Sand, Security and Solitude

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              "text": "Pushpa Shekhawati (front) and Pushta Pawar in Sudasari Desert National Park in 2018. The region is home to the critically endangered great Indian bustard. The two young graduates worked as forest guards and custodians of the bird.",
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              "text": "PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT BY DEEPTI ASTHANA",
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              "text": "Sudasari is in the Thar desert, one of the world’s most biodiverse arid regions and home to approximately two hundred and fifty species of birds— including the Indian eagle-owl, the greater hoopoe lark and the Asian desert warbler.",
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              "text": "Barbed wire around an enclosure. No one is allowed inside the park without a permit. The absence of other people leaves the forest guards isolated and rather lonely.",
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              "text": "Shekhawati and Pawar on a break from work, which includes long walking patrols around the enclosures of the park.",
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              "text": "An unused wagon that was once used with camels to carry guests around the desert. Shekhawati and Pawar’s surroundings were often a stark reminder of their physical and emotional isolation.",
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              "text": "The region’s sparse vegetation mostly comprises thorny trees and plants. The softer leaves of these plants are fodder for animals.",
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              "text": "Shekhawati’s husband died in a motorbike accident—he was hit by a truck while coming back home from work. But she still learnt to ride.",
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              "text": "Shekhawati said that the guards would love to have more contact with nearby villagers, but the villagers did not like the fact that the guards do not allow their animals onto protected land. Since the villagers struggle to find fodder, they see the guards as enemies of their flocks. They even refuse to sell milk to the guards.",
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              "text": "Shekhawati shows photos of her son to Pawar. They did not get to speak to their families often since they did not have internet connectivity. Deprived of modern entertainment, the internet and often electricity, the two women found comfort in each other’s company. They shared a small hut, cooked together and performed their work together.",
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              "text": "The women often slept outside, without any fear of wildlife or the men around. They said they felt safer in the park than in a big town or city.",
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              "text": "The Thar Desert is spread across two hundred thousand square kilometres straddling the border between India and Pakistan. Locals have learnt to live in its harsh environs, but it is not an easy life.",
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              "text": "The guards often have to buy water from tankers to meet their needs and those of the wildlife they are helping to protect.",
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              "text": "A watch tower in the middle of desert allows forest guards to monitor the area. They use it to track the movements of birds, wildlife and intruders.",
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              "text": "Pawar wears an odhni while working at the forest service office in Jaisalmer, although she remains unveiled when she is in the park. She thought that if any acquaintances see her without the veil in the city, they would consider it disrespectful.",
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              "text": "Shekhawati and Pawar carried water from a tank to their hut in heavy buckets every day. The general scarcity of water ensured they use the bare minimum possible for their daily needs.",
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              "text": "Shekhawati and Pawar both like their work. However, they keep preparing for various competitive exams required for other jobs, hoping for a better life.",
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              "text": "Pawar’s odhni hangs from a khejri tree, which is considered an important and auspicious plant in Rajasthan due to its many uses. Its deep roots make it resistant to drought. Its leaves are dried and used as fodder and its fruits are edible. They can be eaten raw when ripe or cooked when unripe to make a local delicacy called sangri.",
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One day in september 2018, I found myself driving through a stretch of the Thar Desert. The landscape was all sand, broken by patches of shrubs, as far as the eye could see, and I felt a surreal and slightly alarming absence of greenery and human presence. I was on my first visit to Sudasari Desert National Park, about sixty kilometres away from Jaisalmer, in Rajasthan. The national park is home to the great Indian bustard, a critically endangered bird species, and my travel companions and I cut trails through the desert in open jeeps in search of them. We spotted a few birds hiding in bushes. It was a brief encounter that would lead me to a much longer association with the custodians of the endangered birds. Soon after spotting the bustards, I met Pushpa Shekhawati and Pushta Pawar, two women forest guards who lived and worked in the sparse environs of the little-known park. 

When I met them for the first time that day, they had just returned from patrolling a section of the park. The main mandate of the job of forest guards in Sudasari is to ensure the well-being of the great Indian bustards and record their rapidly declining numbers. The aim of a patrol is to note any unusual activity, to look for any encroachment that disrupts the habitat and to report emergencies. The guards also need to make sure that the birds and other wildlife have enough water by maintaining water-harvesting structures in the park. It is a job that requires a lot of walking around. Shekhawati and Pawar walk at least fifteen kilometres over two patrols every day.