I was in Nagavalli ,, a village near Tumkur recently to meet BVG sir aka B V Gundappa , a high school teacher whose passion and mission is to create awareness and conserve the slender loris in the villages around his home. Here is the story that I wrote about him in my column Inside Story. People do make places.
“ Please take the left turn after the toll
gate before Tumkur and then drive for another three kilometers ;I will be
waiting for you there ,” says Gundappa Master on the mobile and then the line goes
dead. It is almost 6 pm in the evening and the sky looks ominous, pregnant with
dark clouds as we head towards Nagavalli, a village located 15 kms away from
Tumkur.
I had planned this evening journey on an
impulse to meet BVG sir, as Gundappa master is known among his students in the Government High School in Nagavalli village. And
the agenda was not just to meet him , but to see one of the most exquisite
creatures of the dark – the slender loris .BVG Sir and his team have been
selflessly working on creating awareness to conserve and protect these animals
in these villages over the last 15 years .
The toll gate arrives and we take the
detour, but there is no sign of the master. It is almost twilight and the empty
landscape stares back at us .We inch slowly forward and find a small shop,
where our queries for one Gundappa Master from Nagavalli village is met with a
blank stare. And then all of a sudden, the network comes alive as the phone
rings. We drive a couple of kilometers ahead to find the master waiting for us
with a wide grin .
He seems to be a household name in
Nagavalli as villagers and students crowd around him the moment we enter the
school. There is a huge board educating people about the nocturnal creatures on
the compound wall. I ask him about his interest in slender loris and he says ,”
I am a science teacher and am interested in wildlife and bio diversity.. But it
was my 8th standard students who told me about three slender lorises
that they had seen in the school compound. Fascinated by them , I started
researching and then creating awareness about them. “ BVG Sir is not just into
conserving slender loris ; he is also interested in butterflies , birds and
even catches snakes.” I have also documented almost every flora in this
region,” he says .
Today the master is almost synonymous with the
word ,” kaadu papa “ as the animals are called in the local language .” It’s
like a baby ,” he says, adding that people call him from all over Tumkur if
they sight one .” We have rescued a lot of them from towns and villages and
release them into the wilds. We also have a local veterinarian who takes care
if they are injured,” he adds. The bigger threats he says are of road kills and
electricity wires as several animals die of
electrocution.
There are more than 60 slender lorises in the farms and wild habitats
around Nagavalli and surrounding districts, most of which have been rescued by
the master and his team. The omnivorous creatures prefer haunting small
agricultural farm lands with trees and bushes where they are likely to find
insects, says the master.
We walk in the dark into a small patch of
greenery near a stream adjoining an agricultural land . Holding flashlights we
scan the bamboo, teak and other small trees and bushes for slender lorises. I
am told that they stir awake as darkness sets in and start hunting for their
first meal of the day. . Sumitra, a former panchyat member joins us in our
quest along with Vasanth kumar, a student .We find worm snakes, giant African snails
and hammerhead slugs , but no slender loris . And then atop a bamboo tree we
find two eyes blinking like red lights from the leaves, only to scurry away. It
starts raining but we continue our search. Finally we find a young slender
loris , almost the size of a kitten climbing up a branch of a teak tree . It
looks at us with those curious big eyes as it allows us to photograph for a
while, before scrambling up the tree . The rain pours, almost ending our
evening , but the baby slender loris has just made our day.
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