Known in financial circles as one of India’s most trusted and accomplished investment bankers, the Chairman of DSP Merrill Lynch Ltd, Hemendra Kothari, has a lesser-known facet to his personality – a passion for tigers and wildlife. He speaks here with Bittu Sahgal about his concern for the future of the tiger, about climate change and the ever-present battle between developers and environmentalists.
You seem happier here (standing next to the reclining Shesh Shaiya statue in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve) than in your corporate office in Mumbai. How come you don't take more time out for yourself?
(Smiling) I sometimes ask the same question. But it is not easy. There are responsibilities. I am trying to cut down the usual 12-hour financial day, but after a lifetime of work, it takes time to let go.
How long has this interest in wildlife been a part of you?
For decades. But earlier, I was like any other tourist… out to have a good time. Kruger, Masai Mara, Botswana, Tadoba, Corbett, Kaziranga, Pench, Kanha, Ranthambhore… I went to such places to relax and to take my mind off my work. I feel very differently about wildlife now. Wildlife has given me so much. I now want to give something back.
How do you intend to do that?
By doing whatever I can to help protect the tiger and its forests and encourage others, including corporate bodies, to help. After all, if they take something away to build their businesses, they must also agree to give back. This does not only mean giving money, but also helping lands to regenerate naturally for wildlife to flourish. The government cannot succeed on its own. If prominent people are involved, the message percolates through the system. I started the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) with like-minded friends to add some strength to the conservation movement.
What is WCT's key agenda?
Our purpose is to work with wildlife NGOs, state and central governments and local communities. We do not claim to be experts, but our best efforts go towards providing resources to wildlife experts.
Our job is to supplement and further the effort of credible NGOs, if and when the need arises. Protecting wildlife is a very tough job and the field staff needs modern transport, better communication network and dignified facilities for their families. It is also vital that villages that volunteer to move away from critical wildlife habitats are enabled to do so.
What about the welfare of communities living just outside our wildlife habitats?
We must find a way to satisfy their legitimate livelihood needs. But it is equally vital to ensure that such livelihood needs do not come at the cost of the wild animals and forests next to which they live.
This means, for instance, that they should be able to sustain themselves through protecting, not killing wildlife or clearing forests as is often the case.
I am not saying this is an easy task, but all the concerned people – NGOs, forest officers and policy makers – must sit together with villagers living around wildlife areas and find a way to make them the prime beneficiaries of tourism.They should also profit from global carbon credits if marginal farms are allowed to regenerate back to forest status.
You mentioned getting help from other corporate bodies, but right now many of them are actually stripping our forests for all manner of industrial projects.
Look Bittu, a new modern India is emerging - and nobody can stop that. It is one thing to feel good about publicly criticising someone, but does this do any good?
In my opinion, conservationists have to change their strategy. By taking confrontationist or extremist stances, even the little help that is available will not be there.
You saw the film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. How important is the climate change issue to India?
Nothing is more important. Our agriculture, industry, health and economic future depend on whether we fail or succeed to check climate change.Two-thirds of India’s one billion people depend on agriculture, and cropping patterns will be severely affected by climate change.
We need to do much more to educate businessmen, politicians and bureaucrats. We need a national consensus on this and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI) and other such industrial bodies must participate in an open discussion on the subject of ecological security and national development.
I think the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has given us a very clear picture and its Chairman
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, who also heads The Energy Research Institute (TERI), has done a great job of raising both concern and awareness on the issue. This knowledge must translate itself into action by offering incentives and subsidies for solar and wind energy, mass rapid transportation, etc.
Are there more Sariskas in India’s future?
The way we are going now, yes. But with so little real effort, we can prevent this. I think the Rajasthan Government is now very serious about returning tigers to Sariska, but before that we must ensure that the reason for which the tigers were killed are tackled. I spoke with the Chief Minister who is also very keen to protect tigers, wildlife and forests in Rajasthan.
She has passed down instructions and the initial steps to return security to Ranthambhore and Sariska are being taken. I understand that the plan to offer a fair relocation package has been prepared. Facilitating such voluntary shifts is going to be a critical wildlife-conservation strategy in the days to come.
You feel this is a key to the return of tigers?
Yes. If we can provide effective isolation for the tiger from humans, we can save it. But it is not only villagers that are a problem. We must also motivate our forest staff and officers and encourage them. Of course, they have resource limitations. So there is no use criticising officials without ensuring they have proper facilities and budgetary support.
Can you describe your most moving wildlife experience?
I think it was probably late one evening in Tadoba five years ago… I was with the Field Director in his vehicle near a fire line after we had gone on an inspection to the outskirts of the park.
As we parked our vehicle, we saw a tigress with her three full-grown cubs walk directly towards us in the bright light of the full moon. That was one of the incidents that convinced me that I had to do something for India’s tigers, wildlife and forests.
Admit it! Basically you are in love with tigers!
It's not just me. My entire family is in love with tigers, including my late wife. We still take as many holidays as possible in tiger forests, and I find that spending time by myself in forests renews my spirit and soul.
The tiger is powerful, but it does not display aggression needlessly. I would like to make sincere efforts to save tigers in the wild and their forests.
