Jungle Hut owner Anushri Mathias and her daughter with James, Henkholun and Johnson at the Masinagudi camp. Telegraph picture

Masinagudi, March 13: Descending through 36 hairpin bends from Ootacamund to Masinagudi, on the edge of Mudumalai tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu, one is hardly prepared to meet a strapping Manipuri youth trying to make visitors feel at home. Certainly not half a dozen of them, working silently and efficiently at Jungle Hut, the camp for wildlife enthusiasts inside Nilgiri biosphere reserve.

Having traversed over 3,000km from their native place, this bunch of Kuki boys reached the sanctuary — a 312 square km tiger reserve is home to at least 55 tigers and nearly 900 Asian elephants besides a wide variety of wildlife and vegetation — via Bangalore.

Jamkhojang Haokip, who has simplified his name to James, is the mainstay of this facility that is ranked number one in the zone. He has travelled from N. Lhanjang village in Churachandpur district and attributes his fluency in English to his primary school education. And he is not alone.

Twenty-year-old Lalminthang comes from Kangchup village in Sadar Hills, that is in the midst of turmoil over its demand for district status. He studied in a private English-medium school and grins that he now goes by the name of Johnson. Having left his parents and sister, Johnson first came to Bangalore and spent a year “training in cutting and packing”. At Jungle Hut, which serves delicacies to suit all palates, Johnson lords over the kitchen with a ready smile.

James had brought his friend, Jose Henkakhup, along with another lad, Jankhohao, from his village, to work here. Both returned home in time for the Manipur elections.

The bunch of Kuki boys is incomplete without Henkholun, a sturdy youngster who is yet to pick up English. But that is in no way a deterrent, since he has his Kuki comrades handy when the need for bilingual communication arises.

Anushri Mathias, who runs Jungle Hut dividing her time between guests and her 13-month daughter Ila, finds these boys trustworthy and protective. “I don’t feel the least bit insecure in the wilderness when my husband is away, with my devoted staff around,” she says. And they reciprocate the faith. “When one of the boys lost his brother back home in a shootout, he chose to stay back here. He said he’d rather work here than return to his troubled state. One of the other boys cultivated opium in Manipur, but is happy to make a decent living so many miles away,” she adds. Another worked as a security guard in her apartment building in Bangalore, but wanted to relocate away from the bustle of the city.

With leopards and sloth bears skulking around every night, not to mention the herds of elephants in quest of seasonal fruit, Anushri is fortunate to have a band of bravehearts from the Northeast on campus. And as long as they are here, she is confident of her guests’ vote of appreciation in what was once Veerappan’s bastion.

Every year during the dry season (March-April), Mudumalai tiger reserve is closed to visitors for at least a month. Chief conservator of forests R. Raghuram Singh said the forest has been closed from this week following wild fires in three of the sanctuary’s five ranges late last month. But for the boys at Jungle Hut, it is work as usual, because tourists continue to flock to the camp.