Borocon, quintu bor bahal....

So, 5 days to go in Kaziranga, 5 villages, 15 interviews, 500 trees, five goat-blocked, breezy drives across the beautiful Assamese landscape in search of people with interesting stories….about elephants, alcohol and distant relatives.

Just to recap on the last week or so….I’ve been in a bit of a daze the last few days, mostly because of the heat, I think, since it’s been almost a week since we had rice beer. (This was rice beer Take 2 – we were invited by a friend of Nekib’s, into his uncle’s home, to drink rice beer in one of the villages we were surveying. Like the professionals that we are, we declined until we’d finished our work in the village, so strategically planned the interviews so that by random chance we ended up in this very same house for our last interview of the day, and rounded off the social survey with a good glug (and a good half) of some freshly brewed rice beer. The most white and yeasty brew I’ve ever had, but surprisingly tasty. So funny watching the deterioration into laughter, but as the only woman drinking, I must’ve been the most light weight of all of us. We decided to abandon the surveying of a wildlife corridor that we were going to do on the way home, purely because the birds we were meant to be surveying had gone home for lunch - nothing to do with the fact that everyone was feeling a bit dizzy by this stage, and trying to identify moving objects from a way off, and spending a long time looking upwards at the edge of a busy road, probably wouldn’t have been a good idea. Oh, I love being a student!

Apart from that experience (which all happened before midday last Sunday!), we spent last Saturday at a college in Tezpur, giving a short lecture to some WWF Conservation students. I was so unprepared, even more so when we found out the electricity was down, so we couldn’t use our power-point presentations, and nearly sweated all the water out of my body in the 20 minutes that I waffled on for. But I survived and even had one question asked afterwards. Whether I answered it or not is another question. Perhaps I was not born to be a lecturer.

A few days ago, I saw an elephant. It took me a good while to realize that it wasn’t a wild one, just a domestic one, enjoying a bit of ‘wild’ grass, dragging a big rope behind it! (I didn’t have my glasses on – the usual excuse.) I think the boys thought I was a bit gullable (more so than before, when they almost convinced me that they’d seen, in one pond outside the Park, elephants catching fish with their trunks).

Today, I had another bizarre but fantastic experience. We went for our last interview of the day in a village nearby, and there was a wonderful “Aunty”, who took me off after the interview (and after she’d given up trying to teach me Assamese) to her loom and taught me how to weave. Then, once I’d broken one patch of the beautiful sari weave she was making (I felt so bad) she decided she must have a picture of me in the full shu-bang. So she dressed me in this beautiful sari and then dressed up herself and we had a photo session. I’m not quite sure whether the boys were delighted or disgusted, but I was certainly a good entertainment for a while. It was very amusing, and I felt very privileged to have been taking in and dressed up in such riches. What wonderful people. What an amazing country. I’m not sure this experience can get much more special.

Thoughts of dissertation have temporarily gone on hold really, as there seems far too much to experience and think about out here without getting distracted by thoughts of statistics and write-up. I am however trying to get as big a picture of the human-wildlife conflict as I can so that I do not produce a report that is too naïve and hopeless. We’ll see.

But for now, I’ll enjoy wading through the mud in search of beautiful trees and beautiful people. Oh, and I saw the most stunning man/god the other day whilst I was trying to understand another epic local drama performance that we were invited to. Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet him, just enjoyed staring at him for a few hours.

Right, bed time before another one of those big mosquitoes eats me. Love to you all. Blotchey-Lyd xxxx

Snakes, leaches and rice beer….

I had my first leach! I’m quite proud that I survived it without getting worked up. Well, it was only on me for a moment, wiggling around, before I noticed and asked it to leave. We started our field work at 5am yesterday morning, in the pouring rain (the umbrella made absolutely no difference), surveying trees along the side of a wildlife corridor….hence the leaches. The other boys were sat comfortably in the Jeep whilst my master tree-man, Gokul, and I, were out bonding with the trees, all bravely withstanding the driving rain! The butterflies and birds were still in bed (like all sensible human beings). It was a character-building experience! …and I don’t think Gokul hates me…yet.

Otherwise, today I survived a snake. I’m not sure which one it was but there was enough palava. We were halfway through one of our social surveys when it came, and I jumped up on a chair. Error! I was completely taken the mikey out of! The whole interview was so bizarre (for me anyway, I’m not sure it was quite as fun for poor Nekib, our main man out here, who was doing the question asking): first of all the guy was talking for about 10 minutes about the history of Kaziranga National Park, then wouldn’t really answer questions appropriately (we were a bit suspicious when he said that 150 elephants visit his crops every night during harvest – he also said the number ranges from 1-150, maybe not so good for our error bars in the analysis) and gave us different answers for the same question, then some local teachers came to join in and spent most of it laughing at sweaty me, and then we had the snake incident (several times), a cockroach intruder, a big wasp making her underground nest in the middle of the floor, and at one point about 5 different people all trying to answer the same question, simultaneously. No wonder Nekib felt a bit ill afterwards. We’re obviously all working too hard, as well!

Last night I had another first: home-brewed rice wine/beer (nothing to do with Nekib not feeling so good!). It was quite potent but pretty tasty, especially the 2nd class! One of Maan’s lovely friends invited us to his house to try some, after we’d been to a temple to watch one of the annual village plays/musicals/theatrical performances/dance shows/religious ceremonies…it was quite an experience. Man, this country! Amazing.

We’re getting there with the data collection, now on our 18th village, so nearly 2/3rds through. I’m having such a great time, I’m not wanting it to end quite yet, although it’ll be good to come back to the cool again. It is so hot here sometimes. I couldn’t stop sweating a few days ago – I thought I might be coming down with something, but Bjorn was right, nothing more than probably too much heat and sun and too little water. Diarolytes are incredible. I’ve vowed not to be Lyd-the-hyperchondriac again.

Bed time for bozoes and I have to escape the mosquitoes. I hope you’re all enjoying amazing adventures wherever you are. Much love and bugs.

The electricity is back on, somehow!

So, week 3 already! It’s soo hot! I havent’ sweated so much just sat doing nothing in a long time/ever. Luckily, apparently I don’t sweat though according to Bjorn - I just glow! But even with the heat, it is still an incredible place and I’m having an amazing time. Bjorn and I have decided to focus our research on the issues of corridors, which have been ‘built’ between the main body of Kaziranga National Park, and the Karbi Hills, to the South, which is a different ecosystem but has areas of higher ground which are really important for some of the animals during the flood period (coming up in July - when the Brahmaputra river can rise by metres). It’s a huge disruption to the area. So we’re looking at the impact of these corridors on humans: how much they’ve altered the number of wild animals coming to villages and destroying crops, affecting livelihoods. We’re going to villages all along the boundary of the park and near to corridors and asking questionnaires to villagers to see what problems they are having. It’s been so interesting. Some people aren’t bothered by the animals much at all. Others lose sometimes 100% of their crops and that’s with staying up all night, every night, to guard them from the elephants, rhinos, wild boar, deer and wild buffalo that regularly wander out of the park. We’re also doing some Rapid Biodiversity Assessments to look at how different villages differ in their species composition and if areas closer to the park are perhaps suffering from more exhausted resource-use. So I’m getting to nerd it up on my trees and now know lots of fig tree varieties. Haven’t tried any yet, although I did get to try Jack fruit. They’re bigger than a small child and taste of bubble gum. Our field assistants are troupers. And so are the people we’ve interviewed. Beautiful people too! Especially Mahoot, the handsome Elephant driver! Maybe I’ll marry an Indian! So, apart from still not being quite sure how I’m going to use all of this data, everything is more than dandy and we’re still being treated like royalty. Laura joined us yesterday for a few days too (another classmate) on her way north to her field site, and I think Wild Grass is enjoying having another white person about. Pale skin is a desirable thing apparently, although I was told I’m pretty red looking (and unhealthy?!) today. Off to the park to try and spot some more rhinos. What a life! Maybe I’ll just be a student always.

Few days later….rain almost stopped play today, since the butterflies and birds don’t like doing their shopping in the rain. The trees were braving it however (troopers) and as beautiful as ever! The sweetest smelling tree so far: Thevetia peruviana (just showing off my knowledge). Probably can be grown in gardens in the UK/States, etc. but bare in mind it’s an exotic! I’m not encouraging that. We just went to a village right next to a wildlife corridor, and there seemed to be a lot of damage from wild animals, especially elephants, who are destroying over about 10% of the houses in the village each year. Quite unbelievable the level of damage really. Anyway, Bjorn’s turn to use the computer so I’ll go and put some more nasty deet on (lots of bites - I’m really hoping the Doxycycline will hold out). Love to everyone who might be reading and I hope you’re all well and not as sweaty and grubby as me.

Change of plan....

After talking to an amazing Forestry Service gentleman, with wisdom lines and a long beard (and whose wife cooks delicious samosas (I presume it was his wife)), we've decided that elephants and corridors seem to be an important issue for the people in the beautiful valley where Kaziranga National Park is. So Bjorn and I are going to look at the placing of the elephant corridors and what this means for the people and wildlife. Beautiful friendly people, delicious and almost too plentiful food and such a lush environment. The internet is a bit dodgy though but I'll report again soon hopefully. Just an amazing place. India is pretty magical. Rhinos are impressive. Elephants are big. Buffalos are dangerous. Mangos are delicious. I don't think I've ever sweated so much. I'm a bit scared of big fat crickets. Bjorn and I are some of the luckiest MSc students ever. It's not a holiday though, obviously.