Conservation: It's Pay Back Time

Our  Earth: A Saga of Exploitation

Not only extensive farming, poaching, wood logging, and hunting have denuded our wilds we conveniently seek to forgive our sins whence it comes to breakneck industrial revolution and urbanization. Like agriculture, large industries and industrial estates scrap off nature from Earth in long strips along with associated urbanization in our towns and cities. 

In the past few centuries, we have hastened the demise of many invaluable ecosystems to alternate them with nonviable human constructs and the process goes on. The developed countries have been quick to extensively exploit natural resources and strip off ecosystems forests, grasslands, and rivers to name a few in order to develop in material terms without digging deep into ramifications. Most countries are stripped of natural lands and they have virtually exterminated their wilderness. But there is no looking back,  and if there is at places it is weak and without commitment. As a consequence, we are facing climate change and species extinction due to the dismembering of remaining ecosystems, pollution, human intrusions, and alternating natural systems to suit our exigencies.             

Earth is supposed to be shared among trillions of life forms thus maintaining an equilibrium so that life sustenance mechanism remains inviolate. Large chunks of ecosystems have been decimated for crops without any circumspection, and industrialization, and urbanization is taking place with haste. We are turning settlements into cement jungles and urban ghettos. 

All we look at is modern infrastructure and the gleaming societies and lifestyles they generate forgetting the dead that lies beneath. The industrial revolution has been a major disaster and caused wars innumerable, social disparities as well as grave harm to the environment. Global warming is an evident phenomenon among even those who are not erudite or aware, and the suffering is taking a toll in terms of health physical and mental.   

It is difficult to hinder this blitzkrieg because dispensations do not bow down and at the most pay lip service to conservation. Maintaining an equilibrium would require some committed steps for preservation even if the infrastructure buildup is halted. We simply cannot regenerate the complex living systems that nature does. This is rabid development is the trend everywhere, and most vicious in overpopulated countries trying to emerge from ongoing poverty without understanding the route they are adopting. As urban ghettos increase poverty will as well for we see life not as sustainable but gauge impoverished societies keeping the yardstick of measure highlighting disparity with those well developed (sic). There is no limit to the demands of humanity, and we will perish if we fulfill them at the cost of nature. Are we going to need artificial glass bubbles with oxygen supplies to survive on Earth in the future?       

To keep industries alive and the economy booming we continue to exploit natural resources which are already dwindling. In economic haste, we are not using the resources in a judicious manner, and are not at all looking for renewable on a war footing. Development is the mantra of disaster and the infrastructure built up in hinterlands in countries like India is a scourge with no mitigation seemingly possible. Rather than judging the economy by scale, we must peep into the environmental disaster we are leaving in the wake. We need to define our basic needs and stick to them.         

Poverty alleviation should not come about through the industrial revolution, it should come by rational use of renewable energy and a paradigm shift in our lifestyles. Too much energy consumption or unprecedented use of natural resources has wreaked havoc on our planet and we need to stem the rot. The major stress factor is not poverty but our excessive consumption of fossil fuels and other natural resources. Controlling the population is wise but there is no such urgency among various countries and demographics. Population control should be imperative, especially in Asia and Africa.         

Time to Pay Back 

We need reforestation, conservation of wildlife, habitat repair, and preservation of the ecosystem that supports them, and to stop the destruction of tropical forests going on on large scale.  We will have to redefine our lifestyle and consumption pattern and wean out what is unsustainable with vigor and commitment.     

We will have to have a methodology in place as far as industrialization and infrastructure build-up is taking place. We will have to draw out sustainable plans and practices which mitigate damage to natural lands.  Yes a lot more has to be done in order to preserve our  Earth and the efforts should come about not only from institutions but we the public as well.  

We can do it, we are successfully saving the tiger and the lion and many other endangered species and India has also preserved good enough ecosystems. There is hope! 

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Uday Works as Freelance Naturalist and Blogs on conservation, tigers, environmental issues.

He also provides SEO and Website Contents in English.

He can be contacted at:

Mail: pateluday90@hotmail.com

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Tiger Lands of India

The subcontinent was full of tigers before 20th century. But expanding population and need for agricultural land decimated the big cat’s habitat. This was associated with large scale hunting in India. There was a drastic fall in the tiger population by the seventies. The Project Tiger initiated to conserve the endangered species achieved success albeit for a short time.  The scheme controls barely 2 /3 percent of the country’s forest habitats – protected areas.  

The tiger population is precariously low around 1400 cats survive. This number is also suggestive of large scale plundering of tiger habitats in India which still continues.  Both habitat destruction and hunting has contributed to the sad plight of the tigers in India.  The former has been more damaging since large tracts of forest have been denuded in the country and it continues.

India is in a state of quandary since the leaders perceive large scale industrialization as solution for economic development and prosperity for the poverty ridden masses. Habitat conservation and industrialization are an antithesis and intrusion in pristine lands is deadly. The rabid industrialization augurs environmental hazards by reducing the green cover and emission of poisonous waste harmful gases and chemicals. Raw material required is often mined which directly affect our ecosystems. Mining in the country has been a scourge with absolutely no control exhibited by the state governments or the administrative bodies - court reprimand notwithstanding.   

There are no efforts or ingenuity to go in for green industrialization the cottage industries are an apt answer to it. In eco sensitive zones the development should take places by empowering the local with indigenous skill set. Hence a stable earning source would emerge. Handicraft industry is one such example, eco tourism is another. Proper harnessing and utilization of minor forest produce is much less damaging than perceived. Assistance in marketing is a prerequisite in order to sustain the efforts.  

Agriculture is another malicious factor that has reduced our forests and grasslands to naught. Most of the agricultural practices in and around tiger reserves are inefficient and non productive. The land comprises of gravels and by all means is infertile, there may be exceptions but the land owners are very poor. The dependence of large herds of livestock especially cattle is another menace. Since we cannot utilize beef for food in India the holding population of old animals is unfeasible and puts further pressure on the ecosystem. (I am not advocating beef consumption). 

The livestock also endangers rare species because of disease transmission. The proximity to the forests is one reason for man animal conflict in which the latter is the looser. In Corbett where man eating is taking place often, the villages are situated right in the dense pockets. Hence the clash is inevitable with large scale intrusion taking place every day.        

Most of the tiger reserves are now pockets of survival isolated islands of natural habitats for prime species.  Creation of corridors seems unfeasible in absence of strong political will. The greatest fear is of inbreeding and some instances have been recorded as in Bandhavgarh.

In most of the tiger reserves administration can be defined as lackadaisical absolutely non committal in approach to save the wilderness and its inhabitants. Panna and Sariska are live examples and there may be many with shoddier performance that has gone unnoticed. The ill equipped machinery makes the parks more susceptible to wood logging and poaching. Corruption it seems is becoming a salient feature and it affects our tiger lands as well.

Counting of tigers may be a prerequisite in order to take assessment of the situation. Counting trees literally is as important since habitat must improve and increase in order to sustain the big cats and other endangered species.