21st March 2021 – (by Rakesh Kumar)

I woke up at 5 am with all the remaining 9 participants and rush to the Sariska Forest. Our course coordinators Dr Parag Nigam and Dr Bilal Habib guided us inside the forest. The beautiful sunrise, morning cool wind and elegant natural forest are amazing. We saw a pugmark of a leopard. They explained the behaviour of the leopard in a very simple and easy way only by this movement and pugmark, really very nice. Dr Nigam showed us some skulls of ungulates and taught diagnostic features and methods to detect age. Four types of deer, monkey, langur, and plantation of Aravalli hill are very informative to know our nature. They also taught us antler, horn and breeding behaviour. We went to the Hanuman temple through the passage of the rainy drainage which was drought. They explained the interface between human and wildlife practically and simply. They also showed us the effect of the interface as loss of wilderness of sambhar. This was shocking.

We returned to my room and was thinking that who is responsible to disturb this act and how can I save them? We are criminals of nature. For this crime, we will penalize by nature. We will realize this act. I took a delicious breakfast but I was not happy.

I became happy with this course that I am preparing myself to be a part of wildlife management as a veterinarian. I introduced myself as a veterinarian to work in the field of a holistic approach towards nature or one health approach in my introductory session.
After lunch, Dr Bilal Habib discussed Population monitoring by distance method by a very simple example. Population monitoring is a pillar for wildlife management. This was not like human or livestock census. Wildlife population is a survey rather than a census. This was a nice approach to understand animal populations.

Mr. Bivash Pandav also discussed Biodiversity geographically to understand behaviour of wild animals practically. Which will be fantastically helpful in wildlife management.
Today course schedule was very exhaustive but at last, I was satisfied to become a part of wildlife management. Thanks for this wonderful course that this was not important only for me but for every people.