
fascinated which took four years of sweat, determination and hard work to
encounter red panda. It was the moment dream come true moment for me.
At
the moment I came to remember the quote by Alex Rodriguez “Enjoy your
sweat because hard work doesn't guarantee success, but without it you don't
have a chance” which is the take home message for those working in the field of
biodiversity conservation.