A Journey beings...

I am again on the move, as usual not disclosing the location as of now for various reasons. I reached here today evening by train. It was five hours journey but was lucky to get a place to sit and sleep after two hours standing near the door.

Met the local contact and another team member from WTI who introduced me to a local taxi driver who will be taking me to the tribal settlement which is about 60 kms away from here.

It is a long time dream to visit this area where he is taking me. This is the very place where they hunt animals and sell the goods to outsiders. As the area is infamous for the presence of militants no one really wanted to sneak around and get information form there.

As an organization, we believe in bringing out the truth based on grass root information and then to find solutions for them. Wildlife crime is such a challenging area, where gathering ground intelligence will take longer time and finding solutions is a tougher task..

Any way.. I have my first break through here in my hand and i am not going to miss this chance. Tomorrow me and other two people are going with this taxi driver to his inlaw's house. ( He married to a tribal girl whom he fallen in love with when he was a poacher in the forest )

For me this is another learning process, and a challenge to myself to test how far i can go. Personally, I am missing a family get together back home where the eldest uncle is celebrating his 70th birthday and I miss the happy moments. I never went to a tribal village without any proper cover and back up. Here i will be going to a place where i could face some trouble and may get screwed up. But this is once in a life time chance and I also love to know how good i am.

Decided to wear a colorful, desi (only indians will understand this word) dress and carry my camera and other equipments in a small bag. Leave one of the informer here in the hotel room, other one is comming along with me. I may come back in the evening and if everything gone well, will stay back in the village enjoying some local brew and building bonds.....

See you later