The Divisional Forest Officer of Katarniaghat Akash Badhawan is changing the lives of human beings and animals residing in Katarniaghat, drawing parallels between Vidya Balan in the film ‘Sherni’ where she was also changing lives for the better.
The Daily Guardian spoke to Badhawan and got to know how they are working and changing the lives of everyone related to Forest.
The children only had used copies in their hands which meant that only oral studies were the hope for them and this initiative was started by Satyendra Kumar, Sub-Inspector of the Special Tiger Protection Force of the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary under the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve. He was teaching about 20 children during his free time at the Motipur Forest Range Office campus. The strength of kids was reduced to 4-7. Then he was promoted and asked newly joined Divisional Forest Officer Akash Badhawan to look after these little ‘Mowglis’. The destiny of Mowgli School changed and new dawn knocked on the door of these Mowglis.
“When my wife Tanya and I first interacted with these kids, they were very fascinated that someone had come to meet them. Well, over biscuits that we gave them, the ice was broken and I asked them what games would they like to play at our fairly big garden of the Motipur Range Office and Eco-Tourism Centre. They slowly started speaking up, to my wife mostly, and some kids wanted footballs, some wanted carrom boards, some girls wanted ludo sets and some kids even wanted Hindi storybooks. Within 2 days, I got these kids footballs, carrom boards, badminton sets, and some basic books to begin with,” says Divisional Forest Officer, Akash Badhwan.