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“Wild animals are less wild
and more human than many humans of this world” … Munia Khan
Munia Khan is a poet, writer
and editor of several books and anthologies. Most of her works are poems of
different genres, short stories and articles & has been translated in many
languages. She is a member in The Poetry Society, UK and also a founding member
of Poets & Artists For A Different World Movement. Though she is now a
citizen of the USA, she originally is from Bangladesh & a lawyer too! No
wonder she can see wild animals with such clear vision in comparison to humans
& she is a lawyer is one more aspect for me to choose her quote for this
particular sharing, which deals with wildlife as well law! Our news media is
very choosy while they write about wildlife, let me put frankly, any positive
news about wildlife or awareness efforts in the real right sense (do take a
note of right sense) or pointing out suggestions for improvisation in wildlife
conservation never gets due space in their newspaper. Many so called big
English daily covers articles of foreigners with their profile photos which
speaks about climate change & wildlife at global level & I appreciate
that but there are thousands of our very own Desi personalities which are doing
wonderful job in this very country for wildlife conservation in their own ways
but that never get covered in same space! We have so much of wildlife even
around Pune (surprisingly yes) & we have to save that as protected forests
like tadoba or kanha have their own threats but they have comparatively enough
man power & money for the cause but it’s about the wildlife which includes
habitats around urban or say so called developed human settlements which we
call as cities, these are in grave danger & more focus must be given about
the efforts which are being done or needed to be done by the news media &
that’s not happening!
And when any small mishap
happens in the forests or wildlife from so called wildlife tourists then the
entire news media creates a ruckus like sky has fallen. I don’t say don’t point
out mistakes in wildlife tourism, what I am saying is wildlife tourism is most
essential for wildlife protection so let’s see that how we can promote in
controlled way but more than that aspect need is to make people (aam janata)
aware about greater threats to the wildlife which no media does neither the
system which we call govt or law & this is my reason of sharing! I came
across two news in recent, one was about some Hon. Court giving a verdict
regarding Mandul snake smuggling or trade by which the arrested criminals
(sorry persons) have been given clean-chit as there was not enough or proper
evidence against them which could prove that these persons were guilty for the
crime of snake trade. A clean cheat, when they have been caught with mandul
snakes in their possession, at least that’s what the officials have claimed.
And then there was one news about seizing of tiger skin by Mumbai & Satara
police where three men got arrested, & later it's said that it
was a fake tiger skin so the charges were reduced to cheating & not
wildlife trading act. And then there was news (just one more news) of a young
leopard which got hit by some vehicle & died & the news said an inquiry
is going on. Interestingly on the news above the leopard roadkill news, there
was a news about a two-wheeler guy got hit & died on the very same stretch
of the road by again some unknown vehicle but here the news said police has
registered a crime under the act of death by negligent driving against the
unknown driver & searching for the same! I am sorry for both the victims,
the youth which lost life on two-wheeler & the leopard but in the case of
the youth as he was a human police has filed case considering it not just an
accident but death by negligence & on their own filed a complaint &
definitely they will search the vehicle from footage of CCTV in surrounding (if
any) or will make inquiries about any such vehicle & will try their best to
catch the driver who hit the youth but I doubt about such efforts related to
leopard who also met the same fate!
My such doubt about the
system (read as law) which is blind or deaf or ignorant (I won’t yet say dead)
towards the crimes where wildlife at large is involved, is my cause of sharing! As these are just two cases
which are fresh where may it be snake or a leopard but some wildlife specie’s
life has been slaughtered (that’s only word I can use) by a human & our
enforcement system don’t take serious efforts is the only cause which makes
other humans to dare or afford to neglect while dealing with these species, is
my cause of sharing! This is just a start as everyday human population in
this country is increasing & land available for all of us is going to
remain same & this means humans will keep encroaching the land which is
shared by others species may it be our homes, industries, means of
transportation (road/ railways/ waterways) or power lines or any such & in
the process of our negligent land use we will keep killing every that specie
which comes in our way. And because these species are not humans, our laws
either don't protect their interests properly or we don’t care to follow those
laws, is my direct accusation on the entire society of humans & this must
be stopped is my demand, not just a request or appeal! And if you think (I know you
do think so) I am a fanatic or a mad wildlife lover then I am not, apart from
above two examples I can give you hundreds (thousands or infinite) examples
where no justice or little justice has been witnessed when its life of a
wildlife species vs a human culprit! May it be life loss of thousands of fish to
due oil spill from some ship or because of pollution of river by some industry
or poaching of wild boar for its meat or deaths of tigers & leopards
under speeding vehicles (I am not even counting monkeys & jackals type
animals) or an elephant being electrocuted by some electric (illegal)
fence, in all such cases tell me how many humans have been sentenced to death
or even imprisoned for life time or has to pay millions of rupees as penalty, I
don’t remember a single, now tell me am I a fanatic ? It's only because these
animal lives we don’t count (accept it) neither they can vote nor they have any
representative in the Assembly to shout for death of their types nor they can
gather crowd for some procession & hunger strike they cannot as they are
already dying because of hunger as food loss of their habitats which we turn a
blind eye on, so what a tiger or a fish or snake or a leopard should to
get justice for his family members death by negligence or deliberately, by a
human, tell me please humans!
The only way is, changing
the laws related to wildlife crimes, make provision for heavy punishments for
loss of wildlife & before that make a system which will be able to execute
these laws in the right way as often the stringent laws end-up in making more
casualties than the reason these laws are made for, if wrongly handled! A major problem with
wildlife protection laws is, only if the crime is in the forest dept’s
jurisdiction i.e., some reserved or protected forest they have rights or
authority to act (I may be wrong but that’s what has been experienced) but
mostly when the crime is outside some forest then the forest dept is dependent
on police dept’s support or help which the later one is not much interested for
obvious reasons! These reasons are not the ones which you are thinking (Do I
need to explain!), but because already police dept is overloaded with
crimes of the humans by the humans against the humans & on top of it
solving murder mystery of some leopard or a snake is not priority for them! And
another is, to prove a crime against some wild animal that too usually happen
away from human eyes is not an easy thing to prove in the court, which makes
usually the culprits get freed by the court (as in mandul smuggling case
verdict) & the efforts are not worth is the thought process by most police
staffers! Need of the time is like the Military has their own Police with enough
powers by law & by infrastructure as well Police dept also has layers for
different crimes, forest dept must have a crime investigation branch in it!
This branch must have powers like Police once the crime is reported under some
specific sections of law & they must be given all the necessary authority
as well supported by their own dept to detect the crime, catch the criminals
& see that these criminals get punishment under the court of the law. One
more thing we can think of having separate wildlife courts at every District
level as these crimes needs special knowledge as well a mindset to detect &
don’t forget the skill required to make the case stand in right way of the law
which many police officers, lawyers defending govt or even the magistrates (with
due respect) may not be having, resulting in criminals getting free, only
because of poor knowledge of the wildlife!
I agree wildlife can be
protected in best possible way by making humans adopt coexistence but to teach coexistence
we need a strong law enforcement system for those who don’t follow the laws
because even coexistence among humans also neds a law system, right? I know this also, in a country where courts
for humans are itself insufficient (number of judges), law-enforcement system for
humans is poorly equipped & is ever complaining over insufficient
infrastructure (police dept), the IPC i.e. Indian Penal Code itself needed to
be revised for many crimes & many such, so, who is going to think to change
or rewrite the system for some wild species which hardly makes any difference
to human life! But then do mind, we are not alone on this planet neither this planet is
only for our exclusive use & if we are thinking so & feel nobody is
going to stop us, then there is something named nature & even our law
system accepts the term “Natural Justice”, as someone is out there which is too
big for us to control & when it will deliver its verdict for the crimes we
are ignoring then there won’t be any appeal but only execution, mind it humans
& be responsible towards the wildlife crimes before it’s too late; adios
with this threat, not warning!
--
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
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