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In today’s Real Heroes, we meet K M Chinappa, who for the last 35 years has been fighting to save a forest in Karnataka.
Some say that if the forest and its wildlife has survived, it is because of Chinappa, a forest ranger by profession, this man has continued to serve nature even after his retirement.
For three decades, he fought to save a forest. His presence kept the poachers at bay. His grit revived an ecosystem doomed to extinction. He may be an ex-ranger, but the forest of Nagarhole is his first love.
And to the denizens of the forest, this ex-ranger is the Real Hero, ever alert.
The story of K M Chinappa is the extraordinary story of a 35-year long struggle against poachers, miners and encroachers, all for his first love, the forests of Nagarhole.
When Chinappa was posted at Nagarhole National Park as a forest ranger in 1970, there were more people than animals in the forest. Cultivation was rampant on the forest grasslands, and the people inside would invite poachers to protect their crops.
In 1972, a poacher named Parari Thimma entered the scene. No one knew who he was or where he was. He carried his operations in the cover of darkness.
Known tuskers, huge beautiful elephants, he killed and he took their ivory. I took this as a challenge.
For one year, Chinappa tracked and chased him.
Finally I heard gunshots, around midnight. I followed the torchlight and I shot at him. After that he did not come back. People say he is no more, but I do not know what happened to him.
That was just the beginning. Under Chinapa's watchful eye, poaching declined steeply and cultivation on the forest land was stopped.
Slowly, the spotted deer and sambar returned.
I used to think that in thirty years, there would be no Nagarhole, that everything would be gone. But today, it is one the most beautiful forests. And it will live for at least another hundred years.
As he winds up for the day, knowing his work is far from over, he renews his resolve not let any harm come to Nagarhole. At least, not on his watch.
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