Have you ever seen a couple perform a beautiful piece of Waltz? It is a treat for the eyes watching the man, his partner in his arms, glide across the ballroom floor. The lady embraces her man grimly, yet, in a delicate fashion. They display perfect poise and postures, turning with grace and elegance, her frilled gown gyrating with that sheen. The synchrony and finesse, the perfection with which their legs move, complementing each other makes it feel like watching two bodies of a single soul, intricately woven together; like two dollops of butter melting on a hot pan. Passion for each other and, passion for dance and romance blooms and beckons the heart, mind and soul of the spectator. You do not know what move they are going to make next. But every second’s anticipation is well worth the wait. Add some philharmonic orchestra in the background and you have a perfect picture. Such is the image of a well choreographed performance of Waltz.

Now let us picture this. The man is clumsy. He has no clue as to how he should support the lady in his arms. The lady nervously holds on to the man, anticipating a mishap. They are constantly and consistently tripping over each other. They fall even. The music goes off-beat and gets irritatingly stuck every now and then. The lady is unable to hold balance and turn around, leave alone with grace. The dancers do not know what their moves have to be. And even if they did, they are unsure. The choreographer suffers from evident and recurring bouts of ego issues and neither believes in his dancers nor works towards training them well. They do not know passion, they do not understand romance and they certainly do not want to be with each other. It is mentally painful to be exposed to such levels of mockery of art.

I seldom speak of topics unrelated to wildlife or the environment. This one is no different. Let us skim through the surface of bloopers, blunders and bureaucracy that fuels the present wildlife conservation crisis in India.

.

Old Age or Heritage

Our country is truly blessed with a bounty of natural treasures. We have towering cliffs and labyrinthine valleys, silver streams that flow through emerald forests and miracle rivers quenching arid ravine lands. These are also home to a myriad of creatures, diverse and unique. India boasts of biological diversity that is matched by few places on the Earth. As is the case with all other valuable objects, these jungles also need protection. The safeguarding of these treasures means safeguarding a healthy future for ourselves. Protection is thus, of extreme importance. India has a wing in the ministry that is concerned with the protection and conservation of these natural riches, the Ministry of Environment and Forests. There are forest departments that govern and manage forests in every State. Down at the grass-root level are the forest guards. These are the people appointed to patrol our forests and defend them. They are the ones who hold the safety of wild animals and forests in their hands. For those of you who know less about the duties involved, it would be surprising to know that it is no cake walk. These men have to face wildlife poachers, encroaching villagers from all around the forest boundaries and in some cases even rebellious tribal folk who dwell inside the protected forest areas. Forest fires, natural ones as well as human-created ones at that, are a severe threat to the remnant forestlands. It is the tireless job of these guards to stand up and defend the jungles from all these pressures. Their job profile is nothing close to a dream walk in an enchanted forest.

That kind of a job requires people with strength and courage, dedication for work and a will to contribute arduously towards protecting the forests. One would imagine that these guards would be able, physically well built men. And most of the forest guards perhaps fit the bill. And that was two decades ago. So, most of the men who are in-charge today were hired around twenty years ago. There have been no new significant postings of forest guards for a very long time. The staff members have grown terribly old and continue to try and work in challenging conditions. I do not mean to offend them in any way whatsoever. These people have acquired commendable experience and skill over the years and I trust that a percentage of them still work diligently. But how wise is it to leave our jungles in the hands of such people? Sometime back in the near past, retired army personnel were supplemented to these guard posts and a few in higher levels as well. Our highlight still stands at ‘retired’. I do not deny that our servicemen are able, fit and willing. But it certainly doesn’t require a genius to figure how well they know of forest life and how good their knowledge of related aspects would be.

There were also pompous announcements in newspapers that in certain places, poachers were being reformed and given jobs as forest guards. The life that a normal guard leads is anything but smooth. The income is low and untimely, they are certainly not well armed, very little heed is given to the betterment of his family and community and the system is anything but supportive. How are we accommodating new postings for poachers, or ‘ex’-poachers in such a field? Are we not risking something bigger, by trusting a person with contacts and capabilities to continue working with the wildlife mafia, and that too by providing him the tag of a government employee? I needn’t mention that poaching would pay more than what the government does. So the ‘reformed’ poacher would always have options.

.

Blame the Dance Floor

I spilled my guts out and spoke about the rather pathetic state of the guards. Above these guards is an entire hierarchy of officers and department staff. It is both uninteresting and ugly to get into details of how the power levels work in the system. We shall keep that aside for later. Bringing into focus the people at the higher levels, where in fact, I think the mistakes begin. Most of the higher officials are posted through merit rather than passion for the field. Maintaining the anonymity of names, I shall quote an example. In one of the famous Tiger Reserves that I visited, I had a brief conversation with a forest department staff member of a lower level. The park has more than one Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF). The man with whom I spoke claimed that, while one of the ACFs is hardly ever around, the other one does not like to roam the forest. So that leaves the third ACF to patrol the forest alone. And it goes without saying that our representatives at the parliament who are passionate and genuinely care about these issues are an endangered species.

There are loopholes in the lower levels, loop holes in the higher levels and certainly large portholes in the middle where the intermediates sit established. Each one gives the other enough and more chances to point fingers and cover up their own faults. Everyone enjoys the unhealthy yet pleasing and gratifying blame game. In our country we have very often blamed the system for everything that goes wrong. The subliminal truth is that we too are a part of that system. But it is impossible for body cells and organs to remove cancer cells on their own, even though they all belong to the same system. Can we afford to sit and wait for surgery through interference from outside?

.

‘Trick or Treat’-ing with Tourism

An aspect that is increasingly gaining importance is wildlife tourism. There are contradicting views on impacts of wildlife tourism in the country. It is not difficult to deduce that larger and larger number of tourists; especially those visiting high-profile Tiger Reserves like Kanha, Ranthambhore, Corbett or Bandhavgarh significantly increase the revenue. The tourism department, usually separate but sometimes clubbed in with the forest department, is beginning to exploit this opportunity. Sell the idea of seeing tigers in the wild, attract more and more foreign tourists, and increase revenue. ‘Trick the crowd sentiments and treat thyself’ seems to be the motto. Although it seems like a great scheme since tourism offers employment to the locals, facilitates economic growth et cetera, there are more things that go morphed and unnoticed. I shall brief an example of the Lions in India. For those of you who are not aware, there are two species of Lions in the world, viz. the African species and the Asiatic species. The African Lion, as the name suggests, is spread across the plains of the African continent. Their numbers are substantially high and effective conservation efforts, although with tourist attraction as a motive, has kept them going strong. The Asiatic Lion, originally the National Animal of India before the Tiger, was once spread from modern day states of Gujrat and Madhya Pradesh to Bihar. Excessive hunting reduced their numbers drastically, and, presently they are confined to a small isolated population of around 400 individuals in the Gir National Park of Gujrat. They are breading well and considerably increasing in numbers.

The main problems that crop up because of this rammed up pocket of lions are lack of space, inbreeding and susceptibility to epidemics. Gir cannot hold more than 250 Lions, but now there is an uncomfortable surplus. Inbreeding means mating and reproduction between individuals who are siblings or half siblings or plainly genetically related. Continued inbreeding creates a generation of genetically weak individuals. This means that their resistance to diseases, both extant ones and new alien ones, would be really low. In case one such lion contracts a disease, it can spread sporadically to the entire mass of weak lions that thrive within the limited space. It could wipe out the last few surviving wild Asiatic Lions from the face of the Earth. So what is the rational solution? We find a place away from Gir and establish an alternative breeding population of lions. After efforts in research for availability of space, prey animals and other suitable conditions, Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh was suggested as the ideal place to introduce lions. The Gujrat government adamantly refused to part with their Lions claiming that the lions were ‘Gujrati Lions’. They refused to donate the ‘pride’ of Gujrat to the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh. Mushy sentiments? Love for animals? Safeguarding pride? Let us dig a little deeper.

Madhya Pradesh currently boasts as the ‘Tiger State’ of India. It has three high profile Tiger Reserves, Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench. And the state has been marketing its wildlife with tourism aspect rather well. A foreign tourist who wishes to visit India to see Tigers usually plans to visit Madhya Pradesh. The same foreigner, to catch a glimpse of a Lion, has to go to Gujrat. Almost all of Gujrat’s wildlife tourism income is through Gir and its Lions. Lions are found nowhere else in India. But if Gujrat gives its lions away, Madhya Pradesh will then become the ‘Lion and Tiger State of India’, thus grabbing a significant chunk of income that the Gujrat tourism currently generates. Do we need more arguments to question the ‘sentiments’ of Gujrati Lions?

.

Wrong partner, wrong moves

There are innumerable non-governmental organisations that are operating in the country today. Some are doing commendable work. The government can very well join hands with them and work towards betterment of the forests. But that would be utopian conditions wouldn’t it. The alliances and collaborations seem to be amongst those who can be partners in crime rather than those who can mutually safeguard the treasures. The few organisations that are well equipped, possess the potential to get work done and actually contribute effectively are stamped on and shunted off. Big bucks evidently favour patronization in the higher circles. We thus have large mining projects, irrigation and power plant projects that effortlessly exploit the ‘to-be-conserved’ resources in and around protected forestlands. Except for a few renowned big organisations, it doesn’t seem like the government’s choice of ‘partners’ has been very wise.

With such an explosion of awareness and information, one would expect that senses will be restored and they will pick up sanity at this point at least. But the truth is far from hope. The Lions are stuck in bureaucratic revenue issues and Tigers continue to slip out of hand. These big cats are charismatic and manage to get little attention. You can very well imagine the condition of less charismatic animals and plants. And the sudden decision to ‘re-introduce’ Cheetahs in India takes centre stage. There is miserable failure in executing initiatives and ideas proposed by numerable scientists and researchers to create a safe and sound system for conserving existing forests and wildlife.

.

All of this certainly sounds gloomy and morbid. But I do not think that all hope is lost. What I see emerging at present is a generation of individuals with broader perspectives and sensitivity to such issues. It is indeed heartening to see young men and women of my age and some even younger, contributing towards wildlife research and conservation with commendable passion and dedication. I believe in myself and those of my kind to hold hands and conquer dreams. I trust in ‘us’ the ability to gather what’s slipping away. We have had enough of the bad music, wrong partners and painfully lame blame-games. And that is why I hold my hand out and appeal to my counterparts. Shall we Dance…?

1 Comment »

1. 

   get this published. pls get this published.

   Comment by sangeeta — May 15, 2010 @ 8:13 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website