Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Hon. Supreme Court & Fate of Wildlife!

To,

Mr Dhananjay Chandrachud, Hon. Chief Justice of India, & all Hon. Justice members of the Supreme Court,

Dear Sirs,

I don’t know whether my sharing will reach you but as it's said, if you don’t try for something then that thing will surely won’t happen, so keep trying, that's why this sharing (letter) with you! Well, you may be surprised by a builder/ developer /civil engineer writing about wildlife tourism which is inherent or say only way of wildlife conservation but let me tell you at the start, it’s because of my education of civil engg. & in the profession of building homes (builder), I got to learn more about wildlife as the basic needs of humans & wild animals is same & that is, a home of their own! Unfortunately, of-late the wildlife tourism & policies about the same has been ruled by social media posts & that’s misleading the conservation aspect of the same which should be core of wildlife. Actually, wildlife tourism is the best & surest way to conserve wildlife as more & more people (read as common man) if they go to forests in any form then only, they will know what they have to save for their next generations as only after going in wilderness you learn the language of the wilds & then the dialogue with the nature starts. Dear CJ Sir & other Justise Sirs, that’s the sole reason to dare to write to you about wildlife today as day-by-day forests are getting detached from the common man & the outcome is disastrous! Many high court & supreme court judges visit forests but they do visit as a VIP & with full forest dept. at their service, not as a common tourist, that’s why this sharing! My sharing may be a bit lengthy but then you guys are used to reading petitions of thousand pages so sure this won’t be a problem for you.

“If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched. Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they love.” … Steve Irwin

Stephen Robert Irwin, known as "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife educator, and environmentalist. Irwin grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles and was educated regarding them by his father Bob. Life is wonderfully cruel as the man who was part of the wild ended his life while making people aware about wildlife i.e., during the shoot of his documentary about Sting Ray Fish, from sting of one such fish! But his contribution for wildlife remains through his films & words like above & unfortunately neither our media (news media) nor our govt learns anything for such wisdom is a fact. The reason is one recent front full-page news in Pune Times about wildlife tourism as the news has been printed with a photograph from Kaziranga where a rhino was chasing a vehicle & then there were some other incidences & how people break rules in wildlife tourism & how that’s dangerous for tourists as well wild animals etc etc! Any sane person (though such numbers are very less) also would have thought this is ridiculous thing & steps has to be taken to curb (read as ban) wildlife tourism so the wild animals will get some peace or privacy from the humans! Indeed, a good thought but let’s check the reality behind the incidence as to my knowledge that video clip was from Manas National Park & not from Kaziranga. Anyways, you will say what difference it makes, agreed but then the rhino was a sub-adult which are always curious about everything & that vehicle was not of tourists but forest dept (I have seen the clip) & it’s clearly a material pickup carrier type vehicle & they have to face such animal conflicts as its their job. The road in the clip was barely 10 ft wide & both sides of the road there was deep so the rhino couldn’t move away from the road & even in cities the stray dogs chase passing cars that doesn’t mean they are disturbed! But the entire picture was painted such in the story that the rhino was being blocked by tourist’s vehicle & that’s why it's angry & chasing the vehicle! And then the story mentioned one incident in Tadoba Tiger Project where a tourist had fall (?) down from gypsy when some Maya named tigress was around during safari! As well there have been other incidences mentioned where a tigress allegedly chased a gypsy in some forest in centra India & the news was on and on about the guidelines for wildlife tourism, even quoted personnel from Forest Guide’s Association as well RFO (Range Forest officer) from Kaziranga, both of them blamed it on tourists’ behaviour & numbers visiting forest! As well, Insta & FB has often has posts with a tiger walking & numbers of gypsies blocking its path & heading of such posts usually is, we are damaging wildlife by such tourism!

Let’s see the facts about wildlife tourism & damages it does to wildlife as per such media masters (even news media) & then you can dig in further, as six years back all the national parks were running with full capacity & some Advocate (with due respect for the profession) from Jabalpur, MP made a Writ Petition about banning wildlife tourism in Project Tigers showing all such above mentioned media stuff! And then the Hon. Court banned wildlife tourism for six months & eventually re-opened the Project Tiger forests for 20% of its capacity for tourism, reducing the areas of such forests where the tourists can move in & around as well as numbers of the vehicles. In analogy terms, if the Tadoba forest core area is of 600sq km then only 150 sq km area of it will be open for tourism & if there were 100 gypsies allowed for entering in Tadoba core, now only 20 gypsies are allowed by verdict of Hon SC ! This directly hit the revenues of forest dept as well hurt the income of all those who were & are depending on services such as gypsy, guides, accommodation as well food etc as the footfall of such forests was reduced by straight 80% but I am not writing this for the revenue loss as in this country one can’t win arguments for loss of revenues is an unfortunate fact, so let it be! Point is, first the area of forest which was under watch of the tourists is reduced by 80% & time & again forest dept’s all over the country has expressed their weak infrastructure to manage such a huge task of protecting so much of wildlife & tourist’s movements in all these areas were & are like eyes, ear of the forest dept keeping ill elements like poachers & illegal wood cutters away from such areas, this aspect nobody took in account! As well to maintain the revenue structure, the forest entry fees have been raised to such an extent that now wildlife tourism or to see a tiger in Project Tiger forests is possible only to super riches or once in a blue moon for the middle class & impossible for the lower middle- or low-income groups. Today one safari at Tadoba costs nearly 12,000/- & this doesn’t include travel from your native place to Tadoba, food, accommodation which means for a family of four travelling from Pune to Tadoba to see a tiger will cost them nearly Rs 50,000 with four safaris, how many families can afford this just to see a tiger in wilds? Here, many will say why stress for a gypsy, there is an affordable option of a canter which carries nearly 30 people in the forest at a time but that's actually a crowd which must be banned or make all the Hon. Judges of HC & SC not to use VIP gypsies for their forest safaris but make them use canter & then tell the difference, is my suggestion! This is actually depriving 95% of the population of the country the basic right of visiting forests & detaching them from wildlife as what they couldn’t see or experience, how they can love that aspect of nature, right?

And about the wildlife tourism policies or guidelines, I am travelling in most of project tigers of the country as a common tourist since last twenty years & has worked with guides as well lower rank forest staff & please trust me, common tourist rarely dare to break any forest tourism guidelines or rules it’s the VIP vehicles mostly do that, you can check from your sources my statement! And about things like a tourist falling down from gypsy, then you know the road conditions in the forests as well anxiety of tourists to see even glimpse of a tiger which is justifiable when he or she has paid from their teeth to see the tiger, there is chance of falling down & this is not some luxury drive, it’s an adventure & with thousands of tourists travelling in wilds, such incidences can happen that doesn’t mean entire wildlife tourism is a threat to safety of wildlife or humans! On our expressways thousands of humans have lost their lives, have we thought of closing the expressways, no, then just one or two tourists fall down from gypsy in the forest & we say all wildlife tourism is bad, this is my point! Rather make wildlife tourism easily available & accessible for all so all can enter in forests at peace & with proper care, there lies the success of wildlife conservation also, is my point, which you only can intervene & make possible! As the only mean of survival of people living around such forests is tourism & its these people who actually are going to decide fate of the wildlife & they have been living with tigers, leopards, deer & many such for hundreds of years, guide them, feed , them, give them means of survival with more wildlife tourism & these people will save the wildlife more fiercely than their own lives!

And lastly, what about the hundreds of tigers as well wild animals which lives out of such project tigers, what about their conservation & rules, as tigers have been seen around big cities like Bhopal, Nagpur, Jabalpur & such as well Leopards are common sight in many towns near Pune, so shall we ban the roads going through these cities or reduce visitors to these places also or what? As most wildlife road kills happen on roads not in protected forests like project tigers but around towns & cities out of protected forests & only because of unawareness of urban citizens about wildlife which they never have seen or lived! And on top of it, take example of tigresses named Tara & Maya in Tadoba as well one Collerwali in Pench project tiger, all these tigresses’ have given birth to lot of cubs & grew them up healthy & are used to gypsies surrounding them to click their images; so, had they been disturbed by the tourism, the numbers of tigers in tourist open areas wouldn’t have increased, right? Hon CJ sir, high time our society must understand the true sense of wildlife conservation & I think if the society is incompetent or weak or misguided (whatever the reason) then it’s the job of judicially to make the society on the right track, this is my sole reason for writing to you! Dear CJ Sir, please open up all the forests in the country to full capacity so that every individual can go & visit the forests & see the tiger walking in the wild at peace! There are good forest officers, dedicated NGO’s, Wildlife experts, unite them & frame a policy which will make common people can access wildlife as then only they will love & respect wildlife & the way goes through conservation, awareness & tourism. Please act fast, is a request as time is less for the wildlife with our ever growing encroachment on it & then no law can save the wildlife & gone will be the future of our human kind also along with it, that’s writing on the green wall, is the reason for my sharing to you!

If you can find some leisure time then please go through a presentation about the Tadoba Success story at Youtube link below..

https://youtu.be/hR15vYQi72Y

Sanjay Deshpande , Hemangi Vartak, Anuj Khare , Aarti Karve.

Sanjeevani Dev., Jungle Belles, Nature Walk

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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https://secure.mygov.in/