Do We really Want to Save the Tiger? (Hon SC Committee's Report Analysis)

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“The time I spent in the jungles held unalloyed happiness for me, and that happiness I would now gladly share. My happiness, I believe, resulted from the fact that all wildlife is happy in its natural surroundings. In nature there is no sorrow, and no repining. A bird from a flock, or an animal from a herd, is taken by a hawk or carnivorous beast and those that are left rejoice that their time has not come today, and have no thought of tomorrow.” … Jim Corbett.

There are very few names which are so gelled with wilderness that their sheer mention takes your mind in to the forest & I am sure even in this country where controversy is the attitude, nobody will dare to counter-argue about Jim Corbett’s name to be topped in that list, such is the contribution of the man for wildlife of our country!   Unfortunately, the origin or say, the subject of sharing is the news which has origin in the land of Corbett only, so won’t stretch your patience and head straight away head to the subject (rare thing, lol). There was news in almost every newspaper & with a headline which made my stomach churn (potat gola aala, in Marathi) as such was its damaging impact on entire wildlife (as usual). The outcome or content of the news was a committee formed by Hon Supreme Court has submitted its report about wildlife tourism & has suggested that tourism must be banned or stopped or curtailed (whatever you call outcome is same) in the reserved forest’s core areas (some newspaper even said no safaris in buffer also), as well no Zoo type activities should be allowed even in Buffer areas of reserved forests. Reason why this committee has been formed is the request to grant by Uttarakhand Forest dept (govt) for permission to  start a Zoo in the buffer area of Corbett National Park & these were the findings of the committee. Well, first & foremost, I respect Hon SC’s decision to form a committee but  with equal due respect I defer to the findings of this committee as well as have concerns (read as doubts) about the committee members in itself! Though I don’t know who the committee members are & their credentials for the job yet the way these report pointers have been portered in the media, there seems to be serious lacunae in the findings as well overall approach of the committee towards the request or the purpose in itself. What Uttarakhand govt has asked is a permission to start a zoo in buffer area so where is the question arises to stop safaris in core or protected forests & the reasoning is given, that such tourism or activities will disturb wildlife in protected forests, rather the report goes to extremity of suggesting banning any tourism activity in the protected forests itself that too in all the forests in the country, wonderful, I salute the committee! I dare to be sarcastic even though the said committee has been formed by Hon SC but my sincere requests to Hon SC to look at the other side of this report & then only decide the course of the action!

There are few aspects about the committee itself, such as, who were the members of this committee & the conclusion they have made of banning or saying stopping safaris (we will take the zoo aspect separate) is on what basis! It’s been said that tourism affects wildlife & this is a very general statement, which tourism the committee has studied & how it affects in the wrong or disturbing way to the respective wildlife, will the committee throw light on it! Just posting or attaching some tourist gypsy vehicles on roads where a tiger is walking or sitting doesn’t mean it affects the tiger or wildlife at large. I have images of tigresses like Maya & tara from Tadoba which are comfortable in walking through twenty vehicles without even looking at them & these tigresses have done their duty as a mother & given more than twenty cubs in total which is their duty also towards nature & yet we say tourism affect in wrong way to the wildlife, how? As in the process of giving birth to the cubs Tara & Maya have been helped in saving thousands of families also which live in & around Tadoba forest & are solely depending on wildlife tourism for earning or say their survival. And had the Tara & Maya been not allowed to be seen (read as ban on wildlife tourism in core) for the tourists then these thousands of families would have been jobless & had become enemy of the tigers & we all know in the war of man & tiger who won in the end, right? And it’s not just Maya & tara, there are Sonam, Sharmili, Choti Madhu, Sonam as well there is Rudra, Taru, Chota Mataka & many more (all these are nicknames of the tigers in & around Tadoba) who are attraction of the forests around Tadoba & tourists delight as well are major link to connect humans with wilderness at large! Agreed one tiger doesn’t make entire forest but you need an icon ore brand ambassador for any product & unless we won’t recognize forests as a product, we won’t be able to save it, is a bitter fact which this committee has failed to understand or say digest & I am sorry Hon SC but I am not dishonoring you, only trying to show your facts about wildlife conservation!

The committee says (as per media) uncontrolled wildlife tourism is damaging wildlife which needs to be; left alone, & yes wildlife needs its privacy but that doesn’t mean cutting it off, from the humans as then who will protect it from humans? Confused, if you are then there are two types of humans, one which are good or say neutral humans for the wildlife & another are bad humans for the wildlife. All these rules, entry tickets, permission, and spending for wildlife tourism is done by the good humans which in this case is tourists which visit forests to see or experience the wildlife or even the tiger. While on the other side bad humans i.e., those who don’t have any respect or love for wildlife & doesn’t need (or asks) any permissions to enter in the protected forests enters in the forests & these are the ones to whom we should control & not the real, nature loving tourists or common people! As well there are two more categories of tourists, one is VIP tourists & another is so called wildlife photographers & these categories need to be controlled! Frankly we Indians love this VIP tag thing & right from our temples to the forests everywhere these VIP things intrude our system which must be stopped! VIP vehicles have special permits to move even in protected forests & they can go on roads closed for normal tourist as well there are no one ways for these vehicles & all the VIP’s only motto to visit the forests is, to see a tiger, that to free of cost & this creates major nuisance of which the normal tourists as well those who are depending on wildlife tourism are paying penalty, this is what the said committee has failed to see or take notice of as surely they too must be visited the forests in some VIP vehicle only! And another nuisance creating category is wildlife photographers & nothing wrong in clicking wildlife, problem is in getting desperate some special shot & focusing only on this aspect of wildlife & in the quest disturbing the flow of nature in the forests. What I meant is to get a special moment or frame of an animal by blocking its way or making the animal force to change its course of action which it is supposed to do naturally!  The committee should focus on such attitude or activities & rather presence of normal tourists around is like having watchdogs as if some wildlife photographer is doing something wrong then the other tourists can make it stop as well mention this on social media rather this is why the forest dept is afraid of use of mobiles in forests, it’s because of the wrong deeds of the VIPs & celebrity photographers comes in lime light which is a failure of forest dept or say system! But the said committee failed to take importance of the aspect that it’s the common tourist’s presence in the protected forest all such tendencies are restricted which is in the betterment of wildlife & not disturbance!

And then comes the aspect of earning from wildlife tourism which always has been on radar of so-called nature protectors (self-proclaimed) & keeping due respect for the sentiments of all such people which includes NGOs, Wildlife researchers (very few) & the Great Media also & which are always hail bend on proving how wildlife safaris or tourism is harmful as that’s meant only to make money! I want to ask one single question to all these elements, it’s easy to shout all your save wildlife slogans & writing captions by sitting in your comfortable homes or workplaces in cities like Pune or Delhi or Jabalpur, has any of you have ever thought of taking career of going & stay at any of protected forest & see what options you have got for earning your daily wages than depending on the money the tourists spend at such places? And if these tourists seek to have one glimpse of a tiger, then no harm in that as tiger sighting is rare. That's why everybody wants to have it, that's the law of nature that the human mind always run behind what is not easily accessible to it! Indeed, the tourism should not be tiger-centric & there are so many good things to see in the forest other than the tiger but who will explain this to the tourist if proper infrastructure in the form of guides to stay arrangements where such awareness campaigns can be run are not kept in place! And if we ban tourism in protected forests then how will the tourists know what’s there to see in the forests other than tigers?

Coming back to the tiger sightings, I wonder how many (barring a few) media persons actually visit a tiger sanctuary & see how difficult it is to see a tiger even in the core area, which the committee is focusing for no tourism & how little these reports know about wildlife than printing downloaded images of tiger being chased by tourist’s vehicles! Also, every tiger or tigress has its own territory so a core or buffer or even outside of the reserved forests there can be tigers as two tigers can’t survive in the same area is a fact. This means core & buffer all such things we have created for safety of habitat & not tiger by the limitation of forest depts’ manpower & machinery, rather all the forests must be declared as core & make open for balanced (not just controlled) tourism, if we really want to make survive the tigers along with other wildlife species, is basic fact which we (read as media) are neglecting conveniently; what’s committee’s say about this aspect of wildlife, I will like to know! Media (news media) was & is always biased against wildlife tourism is my straight accusation because it never prints (or likes to print) facts about wildlife tourism but only the negative aspect of it. Instead, every news media must send their respective reporter to the forests, ask them to live there, get the facts & figures about wildlife, speak with locals, understand their livelihood & then print your opinions about wildlife tourism is what today I will appeal to the entire media industry!

And then request for the permission of setting a Zoo in a buffer area, well I am not a wildlife expert like many others around but a simple logic is indeed it will make one more avenue of earning available for the locals! But another aspect is, imagine a wounded tiger or a deer in Kanha Forest, will it not be easy to have it treated nearby Kanha Forest & released again in the same forest than taking it away to some city which is hundreds of miles away? As well, if some animal is permanently injured then is it not a more natural way to keep that animal nearby or its habitat than to take it to some urban jungle where it will choke with all means of pollution? I am sure we all remember the recent Covid wave & Doctors advising major patients will low symptoms for quarantine in the home itself than taking to hospitals, so as they patient will feel mentally better to deal with the illness, isn’t it same logic applicable to the animals who will be taking shelter in such Zoo near the forests & if some people earn some money out of this which again are part of the same forest, what wrong in it!

I don’t say disturbing wildlife by tourism, no wildlife lover will say that but don’t consider tourism as enemy of wildlife is my simple plea. I myself am an urban living person that too a civil engg & builder(for earning), so I have no interest in promoting wildlife tourism if you think (especially media guys) that I am going to get benefitted by advocating wildlife tourism. Yet I am a wildlife lover too & I have not only travelled across many forests of our country but has been witnessed life of the people (including forest dept) who for 365 days are depending on these forests for their survival & only if these people we can make comfortable & survive then we will be able to make survive the wildlife of this 150 crore population (humans) country. Has this aspect of wildlife been taken in consideration by the said Hon. SC Committee as well by the entire media, is what I want to ask all of them! To conclude I will say only one thing, wildlife was around some thousand years or more than that with fifty thousand tigers just a hundred years back but our population was twenty crores (humans). Then there was no wildlife tourism, no protected forests , no core or buffer areas & what has happened is, today we are one fifty crore plus & tigers are just few thousands, right? So, lets workout a way which will make every human being know why the tiger is so important to make it survive as then only those one fifty crore humans can act to save the tiger along with its habitat & for that the tigers & its home (forests) must be accessible to every common citizen of this country! So, do whatever it takes to make it happen but if we decide blindly to deny easy access to the common humans to our forests, then we are sealing the fate of the wildlife of this nature rich country & in any language we use, that fate will be same & that is, Extinct i.e., Gone For Ever; please think over Hon Supreme Court Sir & decide!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

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