The cute creature in the snap is a slender loris. i have spent six months chasing it, tormenting it, filling its life with constant fear.They are very very sweet beings.
Add to it..the darkness of the night, the sense of adventure.... scary jamun trees in the darkness...snakes for company..other creatures of the night... we had named each of them (the ones we were chasing) and knew each one's character.it was like a reality show.. and we enjoyed it tremendously...
Its amazing how the night comes alive with bats and snakes and beetles and night jars and wild guars...
The orchestra ,differ from season to season.. yet...the music is a constant reminder of the life around... whats most scary is the silence.. some nights..its awfully silent.. and its in those nights.. that the minutes become longer than hours... and your deepest fear comes alive in your mind.. soon... you dont know what is real and what is not..
Being in the wild..thats like coming home, to me.. i enjoy it and i crave for opportunities to go back to the forest... and deciding to be a wild lifer seemed only a natural decision. Boy! was it a difficult road ! some how i managed to find a job as a project assistant in a project involving the "behavior and communication" of slender lorises. It required that i work 12hours in the night.I was delighted. The wilderness in the night! that oughta be very exciting! i had gone for night treks and really enjoyed that! so..i took up the job with enthusiasm and vigour !
The first few days , i was trying to get used to the conditions and to stay awake.. i remember i fell asleep right on the ground without a care in the world.. but after a few encounters with very beautiful snakes.. i learnt to be more alert... to listen to the sounds of the night.. and suddenly... there was too much activity around me, i dint feel like sleeping anymore!
The first time my guide showed me a loris, i couldn't see it ! just could not see it ! Then, i saw its big fiery eyes! since its a nocturnal animal, its eye reflect light if u a show torch at its face... like dogs..but the light reflected, is the colour of reddish orange..
After that every time i saw one, i was too excited! it was amazing!
I learnt their names, their children's names, their characters.. their territories, their mates... their homing trees...
But as days went by, when the excitement started to whither away, i began to notice, how scared these little ones are... the fear in their eyes..the helplessness...started haunting me..
those big eyes... i couldn't escape them...
they run when they see us..we chase them... to see where they r going, what they r doing.. i was told that they will get used to human being around them... but i dint see that happening...
I thought of Goodall and her chimps... Fossey and her gorillas... and consoled myself that these lorises would get used to me too..but i knew that was not to be..for chimps and gorillas... resemble us.. its easy for us to imitate them.. our social structures are almost similar....
but these creatures are from a different dimension... they are nocturnal and insect eating.we live in different worlds.we do not understand each other. humans are 100 times bigger and i cant even think how they perceive us!
and add to it, the fact that we catch them, and tag them.. this process had been the most painful and difficult for me. Each time i did it, i was filled with guilt so intense that i thought my heart would stop.
It was constant fear of humans.. nothing else.
Wild lifers may tell me that i am not fit to be one of them.That that i am anthropomorphising the animal and making up feelings that it dint have.So be it. They may tell me that i don't have what it takes to be a wild lifer.So be it.
Theres nothing more that i would like , than to spent the rest of my life in a jungle.But not at the cost of the peace of a few remaining animals .... I for one, will not be an additional devil for them to fear.