Kula Volleyball Trophy: First time in the history of Tiger Reserve in India.
Even though the younger generation of tribals who are known as tribal youth. But now a days they are known as a ‘Kula Fighter.’ For the first time in India, a competition has been launched in Melghat Tiger Project named as ‘Kula Volleyball Trophy.’ Wildlife Conservationist Yadav Tarate Patil, Angad Deshmukh, ACF Vishal Mali and Parikshit Dambare were born with the concept of ‘Kula Volleyball Trophy.’ Therefore, the ‘Kula Volleyball Trophy’ was organized by the Village Eco Development Committee Borikheda, Disha Foundation and Melghat Tiger Reserve in October 1th October to 7th 2014 & 2015 in ‘Wildlife Week.
In the tribal ‘Korku’ culture, the Tiger is called the mother’s brother. So they called tiger as a ‘Kula Mama.’ In recent times, there have been several occasions of bitterness in the name of Korku and Kula. There were also incidents of human and wildlife conflict, forest department and local community conflicts. But the successful launch of the ‘Kula Volleyball Trophy’ by tearing it down has proved that ‘Korku of Melghat is a true tiger friend. The Prince of Britain recently stamped the ‘Waghmitra’ award on this tight knit of Korku and Kula. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) awarded the ‘International Waghmitra Award’ to Borikheda VEDC at Delhi for its outstanding performance in tiger conservation. The ‘Kula Volleyball Trophy’ was particularly appreciated.
The ‘KVT’ is the first event in India to promote tiger conservation through sports. It is through taking into account the skills of the local tribes as well as the organization of large numbers of young people. For this event HVPM help was taken. Also with the help of the Lions Club, a ‘Health Camp for tribal people’ in MTR and also blood donation camps of forest department workers was kept here.All matches were held in ‘Kula Maidan’ at Borikheda. Gangaram Savalkar, Chairman of Borikheda VEDC, DCF Ravindra Wankhede, ACF Vishal Mali, RFO Shankar Dhote, Caretaker Parikshit Dambhare & staff of MTR. Wildlifer Angad Deshmukh, Kiran Bhonde, Sagar Patil and Amit Ogale, Yadav Tarte Patil of Disha Foundation was also involved.