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Fauna
Barely six decades ago, our land was known as the ‘Leopard’s Run’. Peacocks dwelt here, and so did deer. Deforestation robbed the leopard of its habitat, and cut off the ‘corridors’ through which it roamed from one forest area to another. The peacocks and deer disappeared more through hunting, but degraded habitat as well. The few wild animals that can still be spotted occasionally are: the baool (wild cat), the raan-dukkar (or wild boar), the bhekar (fox), the mongoose, and the hare. The land, however, is still very rich in the smaller, soil and vegetation-dwelling creatures. There are several kinds of earthworms, ants, snakes, crabs, etc. There is also a bewildering variety of spiders, colourful butterflies, dragonflies, … and fireflies, bees, and birds (of various hues) that heighten the enchanting ambience of the place.

Protection
On a part of our boundary, we constructed a 650 ft long, 2.5 ft high, stone and mud wall, and dug a parallel 1.5 ft deep trench along its outer edge. Though a very effective and lasting protection barrier, this was laborious and time-consuming. And so, on the remaining part of our long, jagged boundary, we opted to put up a dry, kathi hedge, using mainly cuttings of the thorny, semi-coppicible karavanda shrub (Carissa carandas) that grows abundantly on the land.

Over the years, we also planted a live hedge (on the inner side of our dry hedge), with mainly 5 species: (i) Kalak (thorny) bamboo, good for construction poles; (ii) Nirgudi (Vitex negundo), a valuable medicinal plant, also known locally as Vanai; (iii) Sabri, a thorny cactus; (iv) Chandrajyoti (Jatropha curcas, or ‘physic nut’), also known as ratanjyot; and (v) Sagargota (Caesalpinia crista, or ‘fever nut’), a thorny creeper. Some Karvanda shrubs too have rooted – by themselves, probably from the uncollected, edible berry droppings of hedge reinforcements.

Of the above ‘live hedge’ species, we’ve had best results with Chandrajyoti, that has established really well. A full-grown plant yields – for each metre of live hedge – a kilo of seeds each year. These seeds are so rich in oil, that they were traditionally threaded on a thin stick and lit as a ‘mobile torch’. Before kerosene became widely available, chandrajyoti oil was commonly used for lighting diyas or wick lamps, that provided good illumination, burning without soot. The Jatropha oil is used too for manufacturing soaps, candles, varnishes. The plant is reported to have several medicinal uses, while the leaves yield a natural dye. Today, the large-scale planting of Jatropha is mainly being promoted as a diesel substitute, “fuel of the future”, and is threatening to take over even the fields where food crops have been traditionally cultivated.

For long boundaries, this combination of dry hedge, and multi-functional live hedge seems the most affordable, replicable and therefore widely relevant strategy of land/forest protection. Of course, two of our workers have been almost full time on the job of patrolling the land, reinforcing the dry kathi hedge, and – in the monsoon – planting the live hedge. But despite this, effective protection of a sprawling area like ours is extremely difficult without good relations and the goodwill of neighbouring villagers.

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