The Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve is 120 kms away from Nagpur in the Gondia District of Maharashtra. This is one of the Tiger Reserve which can boast of being the safest Tiger Reserve with NO Tigers left to report any man animal conflicts due to the tiger attacks. The jungle is very beautiful and I used to frequenting it not for Tiger Sighting but for the sighting of Indian Gaur. I used to see huge heard of 25 to 40 Gaurs in one heard with one or two alpha male as huge as weighing 1200kgs.
When I used to talk to the local inhabitants, Lehendra Gedam (who owns two Maruti Gypsys and ply them in the Jungle for tourism) told me the story of the famous tigers which ruled the Navegaon Nagzira Tiger Reserve. The most famous in the linage of hierarchy were Rashtrapati, Dendu and then the last and the most famous the Ionic Tiger Jai.
As per Lehendra who is also witness to the big territorial fight between Dendu and Jai in —, thereafter jai left the NNTR and migrated to Umred Karhandla Wild Life sanctuary some 150 kms, crossing the national highway-6, many state highways, Ghosikurd water body and reached Umred Kharandla and made his territory cohabiting three females and sired around 20cubs.
Due to developing friendship with Lehendra and other inhibitants of Petezari and Tatezari, we
started organizing Free Veterinary Camps to Vaccinate the Bovines, caprines and the canine’s population in theses villages. We encourage one Vanwasi Prakash Kumbhare of Tatezari (Forest Guide) to start home stay for the wild life tourist.
8th April 2021 was a black day in the memories of the forest dwellers when they lost 04 van Majurs in the forest fire in Petezari zone compartment 97. The forest fire was severe and these untrained/unsupervised van majors were set to control the uphill fire with petrol driven blowers. As informed by Lehendra the blowers are used to fly away the dried leaves away from the fire, so as to stop the spread of the fire. These 04 van majur’s were charred to death. Incidentally during the protest Sh. Praful Patel Rajya Sabha M.P. (Bidi King of Gondia district) was present in Gondia, who rushed to the spot along with Local MLA Sh. Chandrikapure and spoke to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who also holds the portfolio of Maharashtra Forest Minister, announced the ex. Gratia payment of Rs. 500000/- to the family of each deceased van major. There is lot of resentment among the locals against the forest department personnel for their
careless and autocratic behaviour. They are demanding a high level enquiry against Ramanuj Conservator of forest (Gondia), Poonam Pate Field Director (Sakoli), RFO Agwan and RO Mahule. Lots of news is being published through a local news paper from Lakhandur but new news papers from Nagpur are publishing the news for reasons best known to you all. Readers should come forward to question the forest authorities for an impartial enquiry so that such incidents are not repeated in future. If we want to protect our forest and the wild life we need to involve the full
participation of the forest dwellers who are more concerned about the forest and the wild life. The forest officers join the service on the basis of their academic qualification and no personnel interest in the forest and the wild life. We cannot save our jungle and the wild life without the active participation of the son of the soil like Lehendra Gedam and Prakash Kumbhare.
~~~~President Himalayan Explorers.~~~~
