Women Safari Guides Are The Latest Addition At Kanha And Pench National Parks

Women are changing the narrative when it comes of male-dominated professions and are taking on more prominent roles when it comes to their professional lives. And a latest move has come by way of women tour guides being employed at Kanha and Pench National Parks. Over 24 women been added to the roster of tour guides, introducing wildlife enthusiasts to the diverse flora and fauna in each respected two tiger reserves.

What works in their favour is that fact that like their male peers, these women guides are also from various tribal regions around the area. From these women guides, 13 out of the 150 guides work at Kanha, while 11 of 83 are at Pench. Most of these women are either wives or sisters of the daily wagers employed with the forest department.

If that’s not all, two of the guides in Kanha are sisters Seema and Reshma. Seema, who started working in 2011, is a 31-year-old post graduate and mother of two kids, and is part of the first batch of registered and trained women guides. Her 26-year-old sister, Reshma, is an arts graduate and wants to make being a safari guide her permanent calling.

In a statement to the The New Indian Express, Reshma said, “We’re natives of Balaghat’s Mukki village, which lies in the reserve’s core area. We’ve grown up listening to wild animals, including tigers. We are blessed with the skill of identifying the genre of different birds merely on the basis of their unique chirping sounds.”

Reshma, who became a guide in 2018, was among 15 women who had first formed a self-help group (SHG), and even ran a canteen at Kanha with the help of the forest department. The exemplary work has given the administrative departments in Kanha and Pench cause to enrol more women as guides.

In a statement to the paper, SK Singh, field director at Kanha Tiger Reserve, said, “We’re scrutinising the services of the 150 guides and have found that some male guides are not regular or committed to work. We might deregister such guides and replace them with women guides.”

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