Bear Tales!

Two little frightened bear cubs stuck on a tree, a helpless and distraught mother bear - What are the forest guards to do?

- PRERNA SINGH BINDRA

Priya's day starts early, even before the sun awakes, with prayers, a bath, and then cooking for the day. Usually she hurriedly makes pooribhaji or dal-chawal. Occasionally, she indulges her sweet tooth with hastilymade halwa or even laddoos. But never pooran poli, because her daughter, Astha loves it, especially stuffed with chocolate. So pooran poli is prepared only when Astha is around. Then Priya packs her tiffin, dons her uniform, laces up her boots, straps her gun on her shoulder, and off she goes to work.

The forest has tigers and tortoises, bears and bats, snakes and spiders, leopards and langurs, hornbills and hyenas. Priya's job is to protect them.

Though Priya wonders sometimes: How can she, a woman, protect these big, powerful (and sometimes scary) animals? The question bothered her even more when the men in her village would laugh, and sometimes even mock her, 'Madam, jar tiger ni tumchyawar attack kela tar, tumhi konala wachwal? Wagh ki swatahla?' (If the tiger charges, will you save the tiger or yourself?).