Save Tiger; Save Ourselves!

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“Wildlife is and should be useless in the same way art, music, poetry and even sports are useless. They are useless in the sense that they do nothing more than raise our spirits, make us laugh or cry, frighten, disturb and delight us. They connect us not just to what’s weird, different, other, but to a world where we humans do not matter nearly as much as we like to think. And that should be enough.” … Richard Conniff.

Richard Conniff is an American non-fiction writer, specializing in human and animal behavior. And actually going by the way he has put importance of wild life he should have been awarded Pune’s citizenship, yes I am referring to the sarcasticisum in his words! But then why Punekar when it’s wild life conservation & the way it’s being handled here in our country or State any sane person will lose his cool though sane person is a rare or endangered species in itself in today’s time! No, I am not blaming so called system or forest dept or poachers or govt or politicians or builders (read land developers) or the industries for the threats tigers (read wild life) is facing! I am not blaming anybody because everybody is at blame on this front, so I am just putting forward facts. In this month of April & May when central elections got declared naturally death of a sub adult tigress by hunter’s trap in some forest got forgotten fast. But do mind, this was not some forest; this happened at Tadoba  Tiger Park which is a heaven for tigers (read wild life) & that too in the core area near second entry gate called as Khatoda gate! And just before that some assistant Conservator of forest’s clip got viral, saying “high time we need to curtail or control tiger population”! This was like petrol on fire as on one side Save Tiger is key word for wild life conservation & a senior forest officers itself saying reduce tiger numbers & then a tigress gets killed within a Tiger Park which is supposedly safest place for the tigers! Well, all along when I am saying tiger, please note that its symbolic presentation of wild life as tiger is at the apex of wild life chain & what I meant is, every single wild life species i.e. right from sloth bear to pangolin to yellow footed pigeon, every specie’s life is at threat is what we are referring to! Many (read most) people calling themselves wild lifers or nature conservationists raised hail on social media doubting integrity of forest dept itself about wild life conservation & conclusion was death of a tigress by hunters or poachers right within the Tadoba park is outcome of attitude of forest personnel! Well, what else can be expected as with boon of social media & digital photography any guy who can click some snaps of forests (read tigers) & can afford to go the national parks, considers himself authority on wild life & thinks he or she is the only savior of wild life!

Indeed some who has seen Tadoba & alike forests are concerned & one of my friends asked me what has happened actually with the said tigress & can I write about it, so the people will know the fats! Well, I am no authority on wild life & there are many far better people are in the field but I am lucky enough to visit many forests & got opportunity to know views personnel, associated with wild life from different perspective. Some as they are paid for it ( read as forest dept), some look at it as their survival i.e. guides, gypsy drivers, some because of genuine interest, some as profession i.e. wild life tour operators, some passionate about wild life, some who lives around forests i.e. locals & the list goes on! And all these insights have helped me to know the wild life from multi dimensional perspective, which I will be sharing! As forest or wild life is not just animals, birds, insects & trees but in includes people also who are in & around & these people also makes part of wild life. And it’s this co existence of people (read humans) & all other species is the main cause of problems in wild life conservation. 

We all need forest but in our convenient way & these ways can differ from person to person. For e.g. forest dept needs forest as their job is to protect forests. Guides needs forests & tiger as tourist come to the forest to see the tigers. Tour operators needs forest & tigers to make money via making tourists visit these forests. The so called  Wild Lifers needs forests so they can click snaps of tigers & post on FB/Insta & get likes for the posts & the list is on & do mind no necessary all these people do need the forest & the tiger but they may not be liking it! But then there are people who live in & around forests but they may not like tiger or wild animals! Finally there are people who like forests & tigers as they can make money by killing it! Though no need to tell that they are fools as if you keep killing tigers for making money then the source will dry fast as what you will do when you have killed all the tigers? But then in today’s world, number of fools is far more than the tiger’s count & that’s our main problem! Rather few of them who are living in & around forest may be even disliking tigers as well wild animals & reasons may be many for their disliking towards wild animals. For e.g. a family living in village Kolsa or Palasgaon, well these are name of villages which are right within Tadoba Park which has refused to shift from the park, for their own reason! These people has their cattle & they do farming as that’s their source of earning & no need to say they are always exposed to threat of attack from wild animals like tiger & leopard & their crops can get destructed by the animals like deer & wild boar! And this is enough reason for not liking wild animals, had I been living there, I also would not have liked wild animals!

And on the top of it see the way the forest dept which is supposed to protect wild animals is equipped with! Imagine you are a forest guard & you haven’t given any life saving weapon like gun & you have been asked to patrol the area of some 20 sq km in the dense forest with just a walkie talkie. And threat is not from the wild animals but more from the humans who dislike these wild animals & are on mission of killing these wild animals, so how you are supposed to fight with them? In the first place how & why the human settlements (read villages) are allowed for any reason within the reserved forests. The package for shifting these locals is damn good considering their income yet just to squeeze more money or they are getting well paid by the poachers (just a chance) they refuse to shift from reserved forests & become a major nuisance for the wild life as well for the forest dept. The govt (read apart from forest dept) must support forest dept to overcome this hurdle because these local people, most of the times becomes shield of the poachers is fact! At the same time till we can’t shift them the forest dept, NGO’s as well every that person who claims to be a wild life love should unite to make the locals love the wild life as the thing which you love, you end up caring for it & respecting it! So, till all concerned people related to the wild life doesn’t start loving wild life, alone forest dept will never be able to save tigers or other species from getting killed, is a fact!

And for that we need to come up with Love Wild Life campaign all across the State as well country, involving even the cities as to make people love wild life one needs to take care of their day to day demands & it does need money as well infrastructure. And govt always moves only after public pressure which must be created from every segment of the society about wild life conservation! 

Frankly the most important aspect we are overlooking or ignoring is our ever growing population & its greed which is the biggest threat to wild life. As the 120 crore & increasing population of this country may be a boon for so called development or trade of the country but this 120 crore population need land & lots of it for its daily needs which includes homes, industries, mines, roads, schools, airports, railway lines & what not! And only land easily available if under forest which is home of wild animals is the easiest target as no wild animal ever demands for any compensation to shift from its home neither it goes to any court against humans nor it can protest & post its anguish on social media. All these wild animals can do is try to fit itself in whatever little piece of forest it gets or surrender to human encroachment (read die)! And humans are happy as they get land for their needs without paying any compensation but do mind nature does compensate in its own way & that day nobody will be left to compensate to use for the crimes we have committed by not compensating to wild life!

Death of a tigress inside Tadoba is being hailed by the society because today a tigress got dead in so called tiger park but what about hundreds of animals including tigers, elephants, leopards, jackals, snakes, birds & fish too, which are getting killed by we all (read humans) because of our encroachment on their homes by all means, who is shouting about it? Indeed this doesn’t justify the death of the tigress but when we point one finger towards some forest dept then rest four fingers are pointed towards us only, mind it!

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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