GO! DO YOUR P-2-C...!

Take one: This man Kamal is a paint brush….sorry! Sorry!

Take two: This man Kamal… a paint brush manufacturer has just been arrested…. 1000 brushes made of mongoose hair have been confisTIcated from him!
These hilarious takes are from my very first P2C! Only the situation wasn’t that comical. I was amidst a realtime-arrest scene …

The Year 1991

Conservationists realize that the India’s ‘Common Mongoose’ is not-so-common anymore. The reason – exposed! A nationwide hunting spree to kill the mongoose for its hair is rampant. This hair is used to make high-quality paint-brushes!

A sharp decline in its population makes mongoose a protected species under the wildlife Protection Act. The punishment to kill a mongoose is equivalent to that of killing a tiger now.
The Year 2007

I was already gasping to get my first by-line. On discussing with Bahar, I set out on a recce to check if the trade in mongoose-hair paint brushes was still prevalent in the capital…While waiting at the Indraprastha Metro station, I saw another creature waiting in the bushes as well. It was the common mongoose- which was peeping at me from the bushes! To me, it was a positive omen.

We were almost sure that after all these years, this trade must be non-existent by now…It was when I reached Nai sadak, the heart of Delhi, that our myth was shaken. It was at Janta Stationary Mart, that these mongoose-hair brushes were being sold openly. And what was disturbing was that the shop-owner and his assistants seemed to know that what they were dealing in was absolutely illegal!

I showed the brush samples to Bahar (with a hidden grin), and that is when I learnt my first lesson through her: The responsible role of a journalist. At that point of time, her only worry was to ensure that those were indeed mongoose hair brushes. Once the scientific verifications were done, I got the signal to proceed with my recce and that too with a spycam from that time on! We had ensured from our end that we were not after some innocent traders.

My first spy-cam shoot was no less dramatic. As I went undercover as an art-student at nai Sadak…I bumped into the most unexpected acquaintance of mine…My father! Thankfully, he managed to exchange just a few words from his moving vehicle. I was already scared to death on my first spy-cam shoot, but the SIT production team including Deepak kept the humour going. Soon, the conversations at the Janta Stationary shop were recorded on a hidden cam. So, we finally managed to locate this shop at Nai Sdak which offered to supply us a bulk order of more than a thousand brushes made of mongoose hair.

But this was not enough… We needed to locate another major lead of this trade. I was in a panic. With weeks more of unyielding research, I was told to start wrapping off the story…and just then, as the luck would have it…I received a call from a shop-keeper who gave me the contacts of Kamal -a mongoose-hair paint brush manufacturer! I was thrilled. And soon our SIT production team came into action. With cordless lapel and receiver covered with my sweater and shawl, I felt like a wired-up suicide bomber standing at the South-ex bus stand. What we had come for was accomplished. We had placed a bulk order of the brushes with Kamal on the hidden-cam. Inspite of knowing that it was a risky business, he promised to supply us our order within just 2-3days!

Once, everything was in place, Bahar and Sidhartha chalked out a smooth plan with the National wildlife Crime Bureau and the Delhi Forest Department to arrest both the men on the same day. (All I had on the back of mind was that I shouldn’t bump into my father again while on raid.) But one after the other, the plan kept on falling to place.

And so this is what we have…2 traders arrested on the same day itself from two different locations….2000 illegal brushes seized from the Capital….

The Impact: Both the accused have been denied bail – definitely a first in history…

Hope: I just hope that the mongooses stay safe for centuries to come.

Emotions: I was just lucky. It just happened.

The scariest Moment: To confront the accused men, after the arrest.

Experience: Man! I need to learn a lot. But, I also got the best opportunity to learn in the first
place itself.

from CNN IBN this is Juhi Chaudhary alias JMC alias Juhi Mongoose Chaudhary