wow, this is a very interesting thread, so I hope you don't mind me jumping in.First off to answer the question; mostly yes. There are the exceptions of course. I would much rather tough it out in an environment which is genetically natural for me, i.e: damp, warm kind of place. In canada: no chance in hell, i’d die, my body is not made for canada, it just is not natural. And I am NOT one to go against nature when I am about to depend on her. My metabolism and body chemistry and health is MUCH better when I go back to india. This is a known and observed fact in my case.
I would like to point out that, as someone said earlier “wilderness” is just a matter of comparison. For someone like me or my friends from india, who spend most of the childhood living in the national forests. (This is possible there since rules there are less stringent, and most of my friends’ family owned the land much before india was even a country on its own, let alone bought the land and called it a “national park”). What’s my story? I happen to have lived with my friend (one of them) for a bit. I also went to a school called Rishi Valley.
Yes, I agree that Rishi Valley is not exactly “in the middle of the amazon alone” kind of situation, but it’s a couple of leaps and bounds towards that. We made our own food, helped cook it. We cleaned the stuff ourselves (had help from the neigbouring village of course, which is 20Km away, which in indian countryside is a LONG distance).
About my friends, most of them make their living hunting and fishing in the forest or “national park” land they own. Some of them have gone on to farm on the land a bit of course. Not to say they do not have touch with civilised world (so to speak), they do go to the nearest village every now and then for things. But even that is FAR step from anything most western urbanites are used to. And these people have been doing it for centuaries, generations. My friend comes to school (Rishi Valley). He even visits major cities, he studies in College in Bangalore and such. But he goes back to his “feral” lifestyle whe he goes home.
He has to collect his own food. Most of us who have grown up in Rishi Valley know how to survive in that eco-system. We know what plant does what etc. Of course I did not, but a lot of my friends who were there came from backgrounds like what I mentioned above, so they HAD to know, it was part of their life, and it soon became part of mine.
Of course the sad part is, since then Rishi Valley has become more “westrenised” and less “traditional” and feral or whatever you want to call it. I am sure there is NO possibility of getting land like my friends will soon inherit, unless your family already had it for 100 years and so on.
Nevertheless, I personally know people who have gone pretty far in rewilding, not totally of course, because civilisation is like a virus, wherever you go it will hunt you down, there is nowhere on earth where you can escape it altogether (or almost nowhere). And more importantly these are people who have remained in the “semi-feral” state (lets call it that) for generations. I am sure any one of us given some time can simply cut off from civilisation (especially some of my friends who are especially used to a wilderness lifestyle) and live in the wilderness. This may sound like being to proud or boastful, please pardon me if it comes out that way, but I am just trying to make a point here.
But its not for everyone. You have to grow up in an environment that nurtures primitive living and wilderness skills, and is reasonably removed from western civilisation. Not many people have. I had the fortune of doing so for a bit, sadly I too have been “domesticated” to an extent. But I know its not all lost.
My mom for e.g. can’t survive more than 6 weeks in rishi valley. I know people from US and england who visit Rishi Valley, who cant make it past day 10. Without needing to go to Bombay. The mosquitoes bother them, the millipedes around the bed are “icky” (it’s pretty normal occurance in the monsoon season there), the water makes them sick (it’s quite ‘hard’ and essentially in its natural form, my stomach is used to it, infact if i drink “bottled water” or softened water here (in T.O.); which is all demineralised and purified etc, i get sick). And all in all life involves TOO MUCH WORK for some in Rishi Valley.
-Tj
I always find it interesting that many Asian countries, some of which have a large population may actually be easier to re-wild in and find others who are doing so compared to some less-densely populated northern countries . Of course it’s different for everyone and some do better in the cold regions versus the warm ones. I have lots of friends from Pakistan for example who have invited me to visit them over there who have told me about the nature over there and the animals and places where you can live out on the land. Yet when you look at the statistics for the country, it appears to be overloaded with people (and many parts are) with no wilderness whatsoever.
I think we get so used to the idea of the Amazon/Northern Canada/Russia and other such huge people-less areas as the only intact pristine wilderness areas that we forget that many times it’s often easier to live closer to the land in smaller spaces which have a more warm-to-hot climate. They also tell me stories about how they used to gather mangoes all the time and throw rocks at date palms and eat all this fresh fruit all the time which they sorely miss now that they are living in Canada. Many of those friends have actually returned to Pakistan now after spending a few years going to college in Canada.
I have a hard time doing a lot of re-wilding here in Canada mostly because I don’t know many rural people anymore to have a base for hunting and trapping and my body-mind prefers a subtropical climate to a subarctic one(even though I spent over 16 winters living out in the country on the Canadian prairies, go figure), and most of the re-wilding stuff I have done has had the most success in the subtropics, especially when it comes to sharing the experiences with others.
Let’s hear more about you and your friend’s re-wilding experiences in India