Vision of Life; by Sanjay: World Tiger Day & Man

“Whenever we encounter wild animals in nature, we must only ever show kindness and compassion.” … Paul Oxton

Founder/Director of Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation and Wildlife Photographer! Located in South Africa, Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation is a small organization, doing all we can to make a big impact. We live for helping the wildlife most at risk. We love working hands-on with the animals, and we do our utmost to help every animal we possibly can.

I have used these words about Paul once but then some words you can keep reciting all the time such is the power they possess & Paul’s above words are one such! And especially on the occasion of the “Global Tiger Day”, often called as “International Tiger Day”, is an annual celebration to raise awareness for tiger conservation, held annually on 29 July. It was created in 2010 at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit & this day is celebrated with the slogan “Their survival is in our hands”, good, isn’t it but what’s scene around on this front? I looked at the scene over past few years in our Maharashtra State & one thing is sure there is sea change in awareness regarding wild life in the people & the credit must be given to govt (read also) along with many individuals as well NGOs’ & yes social media like Facebook where loads of people (read photographers) share their wild life moments making many more to think about wild life & yes tiger snaps are always the one which gets maximum attention, is a fact! And do mind ours is one of the most progressive, urbanized States & that makes forest dept’s job most difficult as the biggest threat to the wild life is not by nature or any big animal but we the humans. Because a tiger has teeth & power, a leopard has speed, an elephant has power, a sloth bear has got strong claws to rip flesh from human body, a wild boar has got tusks to dig, a snake has venom, even a honey bee can sting & birds can fly high but none of this matches with what we the humans has got & that is our brain! And with the help of this brain we build machines like JCB, Tractors, Cranes, Chain Saw, Compactors & what not. And all powers of every above animal can’t match with the power of machines which are created by our brain. End is, in the war of man vs. animal it’s always the animals which has to take a step back means what? Means either the animal has to leave its place of living which we fondly call as habitat or it gets extinct! And off late it’s mostly the later outcome which we are seeing! And you know one more thing about humans which animals can’t ever do, which is humans can unite & form a govt of their own by voting & make rules for the comfortable living of themselves, this no animal can do! And when human makes rules for their comfortable living it’s obvious that the center of their comfort is humans only where animals has no place! As humans for govt & make departments like Urban Development, Roads, Irrigation, Transportation & many such which makes their lives easy but all these departments makes other animal’s lives miserable is the bitter fact & yes for that the humans made one more dept & that is Forest Dept!

Here is where role of Forest Minister & his team comes in picture as till very recent, this dept nobody used to take this dept seriously because this is the only dept which is not for the humans so it’s obvious that most of the elected humans (read ministers) were not much interested in dealing with forests or say animals & trees! But in last four years a lot change has happened though there are tiger deaths & leopards deaths too yet numbers of tigers has increased in our State is a fact & Nagpur is called as World Tiger Capitol, indeed a thing of honor as when this royal animal is getting vanished from most other parts of world, here in Maharashtra not only its surviving but increasing in numbers too! One new tiger sanctuary has started in western part of State i.e. Sahyadri Tiger Reserve in Kolhapur District & many initiatives has been taken to make wild animals life also a bit comfortable. Most important aspect is looking after the human which works in forest dept as it’s these men who are responsible for wild animals as well their habitats protection. And if proper care of these men is not taken care how we will expect them to take care of wild life, isn’t it? So the major difference what I saw in last few years is, if not hundred percent but at least proper steps has been taken to make provision of funds for forest dept which itself is a big thing! At the same time more focus has been given on plantation as well crating awareness in the minds of urban population for protection of wild life & its importance as unless you don’t know what to save, how you will be saving it? First time in my many visits to Mantralay (a place from where policies of State are made) I saw entire ground floor plaza displaying images of wild life including a huge tigress statue welcoming you. This is what required as when a common man sees that the policy makers of the State are thinking of wild life on priority then this must be important, the message is clear! And for this I will give full marks to present wild life team & may be present forest minister is himself represents Chandrapur Constituency which has maximum forests as well man animal conflicts too, so he understands forest’s importance as well problems also better than any ruler from other parts of the State! And the present forest dept’s minister is boon for the wild life as he is our finance minister also, so making provision of funds for wild life he can do by himself!

Indeed with all these efforts Tadoba Tiger Project & Melghat along with Pench, Umred Karandla or Tipeshvar all these places have seen rise in tiger population which in a way is indication of healthy wild life as tiger is at apex of entire forest life but this has given rise to more man animal conflicts also. Many must have read this term i.e. man animal conflict but what exactly it means, hardly few understand it! It’s simple, forest is home of wild animals & it includes right from heir to deer to porcupine to thousands of such animals & not just tiger or leopard. At the same time adjoining to these forests which is home to all above animals, there are human settlements also & humans grow faster than animals as all the comforts of life are with us only! So humans need more land for this grown up numbers of theirs & they encroach homes of animals i.e. forests. Obviously the animals try to fight back like tiger attacking humans or leopard killing domestic animals like cow or sheep which belongs to the humans residing near to the forests or heard of deer wiping out crops of farmers, the conflicts are many! And humans don’t like these attacks on their comfort zone by the wild animals & with the help of weapons they kill the animals which are damaging their comforts, this is called man-animal conflicts! And this is going all along the forests & their neighborhood & it’s this conflict which is biggest challenge for forest dept. I am sure the forest dept also knows it & it will take proper steps to win this battle for wild animals as they have realized that not just existing forests but new forests also must be created to accommodate growing population of the wild animals as that’s the only way to reduce man animal conflicts. Just we the humans needs space for our population the animals also needs the space but they don’t have brains or machines or their govt to look after them, so its job of forest minister & his team to use their brains as well machinery for the wild animals!

Issue when some tiger gets killed, (well in this 2019 only we have lost nearly 12 tigers) or some leopard get beaten up by villagers or kills some child or an elephant creates havoc among farmers, all these happening nearby some known forest, then all such incidences becomes front page news & gets highlighted in every media & people call it man animal-conflict but what about thousands of species like butterflies, birds, mongoose, frogs, jackals, heir, hyenas, fish or even the monkeys (list is unending) all of these are getting defeated (read vanished) around our cities but who is caring for this urban-wild conflict which is far larger than just man-animal conflict! As cities are growing to accommodate humans & their needs we are driving every other specie not just out of our cities or towns but out of this planet. And do mind you cut some trees which was home for some birds or squirrels or monkeys or butterflies, just think what they will be doing as they don’t have Movers & Packers to shift their luggage to some other place over night & they can’t build their new home by appointing some architect or contractor. We all in the city knows how difficult it is to remove even some encroachment (read illegal homes) by the humans, as our govt says where these poor humans will go & regularize even the illegal homes on the grounds of humanity! Well, for once we don’t think about all the species of birds or insects or animals or fish which are legal resident of some habitats & in one day we declare that land as residential or industrial & throw them out of their homes, wow what a great act of humanity by humans!

I repeat, I am not saying don’t build homes, roads, industries or any such structures, I am saying while we build our comfort giving structures let’s keep some place for wild life everywhere which right now we are not doing is a fact! And for that high time that we restructure forest dept as wild life dept & like IAS officers are made bosses of every govt dept, the same way IFS i.e. forest cadre people should be made part of every dept’s planning team! Like we have Urban Planning Dept we must have Wild Life Planning Dept too as then only our entire planning will be wild life-centric also & then only has some hope for the animals of which the Tiger is at apex! This is just weird (wild) thought which came to my mind but look at the reason behind such weird thought as every day we open news paper & get to read some bad news about wild life & then hundreds of such bad news never see the day light but they are happening & we need to act fast! Enough of awareness (that will keep on) on the front of Save Tiger, its action time now & not just by some forest minister or forest dept but by every one of us for saving the tiger & its home i.e. forests!

If & only if we are able to do such drastic change (that’s all we need) in our approach towards wild life then we only we have earned to celebrate World Tiger Day or else there will be no land for tigers or any specie (read home or habitat) & then all what will remain is Tiger Day but no Tiger, to see that Day!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..

https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

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http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.html