Welcome to Whispering Jungles

I, Samresh Jyotishi born in Jabalpur, brought up in Mandla, towns of Madhya Pradesh state by the banks of river Narmada. I represent a family that has been a part of wildlife protection & conservation efforts in the KANHA tiger reserve for many generations. My KAKA(grandfather’s brother), Ramakant Jyotishi joined the forest department of Madhya Pradesh `as Range Officer in 1965- 10 years after selected area was declared as jungle. He was from one of the first few batches of range officers allotted to protect the Kanha national forest. That was the time when the density of tigers in central INDIA was in the thousands. His stories of close encounters with tigers framed my childhood & they stayed with me as a part of my personality. Following the footsteps of my KAKA, my uncle(father’s elder brother), C.P Jyotishi joined the forest as a forester & rose to the rank of forest ranger. His personality & style always attracted me to choose life in the forest as my career. Next to him, his younger brother(My First uncle) has worked as a veterinarian in Mandla & has worked hand in hand with the veterinary bodies of Kanha national forest which is an extremely important part of any conservation effort. As a kid, I use to join him on field visits in the forest when he uses to go for treatment or postmortem of animals like leopards, peafowls, Deer, & Tigers. His feeling of satisfaction & pride that comes from making his contribution to the conservation efforts has driven me from an early age. His guidance & mentorship helped me to see far to the brighter side of the tough life of these forest officials & I felt deeply inspired by that life as soon as I could see it. Last but not least, from my generation, I had my first cousin brother Late Kshitiz Jyotishi who worked in the core area of Kariwah camp in Kanha national park for 15 years as a forest guard. For all those 15 years I would look forward to the time I get to spend my holidays in the camp staying with him & experiencing the rustic life of the guards, their challenges, motivations & passion. I found my drive for life from my days with him in the forest. Most of the things I know about the wildlands of Kanha, it’s biodiversity & the tigers came from my time spent with him. By then, my desire to play my part in wildlife conservation as a career could not be clearer. Since then, I have traveled across different wildlife habitats with focus only on learning the contrasting conservation stories & methods. My travel led me to African Savannahs on the banks of river Zambezi, Liwonde National Parks in Malawi, Lake Clark National reserve in Alaska-USA & many more gaining knowledge & learning at each step. I then pursued my formal academic course- Wildlife conservation filmmaking from Africa media academy based in South Africa-Eastern Cape. At this stage now, my objective is to use my learnings & skills to keep up my family tradition by contributing to the wildlife conservation of the country.