THE WILD INDIA

The Wild India

It is quite alarming – when you ask someone to Save the Tiger – How can I save a tiger is the first question and the cause itself gets killed in the first shot. The campaign gets you only one thing and that is Awareness and this is the biggest thing required.

Some of the passionate CFCs  (Chief Forest Conservators) / IFSs (Indian Forest Service Officers) have shared various initiatives they are taking to conserve wildlife but even in their strategy list creating Awareness on the subject has been on a high priority as if one hits the root cause, majority of the objective is achieved.  For eg. How many of us know about the Wild life of India, how many of us understand and appreciate the same. How many of us consider Wildlife tourism as a holiday option ? How many of us have initiated a process of taking our kids and showing them the beauty of jungles, animals in their wild habitat and teaching them to appreciate the nature so they can conserve it.  How many of us know that Gangetic Dolphin is our National Aquatic Animal and you can sight them easily? or do we know that there are many natural destinations near Mumbai where one can explore nature without the crowd of the tourists over a weekend ?

To simply put, with Awareness, more people will appreciate and respect the wildlife and environment. A few years back, let me not shy away from the fact that even I used to litter some paper or plastic wrapper on the road, but now I understand and don’t let anyone around me do it. This is what I learned from the forests and eco-system, which maybe my school or my parents did teach me, but could not fully convince me on.

Awareness would create higher footfalls in the national parks. More and more people would start appreciating the wildlife and the nature and the words would spread. More people would follow. Do you remember, how Yash Chopra created the buzz on Switzerland with the hit movie DDLJ –Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge ? Post which, almost 60% of newly weds who could have afforded a lavish holiday went to Switzerland, that today you can buy Samosas on Mt. Jungfrough ! It is all about awareness !

With more awareness, more tourists both Indian and foreigners would visit the sanctuaries and the same would bring in more revenue and growth – to the government and also the locals – the villagers, the tribals. Some one would build good properties and employ the locals, the villagers would open us shops and dhabas, the educated ones would not runaway to cities for work, they would become local guides, jeep drivers and naturalists and make more money through tips. The farmers would not need to suicide, but there will be a plethora of job and earning opportunities for the local tribals and villagers.

Awareness, more people would try and explore the wild life tourism and with increased footfall there will be more security and control measures and more protection of the wildlife and nature – Gir 10 years back and now can show you the difference. 10 years back poaching a lion in Gir would have been a childs play. When you speak to the locals you would understand that leaving a cattle out on the road to invite a Lion to kill would be so easy and there were cases of poisoning the cat and killing it for money. But, today with more tourists, Gir can not afford to let anything like this happen. You can be fined if you would try venturing out at night and that is what awareness has brought it, that the numbers of lions are growing. You would hear about poaching of Tigers in some relatively distant sanctuaries and Elephants in far north east – why ? because the parks are still in a primitive stage. Since there are no tourists, there would be lesser forest staff, since lesser forest staff, lesser control on security and other measures and rest is what you read in the papers.

The Wild India with its blog www.thewildindia.blogspot.com is trying to give all Indians a complete background on the what is that is in store for you when you visit various wildlife sanctuaries of the country along with tips on how to go, where to live, what to do, some secret spots and ofcourse some exciting pictures. And not just this, also on what initiatives are the forest department, the government and people like us are taking to conserve the beautiful wildlife.

Hope you enjoy the articles and white papers on The Wild India and hope you soon plan a wild-life trip and wish you the best of luck for sighting the best wildlife and above it the beautiful forests in India. This would be a great contribution from your end towards conserving the environment. Do send in your views and feedback on the blog or on jalpeshmehta@gmail.com

Happy reading & foresting !

Jalpesh Mehta