Meet the defender of the stripes

Nov 06, 2012 - Coreena Suares

It was the massive stretch of undisturbed forest and the Srisailam Tiger Reserve, a large part of the Nallamala Forests, which completely changed Devidas Manghnani’s focus in life. That is how the 50-year-old food grain merchant from Hyderabad become a tiger guardian.

“I went to Srisailam for the first time to collect a sample of pungum seeds. And I fell in love with the jungle and its viable tiger population,” recalls Devidas. There are several places at the Srisailam Tiger Reserve and parts of Nallamala hills that are still unexplored, he says. His team and he have been involved in many unofficial tiger rescue operations at the reserve. He exposed the chain of leopard skin poachers at the Bhadrachalam forest and also busted the racket of poachers and animal skin traders.
Devidas has also made a documentary film Jewel of the Eastern Ghats, which mainly focuses on our shy and nocturnal tigers. “It also shows the pugmark of a tiger, which is said to be the largest mark till date,” he adds. He now intends to shoot a film on the Chenchur tribe, one of the oldest traditional groups of Andhra Pradesh.

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