Sita’s Chitwan
by Vaishali Shroff and illustrated by Kalp Sanghvi
“Sita’s Chitwan” by Vaishali Shroff and illustrated by Kalp Sanghvi. Published by Penguin. A lovely book giving a peek into Nepal’s beautiful Chitwan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The book paints a superb picture of it’s rich biodiversity and life in a national park through the eyes of a nature guide.
The first half of the book is a fictional story of young Sita who aspires to be a nature guide at Chitwan following in the footsteps of her father Man Bahadur. He has been working at Vana Safari Lodge for the last twenty five years. Sita is excited to go with her father and lead the groups of tourists into the forest. Her excitement on entering the forest each time is quite infectious.
Sita is well versed with the landscape and the flora and fauna of Chitwan. But she is always in a hurry to rush through the jungle without pausing and taking in the sounds and movements around her. Man Bahadur tries telling her to slow down and be more observant but to no avail. On one particular day, they came across a set of Rhino footprints which looked like big pits. Sita was talking about various topics and kept flitting from one spot to the next hurriedly as always.
Suddenly she realised with a heavy heart that she had strayed from the group. There was no one to be seen. She tried to retrace her steps along the way they had come. When she reached the place where they had seen the rhino footprints, she heard a faint voice call out for help. It was an old Japanese woman, one of the tourists. She had fallen there while trying to stoop and pick her topee which had fallen. No one had noticed that she was missing. As Sita helped her get up, they came face to face with a Mamma Gaida (Rhino in Nepali) and her baby. What happens next? Can Sita and the old woman get away safely? What does Sita learn from this incident? Read to find out.
The second half of the book is non fiction and talks about the history, people, vegetation, animals and birds of Chitwan. The need for conservation and measures taken towards it are also explained in simple words. There is a nice little interview that Sita does with Doma Paudel who is the first female nature guide in Chitwan. And the book ends with a nice little list of career options around forests and national parks for those who aspire to live close to nature.
Loved reading the book with my 7 year old. This proved to be a perfect armchair travel getaway for us. The encounter with Mamma Gaida was quite suspenseful for us. I had read a book on Chitwan called ‘The Soul of the Rhino’ almost a decade ago and was filled with nostalgia when I read this. Figured out that this was one of the books referred to by Vaishali while writing. Our children are fortunate to get books about such interesting places, in simple enough language that they can understand and immersive illustrations that grab their attention. Chitwan translates to “Heart of the jungle”, Chitta (heart) and Vana (jungle). Chitwan NP is definitely high on our mind right now! The book is apt for children aged 7+.
Reading up a little more about Chitwan National Park, I found that the Valmiki Ashram is located within it. It is believed that this is where The Ramayana was written by Valmiki. Also, Sita is supposed to have stayed here during her pregnancy and this is where she gave birth to Luv and Kush.
Where to buy from?
An independent indie bookstore, Funky Rainbow, from where I buy many of my books.
The publishers Penguin books here.