Wild Life Week , Wild Life & People!

 

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“I am not worried about the tigers, as tigers have survived many enemies & it will be there even after next hundred years; I am worried about the humans, as they don’t need any other enemy to wipe of themselves” … Anon.

Whoever this Anon guy is, I appreciate his views about ability of tigers to survive & ability of humans to wipe of themselves but the only issue is including the tigers ever specie other than the humans can’t speak or put forward their problems so some humans only have to do that job & may be that’s why we have to celebrate WildLife Week!  Wildlife Week is annually celebrated across India between 2nd to 8th October with an aim to protect and preserve the flora and fauna of India. The first Wildlife Week was observed in 1957.

Wildlife Week will be celebrated in tune with the theme of World Wild Life Day 2021 which is, “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet”, as a way to highlight the central role of forests, forest species and ecosystems services in sustaining the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people globally, and particularly of Indigenous and local communities with historic ties to forested and forest-adjacent areas. Between 200 and 350 million people live within or adjacent to forested areas around the world, relying on the various ecosystem services provided by forest and forest species for their livelihoods and to cover their most basic needs, including food, shelter, energy and medicines.

 

Roughly 28% of the world’s land surface is currently managed by indigenous peoples, including some of the most ecologically intact forests on the planet. These spaces are not only central to their economic and personal well-being, but also to their cultural identities.”

Well, I used different font for above para because this information I took from our Environment & Forest Dept’s  web-site about Wild Life Week (Which they have taken from UN’s web site about wild life day) but even if we are doing something wrong as copying till we are doing for a good & right cause that’s ok! And no wonder minds at the UN (United Nations) have understood this basic fact that no forests or wildlife can be saved if we don’t save humans which are part of those forests. That way wildlife & forests can’t be separated out as by me wild life is every other species than humans barring dogs & cats & cattle like species whom we consider as domestic & use them for our benefits! A sparrow is wild life, a butterfly is wild life, an earthworm is wild life, a rat snake is wild life, a mahseer fish is wild life & so is a tiger or an eagle or a rhino! And all these species need some privacy & their own space just the way we the humans need which we call forest which can be desert, an ocean, a river or trees or grass land depending upon the specie, which we call (or say consider) as the forest or say habitat & combinedly the species & habitat makes wild life!

Good thing is, not just our govt but govts’ (read as rulers) across the world are recognizing (though slowly) this fact about wild life conservation that only if we will protect & conserve the people around the forests or habitats then the wild life can be protected! And that’s why Wild Life Day’s as well Wild Life Week’s theme song on the tune of progress & growth of people around the forests & through the conservation of wild life!  But when it comes to progress or conservation of the people around & in the forests what’s the scene on the front around us? Keeping due respect to the efforts of the forest dept which is supposedly responsible for the conservation of the wild life, the scene is not much encouraging is a bitter fact! And we can’t blame forest dept (I mean only forest dept) for that as they are one of the most neglected dept by the Mai Baap govt is another fact! Right from not getting a powerful personality as a minister of the dept (barring last term, where finance minister was handling forest dept) out of some seventy odd years nearly sixty plus years the dept has some no entity as its minister. If you don’t believe me, then tell me the name of our State’s current forest minister; well, none other than the CM himself is heading it, not because he has full charge of it but nobody is ready to take that dept as a cabinet minister! And as the CM has many other important works to do along how you can expect he will give full time to the forests & people around it? So, the forest dept itself doesn't have a full-time captain & we expect them to take care of people around forests, “point to be noted, My Lord’; lol.

Ok let’s go ahead with captain-less forest team as the team has got fighting spirit; when we say conservation of the people around the forests or their growth & prosperity or support them, how we are going to achieve it, is the question, right? One way is, pay them directly as we are not referring to just core areas of project tiger where you relocate people & pay them compensation but we are referring to buffers of the protected forests as well thousands of habitats in each district of the State where people live in & around the forests or the habitats which are homes for the wild life.  How can these people survive if we don’t allow any development such as industry or urban planning as they are directly in conflict with the conservation of the wild life! But the State doesn't have money & we all know any type of free money finds its way to wrong avenues, which again will make these people enemies of the wild life. So, the only way is using this wild life for the growth & prosperity of the people around the forests & that way goes through tourism!

But again, on one side we speak about growth of people around forests via tourism & all our policies (as well attitude) of the concerned authorities (govt depts) are 180 degrees opposite of this solution of conservation of the wild life through tourism!  Because in tourism, we need a place to stay for the tourists, vehicles & allied services with tourist friendly staff all of which the so-called environmentalists’ hails as destruction of wildlife & so are our wildlife tourism policies made! But it's these tourists which bring money to the places where wildlife survives (still) & it’s this money which will help local people to not only survive but prosper & for that they only will have to save & conserve the wildlife around them! Recently I had been to one such place of forest near Pune & met the locals as well as forest staff & their demand was, please build resorts around here so tourists will come & the local boys will get jobs as for now either they have got nothing to survive or leave their village & go to Pune for job. And this scene is all around the most forests of the Country but what we do is, any small incident, even if death of a deer happens, we close down the tourism activity in that area, causing hundreds of local people go without earning, does forests dept’s salaries are holdup or deducted in such case, is the question I wanted to ask?? This doesn’t mean neglect deaths of wild animals, this means applying a logical approach to the problem, is what I meant! My only appeal to the environmentalists or so-called wildlife conservationists is, it's easy to write columns in newspapers (mostly urban or city) or posting on Insta & Facebook about damage to the wild life & ban tourism type comments, but have you even gone & stayed at such places which are mostly rural & cut-off from all civic luxuries of the life? If not, then do that & see how difficult life is without money or any such support around the forests & then write your columns of banning or restricting wildlife tourism. Do mind, most tourists come to forests to see & enjoy nature, not to destroy it! And we can have controlled proper tourism which has been successfully done at many places like Africa as well Brazil & certainly we also can do it but target should be more tourism & not to curtail it! Wildlife tourism has biggest potential in future & can be the best way to make forests & people around the forests to survive & prosper together; all we need is a bit positive approach of city people to achieve it & that’s why, Wild Life Week needs to be celebrated more in the Metros’ & Cities’ than in the forests as there lies the future of the wild life!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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