WILDLIFE IN  INDIAN JUNGLES - ROBIN KHAN - 14 FEBRUARY 2006

There was an excellent turnout for this event, Robin Khan being a well-known and popular speaker, having entertained us on many previous occasions.

Robin began by saying that a more appropriate title for his talk would be 'An Introduction to the Wildlife of India' and so it proved.   He commenced by giving advice, plus a few cautionary anecdotes,  to those of us who might be planning a visit to India to watch wildlife, recommending the best areas and the appropriate times of year, according to the weather and also warning to be careful to choose a good travel company.   Having grown up in the country, his father worked for the Indian Forestry, he has unparalleled knowledge of and a deep love for the people, the landscape and the wildlife.     We saw some of the tourist sights and sounds in the cities before moving on to the National Parks and their incredible wildlife.

Accompanied by some excellent slides we went to the Ranthambhore National Park (some 400 sq.km)  Robin discussed the vulture problem, they are dying as a result of veterinary drugs being used on cattle - dead cattle are a principal source of food for vultures.  Efforts are being made to stop the use of these toxic drugs, but so far with little success.

Tigers are also in serious trouble, there being only about 1800 left.  Competitive killing over the years has decimated the numbers, with the National Parks in decline there are now more tigers outside these protected areas than within them.

Robin is also very enthusiastic about snakes, and we were shown some amazing slides of really enormous pythons,  extremely scary!

Amongst other places visited were Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, which, monsoons permitting, is a wonderful marshland area with large numbers of birds visiting at different times of the year.  However, in years when the monsoons failed, it very quickly dried out, and birds arriving to breed were forced to move on.   We also learned about the Jim Corbett National Park, once a popular hunting ground of the British, this park was named in honour of the late Jim Corbett, the legendary hunter-naturalist turned author and photographer.

After the tea break we came to the best and most exciting part of the talk - the tigers.    Robin has many incredible slides, taken over a number of years, and he had breathtaking shots of tigers in their natural habitat.  We also saw pictures of various species of deer and some very large crocodiles.

This was an excellent evening's entertainment, only slightly marred by some noisy and intermittent problems with the sound system which improved in the second half of the talk after some realignment of the speakers.

Liz Saunders