“There's an exact moment for leaping into the lives of wild animals. You
have to feel their lives first, how they fit the world around them. It's like
the beat of music. Their eyes, the sounds they make, their head, movements,
their feet and their whole body, the closeness of things around them - all this
and more make up the way they perceive and adjust to their
world.” … Richard O'Barry
Richard "Ric" O'Barry is an American animal rights activist
and former animal trainer who was first recognized in the 1960s for capturing
and training the five dolphins that were used in the TV series Flipper. And no
wonder with that kind of passion Ric has perfectly understood what the animals
want from we, the humans! But unfortunately, words from Ric haven’t filtered to
the common people of our country rather not even to the people which supposedly
rule the common people i.e., “Mai Bapp” Govt & if you are thinking my such
feelings are sarcasm, then you are wrong! What I have wrote about our
understanding of animals (read as wild animals) it’s the hard, bitter fact
& if you still don’t believe me then read the newspapers (not front page
but 4th or 5th page) & you might have noticed news of some
leopard or a jackal or an Indian Gaur & such wild animals falling in open
well or ditch & most of them dies & few lucky ones get rescued by
forest authorities (dept). And many of such wild animals even if get rescued
from drowning yet get crippled for life which mean death in the forests &
sent to zoo as indeed every four legged wild animal (most of them) are natural
swimmers yet when you fall from the height of some 20 or 30 feet height, they
are not braced for the impact & get injured making them unable to swim.
Another aspect is because such wells are in remote areas & nobody attains
these animals cry for rescue & eventually they succumb to death in water
due to exhaustion, is the normal story of such mishaps!
Now, most of the people who read newspapers rarely take notice of such
news & I am seriously thankful to the print media (read as newspapers) from
covering such news at the cost of much more interesting stuff such as religious
hatred speeches by political parties’ or allegations about corruption etc etc.
Because who wants to read about wild animals falling in open well or dying due
to our ignorance towards wildlife in some remote parts of the State (or
country) which most doesn’t know even it exists, so once again heartfelt thanks
to newspapers for sparing some of their costly print space for a poor leopard
or a jackal! Ok, coming to the ignorance part of such incidents, again many
people will say what they can do about it, as they pay taxes to the govt from
which there is a forest dept which gets paid & it’s their job to look after
welfare of the wild animals & such stuff, right? Yes, you are right,
thanks for paying the taxes to the govt & making salaries of the forest
dept but if you think your job is done towards the wildlife still, I will call
you ignorant & careless on the front of the wildlife! Because just the way
govt has public schools (PMC, ZP Schools) & has Public Hospitals yet why do
you admit your siblings to some private school for education & in a private
hospital when he or she is not feeling well on the health front? Sorry for such
an example, but keeping full respect for the govt schools & hospitals yet
you know their limitations due to funds or any other factor & you opt for a
better choice of school or hospital when it's a matter of your family, right?
Where your “Deshpremi” attitude vanishes at such times & where is that
inner voice which tells you that you have paid taxes to the govt & now govt
should look after you son’s schooling as well health, why you try to do
something on your own, first ask all such questions & then comment about
your rightfulness on wildlife front, is what I will suggest!
Well, govt has forest dept & other such as revenue, PWD etc as well
it has public health dept also which cares for Human’s health & hygiene,
unfortunately govt (read as we) expect forest dept along to look after
everything about wildlife, which includes, trees, lands, waterbodies, animals,
birds, fish, reptiles & many such & their funding is not even 1/1000 in
compare to what is there for the humans! I
don’t blame govt as wild animals doesn’t contribute anything for the revenue of
the govt (again they do a lot but we are fool not to understand it actually) so
the wildlife can’t have the revenue spending also for them as equal to the
humans but at least some basic provisions where wildlife’s health, safety at
large is at stake must be considered by the humans, isn’t it a fair
expectation? But unfortunately, when its thinking (leave apart acting) about
needs or welfare of wild animals or wildlife at large all we can do or doing
is, passing the buck & portraying how we are not responsible for any mishap
with the wild animals, may it be falling in a well or getting electrocuted with
electric fence or a road kill on the roads (many more also) & outcome is poor
newspaper guys have to fill their precious print media space with news about
our such ignorance towards the wildlife!
Oh, enough of pinching to wake you up about wildlife (to whom I am
fooling, that’s sarcasm) , recently three news which caught my attention (I am
a fool, let me admit) , one was a leopard fall down in an open well chasing his
prey, another was an Indian Fox ( or wolf or a hyena or jackal, what difference
it makes) fall down in an open well in search of water & an Indian Gaur
(miss-named as bison) fall down in an open well for reason known to it only
& yes there was a news about few women also drown in the lakes at two
different locations. Obviously, the last news was on the front page of the
newspapers, the deceased women’s (God bless them) families must have been by
now declared from the govt some compensation which will be Rs 1 lakh per head
if not soon they will get. I was thinking to whom the govt should pay
compensation when a leopard or a wolf dies in such a mishap which is clearly due
to human error or ignorance because wild animals can’t build a well or a road
right? Let’s stick to the death of wild animals by falling in open wells or
man-made ponds or small water bodies created by our earth digging as that takes
maximum lives of wild animals especially during summer which was indeed harsh
this year & so was the death toll of wild animals!
There have been some efforts by individual forest officers (such as By
Mr. Pravin, CCF, Pune during his Chandrapur tenure) & there may be such
others, which I don’t know, regarding covering unsafe water wells or making
arrangements by which wild animals moving near such waterbodies for any reason
won’t fall in it, barring such individual efforts, no mass level program has
been undertaken by any govt dept is a fact. And in every news, it's mentioned that forest dept officers showed their
helplessness about protecting the sides of open wells due to lack of the
funding. My question to the entire society is why we ever doesn't raise our
voice about this aspect as if there were such open wells in the centre of some
residential settlement where humans move around, would we have waited for some
dept’s funding to cover such a well or build a safety parapet wall for such a
well? We all know the answer, then who has stopped us from protecting every
such open well which is unsafe for the wild animals, can somebody answer this
simple question? And why the govt which is so keen to help the victims of a
mishap even when such people are living in illegal settlements (e.g., fire in a
slum or an illegal building collapse), just because they are humans (and
voters) & why the very same govt can’t make provisions for funds to protect
the dangerous open wells near wildlife habitats, so no wild animal should fall
in it & lost its life? Unfortunately, such questions are neither asked nor
answered as we are mute & deaf when it comes to actually doing something
for the species other than the humans is a bitter fact!
By the way can’t blame even govt as the country where over a million of
human dies in road accidents how we can expect the govt to protect lives of
some wild animals & why road accidents, in the smart cities also people get
seriously injured while walking on the footpaths by falling in the open
(unguarded) drainage chambers, so who cares if some leopard or a fox fall in an
open well, right? And then, it’s not just the
open wells which are reason of hundreds of wild animals’ deaths but we have
many other ways to do so, one of them is polluting the existing water bodies which
are drinking water source for wildlife & then there is garbage dumping
which the wild animals eat & succumbs to death or disease! On the top of
it, thanks to our deforestation (i.e., tree cutting) this 2022 summer was
hottest in last some 100 years in the central India, making many natural water
sources go dry & outcome is the wild animals has to move around in search
of the water which they too need for their survival. So, the govt & we the society must think of covering the existing
open water wells as well as making as many ponds or such shallow water bodies
around all known habitats & fill it with water from available sources so as
the wild animals won’t have to fall in the deeps for their thirst. And to cover an open well we can
think of many options, right from the wastage steel bars at construction work
to nylon roles, many things can be used which we throw away or sell at peanuts! Just to mention, we at Sanjeevani
Dev. in association with Jungle Belles are working on a cheaper, durable &
effective solution to protect the open wells from wild animals falling
in! On these lines the govt (read as sr. officers) can make an appeal to
all the so-called well settled humans & big corporations to come ahead for
this job & join hands in funding for protection as wells & making water
bodies as small contributions can save many lives! To conclude, I will say, “guys, we pay taxes to the govt for our better
life but there is a govt above every govt which is called “nature” & its
our duty to pay our taxes to that govt also or else one day when this govt will
claims its dues, we will be left with nothing, mind it”!
-
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my
sharing about real estate in Pune at You Tube link below..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s
Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home
buying!
https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/09/choosing-right-home.html
http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2021/09/blog-post_21.html
Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
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www.punecorporation.org
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Hon PM at link below..
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