Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Wildlife Crimes & Laws of Humans!

“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

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

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