Archery inside forests of Nallamalla hill

I still remember the morning in 2014 which had an aroma of enthusiasm. As a researcher residing inside a tiger reserve, I was often awakened by chirping birds and other faunal morning companions. But today the active yet soft murmuring of our foot soldiers was quite evident. On enquiring, it was known that the much-awaited event, the archery competition, was happening!

I was inside the deep forests of the Nallamalla Hills of the Eastern Ghats where connectivity with the outer world was almost nil. While searching the path for camera-trapping and other exercises I would lose the GPS signal and would have to completely rely on the direction told to me by my chenchu companion. Enclosing most of the forest of Nallamalla Hills, the Nagarjuna Sagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve was formed, which retained its largest tiger reserve title since its inception (till Andhra Pradesh and Telangana split). However, when I started working in this park, I realized the Brobdingnagian landscape is at its beauty’s best yet difficult to manage. At the time of my research in the park, the tiger reserve covered five districts of Andhra Pradesh which talks about the magnanimity of the park per se.

The Nallamalla hills leave no stone unturned to provide you adventure and make you a fit and active individual as roads are difficult to plan here and vehicles don’t go to places where the striped ones roam.

However, a dearth of clean drinking water and malaria and typhoid propensity claim one to have high immunity before entering here. ?The river Krishna flows through the reserve for over a distance of 130 km, but in the plateaus where most of the wildlife resides, water is scarce.

Being a tough landscape to survive for an outsider, Nallamalla’s very own Chenchu tribals have been successful in conservation of tiger. Chenchus consider themselves descendants of Lord Mallikarjuna (the incarnation of Lord Shiva) and they also consider the forests as their ancestral home. The Srisailam temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and Devi Brahmaramba lies in the heart of the tiger reserve and turns this tiger reserve into a "chenchu landscape". For ages, thousands of devotees cross the forest land on foot for some 30-odd km to reach the temple through a "tapaal raasta”. One can see how difficult the landscape is for a non-chenchu as the devotees during the trek would lose physical strength in this devotional journey. But a thin tribal can walk great distances and can jump from various hilly climbs effortlessly.

The park management ascribed to this bijou as the way forward to execute tiger conservation in Nallamalla hills. Many Chenchu are employed as forest guard/ tiger trackers in the park. This tribe particularly is good with archery and they move with bow and arrow which is synonymous with their appearance. Looking at their talent and interest in sports, the Wildlife and Forest Department (Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve) along with the World Wildlife Fund promoted an archery competition, Ekalya national archery trophy championship in 2013 (I was lucky to see it in its inception).

Coming back to the day of the competition, I got excited to accompany the camp participants to the competition venue. Having worked in each of the divisions of forest alongside these forest protectors, they felt like my family only. I couldn’t decide whom to support and cheer for! Finally, I stuck with the plan that whoever I am facilitating the transportation and have seen practicing, I would support that team.

When we reached the competition site, I realized the competition was not just fun but a tough and prestigious one. Being the largest tiger reserve, the representatives from each division were many. The competition began and one by one representatives from each division and forest range started aiming at the bullseye.? Anyone not well versed in the sport and also the tribal history might not understand the perseverance involved. For most of the communities living inside the forest, archery had been an integral part of sport and livelihood. Eklavya has always been looked upon in ancient India as the paragon of the dedication to this sport. Unlike Bhils, Chenchus use their thumb for archery and have been taught this sport since childhood by their elders. However, the competition allowed all the forest trackers to participate, Chenchus and non-chenchus alike. Chenchu tribals are famous in Nallamalla hills for their mastery of using bow and arrow. Moving around the hills I realized, that the women are much better at archery than tribal men. However, under tribal development and tiger conservation, many male chenchus are employed as tiger trackers in the tiger reserves hence in the Eklavya archery competition I had to curb my discomfort of no female representation, but the enthusiasm and sportsman spirit presented by the competitors evaded my discomfort soon.

There were instances where the first and second attempts were far from the bulls’ eye but the final was right on the mark. The best part? all the participant practice bore fruit as all the arrows were on the board itself if not on the bull eye. Sometimes we were cheering for Ponnappa and other times for Mahesh. Slowly we found ourselves cheering for everyone and the competition slowly merged into a wonderful get-together and entertainment. We couldn't complain as the competitors themselves were cheering for the opposition party (read family member). So, we happily forgot who won the trophy amidst the positive vibes of Nallamalla and the blessing of lord Mallikarjun as the trophy is shared amongst His children only.?

The article was first written in the field office of the Wildlife Institute of India (All India Tiger Monitoring 2014) in Srisailam. The project allowed me to stay on the premises of Tiger Reserve and explore the various flora and fauna, as well as the cultural and anthropogenic aspects of the reserve.

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