HASEEB SHAIKH

SMART PEAFOWLS (Me, in the Wild) I consider myself to be the luckiest employee in this wide world. Every night I wait for the sun to raise next morning so I can rush to my work place in the midst of wilderness. I work as a Naturalist with some 'state of the art' organization that propagates & inspires enthusiasts to study and work on wildlife, environment & nature. The Serenity Library sits on 50,000 sq. mts.. area of land which is no less than a forest. It is a thickly foliaged estate that boasts of lush green landscape with a wide range of flora and fauna thriving within it. It has a big man-made pond interlaced with paved walkways that run through thick outgrowths, an administrative block that houses my office, a reading room that racks up 2,500 books on wildlife, environment & nature, a 70 head strong capacity multimedia room with a 8'X8' screen to project documentaries, films & educational programs on wildlife, environment & nature from our own

JAMBUGHODA, RISE OF A MINNOW (Me, at Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary) Often certain unsung folklore’s lie wrapped up, dusted and hidden in the annals of wildlife and environmental library. Either they are soft targets owing to the polity of the area or they are too small and feeble to fight for a share they deserve as in recognition. The ‘Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary’ is one such untold ‘success’ story. Fortunately it now seems that this ‘minnow’ is carving a niche for itself on the National map amongst the big-wigs.  Declared as a Wildlife Sanctuary in year 1990 through honest & dedicated efforts of the Raja Sahab of the erstwhile principality of Jambughoda, Vikram Sinhji Rana, and located in a small erstwhile princely state of Jambughoda after which it derives its name, this is a small 130 sq. Km. sanctuary which lies 60 Kms to the North-East of Baroda city and 25 Kms from the ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site’ of the ‘Champaner Archeological Park’. It is ideally located in the hilly

FOREST FRIENDLY TRIBALS OF JAMBUGHODA (With a Baria Tribal of Jambughoda WLS) ‘Coexistence with the wild’ has been a human way of life for thousands of years now, or if I may be allowed to pen it better it would be, ‘encroachment’ in the wild territory has been a human tendency. The richness of forests blended with mystery has for thousands of years down the line enticed humans and despite the potential threat of human-animal conflict and fatal losses owing to the encounters with denizens of the forests, the forests have proved to be too enticing, tempting and alluring for the humans to shrug off the idea of staying within or close to it. On this take the ‘Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary’ is no different. This sanctuary derived its name from a small erstwhile princely state of Jambughoda, in Panchmahal district of Gujarat, in the vicinity of which it lies. This sanctuary is about 70 kilometers from Baroda city and 25 kilometers from the ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site’ Of Champaner Arche

SORRY TALE OF THE HOUSE SPARROW  (A miniature painting of a House Sparrow on a rock by me) ‘The fall of a Sparrow’, was a title that legend Salim Ali rightfully gave to one of his well acclaimed works on the birds and unsurprisingly his prophecy turned out to be a phenomenon all over. The sparrow lost its count worldwide, 62% fall in numbers in just 25 years. Contrary to the popular belief, it is not just the urbanization that is the root cause of alarming fall in the numbers of the sparrow, once most common bird in urban areas. The innovative modern architecture and speedy construction techniques, wherein the excessive use of materials such as glass and aluminum panes is also a major reason for its disappearing act. The traditional carved wood and concrete ‘jali’, which for a long time have been ideal nesting sites for the sparrow, gave way to such innovative construction materials which deprived the sparrow of an adequate nesting site. Evidently we find trees and native plants