Sawai Madhopur

Below: Our room...lol...

Below: More of our room...

Below: View from across the hospital...pretty hut...

Below: Bio-Gas Unit (here the dung is put in and churned)

Below: View from outside hospital...

Below: Walking tour of the village---kids, kids and more kids...

Below: Public School---Rathores Devloped

Below: Us w/none other then Tiger Man Fateh Singh Rathore...

Yesterday morning we left to drive from Jaipur to Sawai Madhopur (the entire area is known primarily for its tiger sanctuary---Rathambore Park---where the famous Indian tiger is being protected from extinction)....close to a four hour drive from the institute. We saw all kinds of things on the way to Sawai...animals...people...what not. After arriving we met up w/the executive director Rupinder who briefed us on the hospital as well as the key programs being run.

-One of the main ones the Bio-Gas program to provide an alternate source of energy...a family or two families together are given one Bio-Gas unit for a mere cost of 2000 Rs. to prove the needed energy supply. The Bio-Gas unit is developed so as to use cow dung to produce the needed energy. The waste from this unit can then be utilized as fertilizer for the fields...ultimately resulting in close to 100% use of the dung. Farmers wanting to qualify for this unit need to meet only two pre-requisites...one they must own enough cattle to provide the dung and two they must have enough space w/in their housing area to maintain distance between the unit and the actual house. Earlier on the units were to be given at no cost however it soon became apparent that people then took the unit for granted as they had made no formal investment into it.

-The other programs deal with encouraging artificial insemination to farmers for breeding cows as well as methods of taking care of the cattle w/out disrupting the wildlife within the park.

We stayed in the hospital ward...lol on patient beds as you can see in the pictures. The hospital is a well-developed institution that works to meet the needs of the community to the best of its ability.

One key aspect of all of this that I haven't mentioned yet is the Rathore family...Fateh Singh Rathore...a park ranger (who is quite elderly now) and a man whose lifelong passion has been working towards saving Indian tigers. He has been working endlessly alongside his son Dr. Rathore to save the tigers in the Ranthambore Park as well as assist the community in whatever they may need. The Rathores have established the hospital we visited w/assistance from donors and are constantly tackling the government and corrupt system who is responsible for the near extinction of the Indian tiger (there were at one time 80 tigers in the park and due to poachers the number is down to 25 or so---extremely grave situation). They have also created a state of the art school (absolutely fantastic) for the village children to be schooled in---upon meeting certain conditions girls from the village are schooled free and boys are educated on a concession price. We had the opportunity to meet w/Dr. Rathore at his farmhouse (gorgeous place) in the evening for a brief chat and also met w/the Tiger Man (that is how he is globally renowned---Google him to see) Mr. Fateh Singh Rathore today!!!

We also visited one of the villages...and walked around to get a feel of it...there was also a brief stop to check out a Bio-Gas unit as well as the school...simple piece of machinery and yet amazing!!!