Rewildling India an Aid to Heal Nature

Whence Project Tiger was launched the majestic beast came to life for sooner or later it would be a success. It has worked, and the population of tigers in India is rising albeit gradually. But in between lot is happening that is discouraging to the conservationists and the well-wishers of the environment.  

After years of degradation of our ecosystems primarily for resources, a contingency has arisen. The battered systems are being subject to an irrevocable degraded status. The demand for timber, burgeoning settlements, and clearance for agriculture besides the biotic pressure created by ever-growing livestock has wreaked havoc on our ecosystems since population increase has skyrocketed in India. Now as the new paradigm sets in the 21st Century the development mantra of ever-changing ruling dispensations in the Center and State is challenging the stabilization that had taken place in the last few decades.         

The urgency to suddenly become a developed state with an ever-rising and robust economy is throwing caution to the winds. Even in spite of the successful tiger conservation program at the helm, the changing population dynamics of big cats are asking for more land in the tiger reserves. This idea of man-animal coexistence in the buffer is at best chimerical. The rising instances of man-animal conflict narrate a sordid saga of failed land management in the country. 

In an overpopulated country like India with most of the population living under impoverished circumstances, development urgency can be understood. But then what are we going to achieve by subjecting the precious ecosystems to denudation, and ill-planned developmental practices like stripping off land to make way for facilitating linear development that cuts through our forests and changes the flow of our rivers. Without any ecological studies to justify the present and future impact on the environment and the well-being of the ecosystem as a whole we are certainly heading for a disaster.   

Since the turn of this century, development goals are being conceived and shaped keeping the Western Scale as a model. But is this going to work, is the haste sustainable? When it comes to engineering precious natural lands to make way for urbanization, dams, factories, roads, and highways we are throwing caution to the wind, and the warnings by ecologists are shunned as a cry wolf syndrome. The legal framework too somehow bends in favor of allowing the disastrous structural changes on some rationale or another.                

If we look at the long-term scenario not much is going to change irrespective of who is at the helm of governance. The voices promoting caution, rising protests, and warnings eventually drown in the rising crescendo of an economic revolution that the country is seeking since independence.

Before the roar turns into a whimper we should be searching for alternatives that can be promoted as people's initiatives perhaps supported by the NGOs and other concerned organizations.      

In rewilding lies the answer using endemic floral and fauna. This is easier said than done taking into account the pressures on land and the complexities of living systems that support the preservation and conservation of species on Earth. This should come about with the repair of degraded ecosystems by planting endemic floral elements and rejuvenating wildlife by conserving or reintroducing locally extinct life forms. 

As a matter of fact, this is what our PAs or protected areas are doing quite successfully. But as regards Government initiatives there is a limit thanks to the populist nature of our democracy. Initiatives outside the PAs will never take birth or even if they do the half heart implementation will not benefit the degraded and fragile ecosystems. This is not entirely true here the discussion is about enhancing public participation not unduly criticize the Governmental initiatives. 

Plantation has been carried out on large scale in the country and the change from creating mono-cultures like in the past to stress upon endemic species is definitely encouraging. The translocation of wild species from places of reasonable abundance to other destinations in order to reestablish extinct populations or to balance scarce populations in order to boost breeding has been done by the administration quite successfully. These rewilding initiatives have come about as a silver lining in the clouds but much is to desire. How we come out of the stone age and yet retain and sustain our resources is a matter that needs dire attention. This would require the ruling dispensations to be more attentive to public discourse on environmental matters. This would help extricate us from a clueless and disastrous developmental approach that would not be sustainable and harm our environment in totality. I am not talking here about committee members most of whom are yes Sir people in it for name, fame, and associated privileges. India does not lack apolitical, committed conservationists and people conscious of sustainable practices that would preserve our ecosystems for eternity and prevent environmental degradation.         

We will have to curb our commercial instincts which like most Nations are at their peak. Licensing for extreme commercial gains irrationally without any study is against the principle of rational utilization of crucial resources. Unchecked and ill-planned activities like mining, and exploitation of fossil fuels like oil and coal will be disastrous and we are already paying a price due to resultant global warming. 

Public participation is the crux of alternative conservation practices. In India, there are individuals and NGOs who have already laid fine examples of what we as people can do albeit in a limited manner. 

In India, a section of bureaucracy works in complete isolation and even has a discretionary attitude towards the public. This could be described as a colonial approach that long after independence still persists. We as a people should be part of our policies shaping the country and insuring safeguards that would make life much more secure and contended for our future generations.         

India is a wise old country in the last five thousand years or more we have ingrained lot many virtues thanks to Vedic civilization and one of them is conservation ethos. In our blind rush for wealth, we should not sacrifice the principles valued by our sages and wise men. There is hope for there is within every India still present the Vedic ethos.  Earth! Water! Fire! Long Live India!               

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

He also provides SEO and Website Content in English.

Uday Teaches Internet Marketing Classes in his hometown in Jabalpur in Summer.  

He can be contacted at: 

pateluday90@hotmail.com

                    

Man Animal Conflict: Wild Elephants & Habitat Loss

Unearthing the Earth!

{Governments do not look beyond the projects! When framing a developmental project please spell out the environmental concern first! We do not want a rail line or a highway passing from a land belonging to other life forms in our precious habitats!}

First it was the rapid expansion of agriculture and settlements that decimated vast habitats in India. Now we have this development thing going with a jingoistic fervor beyond comprehension. The agriculture lands rapidly converted...taken away from wild animals or other life forms... were primarily forests and to some extent grasslands, not forgetting aquatic ecosystems that were destroyed in the wake. 

While in case of tigers, they were completely wiped out from denuded forests all over the country, the elephants clung to the remains and inaccessible regions since being coarse grazers they are not specialized hunters like the big cats. But their population grew in time to come especially, from ban on hunting which was a must. 

What we fail to realize is that floral diversity is the prey base of the elephants like in case of many other herbivores. It is this floral diversity we are losing in the country. Please do not look from the perspective of protected areas they constitute a minuscule of land. Conservation has to be widespread pervasive constructively.     

The pillage has resulted in severe man animal conflict vis a vis the pachyderm and man. As the elephants venture back into what were their earlier feeding grounds they find the urban assemblage highways, rails, canals, dams, settlements, industries and mining grounds apart from acres of fields to their consternation. 

Umbrage as results is difficult to manage and men die too with the animal being blamed for it. Sadly as consequence!  Electrocution, poaching, hunting, accidents all are decimating the population of pachyderms in India. 

Wildlife encroaching upon the fields is not greed they are not especially fond of agricultural produce in the country of rapidly shrinking habitats it is a necessity an act of survival. Wildlife encroachment into human settlements is not an aberration or desire to kill it is simply trying to recover lost homelands or gain more space in order to survive. 

But unfortunately human fields and settlements are full stops the poor animals are incapable of understanding. Take the case of Asiatic Lion in India issues have stood in the way and they have not been trans-located to other grounds so far. This will certainly result in conflict in their present area and the predator will be put to blame. I hope better sense prevails!         

All this reeks of a bad land management for conservation output. Draw a straight line and excavate...projects take priority...the development imperative.  

Now this question should arise how much land should we vacate before we lose all our endangered species and endanger those that are not...but in time to come. Do we have a time bound solution? 

Encroachment into prime habitats is not a hidden factor it is right in the open and dispensations pay two hoots to it. But creating more PAs and increasing the dimensions of existing PAs is definitely the answer. Restricting agrarian practices, preventing commercialization and unchecked development is the answer! This cannot be done outright that is quite evident but a more circumstantial approach should in place. But who has the time and initiative? All we see is personal bickering in the media and formulation of policies only based on human welfare. There is hardly any thought accorded to environmental concerns and conservation. Just creating institutions and acts is not enough proper implementation and rationale has to be a proper ongoing activity which we expect from the people at helm. The people of India would like to witness more committed and sincere approach towards conservation and environmental concerns in totality.             

Under the Project Elephant the Government has issued directives to Elephant States to create barriers  (sic) and trackers will study the movement of these animals to minimize conflicts. Is this the root cause management? One way to minimize conflicts with animals living in our wilderness is to accord more space. Are we willing? To many the suggestion would appear as gross illogical. Where will the humans go?        

The World we live in reeks of human prerogative and prejudice other life forms are mere elements that evolved along with man but are now inconsequential. 

Who is to blame? 

Fairly and squarely humans are to be blamed...and the act most damaging has been unchecked population growth, which continues to grow. The development imperative may not necessarily have to be due to the population of India bursting over the seams. Every dispensation is interested in managing the countries huge population (Vote Bank) irrespective of ecological cost that the Nation has to bear. Population growth should be checked with full vigor. Then comes the development factor which is erroneously blamed on the massive population. This would have been there even if the population check was in picture. 

Look at some developed countries there is nothing left but this modern human assemblage. Have they stemmed the rot that is the environment imbalances? No! The climate change is effecting one and all and to worsen the unchecked fossil fuel consumption is nothing but disastrous. So we too emulate them!      

India differs from many other Nations in that our conservation ethos date back to thousands of years and the message is still intact. If we do not stem the rot there will be no places for wilderness in the country and the result is already warming thanks to the climate change which will take a noticeable toll in time to come.       

Role elephants play in conservation. 

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Uday works as naturalist at Kanha National Park.
He writes on conservation issues and wildlife.
Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com