Making a difference

[Rishi]

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Abhishek Ray, a celebrated Bollywood music composer, is also a certified tiger and leopard tracker, a conservationist, and wildlife activist. He bought a hill, adjacent to the Corbett National Park, and turned it into the Sitabani Wildlife Reserve. Here’s how he did it.

Indian music composer Abhishek Ray takes music seriously, but not as seriously as he takes wildlife. "The forest has its own sounds and those are the best that I have heard," he says. "I do not understand why man has to monopolise land and water resources in the forest. The number of resorts around the Kosi River at Corbett Tiger Reserve has gone up by great numbers. The first thing that these resorts do is sanitise the grounds and make it animal-proof and then they capture the water banks and make it exclusive to humans. They live off the wildlife as yet, they leave no room for wildlife to survive!"

A successful music composer in Mumbai, Abhishek Ray has been volunteering as a tracker for tigers and leopards for the Indian government since the age of 12. "My job took me to many remote areas and as I grew older I wanted to invest in a forest. I kept scouting for opportunities to invest in wasted agricultural lands," says Abhishek. "I found this land about ten years ago. There is a lot of hoof animal activity on it and this had degraded over years. I loved this land from the moment I set eyes upon it. It is right next to the forested area and is part of the tiger corridor with one side of a hill. I had no human neighbours to trouble the animals who would come to this land after regeneration."


Ray invested all his life's saving in buying the land from the families of the villages. Seven years and several greatly detailed plans later, the forest seems to have taken on life with a name - Sitabani. 

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Abhishek Ray is known throughout Bollywood as the music director of films such as Paan Singh Tomar, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, and Welcome Back. But he is also a certified tiger and leopard tracker, a conservationist, and wildlife activist.

An animal lover since childhood, Ray recollects that he would feel sad when he saw animals in cages at the zoo. He grew up aching to see animals reclaiming their habitats and walking free.
As an adult he became aware that humans were driving wild animals to extinction by taking over their land. “So I decided to invest whatever savings I had in a land where wild creatures could roam free – to return this habitat to its original inhabitants."

Being naturally attracted to big cats, he learnt how to read the sights and sounds of the wild from Dr G. V. Reddy at Ranthambore National Park. “As you start priming your senses, the forest opens up like a hidden book and starts giving you clues. Read the clues and you start getting a whiff of the most elusive creatures of this planet and their enigmatic, secretive lifestyles," he says.
Calling it an addiction, Ray began to volunteer in big cat census activities in various parts of India. 

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A tiger hidden among the grass at Sitabani Wildlife Reserve

It was during one of these tracking expeditions in the Corbett landscape that he came upon a large hill. Barren and lifeless since the villagers around the mountain had used up all its trees and resources, Ray observed how the setting was perfect. Surrounded by sal tree forests, it had a stream that cut across a cliff. Frequented by deer, and therefore tigers and leopards, the land that became the reserve was just waiting to be found by Ray.
When he made his name in Bollywood, with five hits as a composer in award-winning films, he was finally able to put all his energy into making his dream come true. He went ahead and bought the land that he had earmarked for his reserve. “My family and friends were enthusiastic and supportive, though I was not investing in a typical, safe investment like a builder’s posh flat in Delhi or Mumbai,” he says.

Soon after acquiring the land, he set about developing a water body in it.

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It worked as a magnet, attracting wildlife to quench their thirst. He set up a natural rainwater harvesting system, ensuring that there was a long lasting supply of water. Simultaneously, he sowed seeds for healthy grass and got rid of the weeds. He developed one part of the land into open grassland, and planted endemic trees (such as ficus, banyan, jamun, and wild mangoes, among others) on the slopes. “The land, which had been abused by years of slash and burn techniques, sprang back to life and wildlife gradually followed,” he says.

"There is a temple in these parts called Sitabani Temple and the locals believe that Sita spent some years here after leaving Ram to raise her sons, Luv and Kush. I loved the story and decided to name the forest after it. I like phonetically pleasant names like the poet Gulzar with whom I had worked some years ago," he shares. "The first thing I did was to make sure villagers and their cattle did not use the land in a manner as unsustainable as they had been doing. I also know that water is a magnet for life and developed a man-made perennial water body in the reserve. It was a matter of months but all the animals in the forest came to know that this reserve had a reliable water source where they would not be threatened. Soon, the man-made lake took on the form of a natural pond because of the bamboos I had planted around it, and became a haunt for all the animals,"he shares. "The next step was to rid the land of a plant parasite called Lantenna. It is very difficult to get rid of it as you have to cut it, hang it inverted for some months for it to dry out completely and then burn it. If any of the steps is not complete then the parasite returns to kill all other forms of plants or grass that tries to grow. When I finally succeeded, I planted several varieties of grass and endemic fruit plants like amaltas, sycus, jackfruit, mango and in the drier portions, jamun - which helps in increasing moisture in the soil."

Today, with more than 600 kinds of rare birds and a long list of wild animals, the habitat is free from the devastating touch of humans.

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Chestnut Bellied Nuthatch at the reserve

His consistent efforts over seven years have helped give a new lease of life to the land with big cats, deer, monkeys and over 600 species of birds visiting his reserve. "Do you have pen and paper at hand because the list of rare sightings is a long one," he laughs. The Indian Pita, Forest Owlet, Asian Bard Owlet, Brown Fishing Owl, Grey Hooded Warbler, Crest-Serpent Eagle, Steppy Eagle, Changeable Hawk Eagle, Long Legged Buzzard apart from many kinds of Flycatchers, Bee eaters, Woodpeckers and Orioles, are among the frequent visitors to the reserve today. 
At an altitude of 1000 metres, the sal forest overlaps with an oak forest, which attracts Himalayan and plain land birds. Rare sightings include striped hyenas, leopard cats, otters, and civets.

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The Sitabani Wildlife Reserve is part grassland, part forest.

The estate has Kumaoni style stone cottages located at strategic points, with a view of the tigers. They serve country food and Himalayan mineral water. But that’s where the comforts stop. The wildlife reserve gives first priority to the needs of the animals, not humans.
He also talks to the people in the surrounding villages about the importance of maintaining an ecosystem. “For most of them wildlife is just free meat or a nuisance. I try to make them understand that the right numbers of tigers and leopards in the forest keep the population of monkeys, langurs and wild boar at bay. So these wild cats, in turn, protect the farmers’ crops.”

The painful process of regeneration of the Sitabani Reserve is nearly complete and Abhishek Ray is quite clear that he does not plan to open the gates to everyone. "I don't mind genuine birdwatchers and nature-lovers to experience Sitabani but there will be no loud music and bright lights here," he says. "I do make money being a music composer in Mumbai but I would also like to invest in tourism at Sitabani by extending an honest experience with nature. There is no wi-fi or television here. This is the land shared by humans and animals and humans will have to adjust to the jungle, not vice versa."

The big cats have also been visiting, some quite regularly  

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Pic Courtesy: ABHISHEK RAY

"When the forest regenerated and the animals started to visit the water body regularly. I would hear the mating calls of two tigers in two corners of the forest. With the passage of time they would move closer, and then they finally stopped when they found each other," he shares. 
When Abhishek started setting up bamboo homes for the birds, they in turn showed him the use of a local cotton flax that they used to make their nests warmer. 

Abhishek shares a special bond with a resident tigress who has displayed complete trust in him, a matter of great pride for the musician.

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A few years ago, as music composer Abhishek Ray strolled through his estate, he stopped dead in his tracks when he came across a tigress. She was lying in the grass, bathing in the moonlight. As he approached, she looked at him sceptically, but then lay back down. Ray had the rare opportunity to take photographs. “After half an hour went by, she casually turned around and showed me her back,” he recalls. “No wild animal would ever drop its guard completely in front of a human at night and turn its back to him unless that animal has implicit trust in the human,” he says.

For Ray, who bought a hill and converted it into a wildlife reserve estate, this was the moment when he realised all his efforts so far had paid off. “This moment gave me the power and belief that lets me fight many hindrances that life throws my way,” he adds. Reply