JOIN USThe year 2012 was a mixed bag in terms of conservation. While the official toll of tiger deaths has risen to 83, the IUCN has taken out Asiatic lions from the critically endangered category because of their stable population in the jungles of Sasan Gir, writes Atula Gupta.
Henry Thoreau, a 19th-century writer had once remarked, “What is the use of a house if you do not have a tolerable planet to put it on?” The year that’s about to end brought with itself many instances where man tested the tolerance of the earth repeatedly. But what also became a general understanding is the centuries-old wisdom that shrinking natural capital is never the sign of a country’s growth.
The year, therefore, was a year of amends. Better use of technology for conservation, courts and regulators stepping in to protect national symbols like tiger, tightening of leash on the mining mafia and commoners rising above the daily grind to shoulder the ecological responsibility, the positives were plenty and visible. Sadly, like a persistent scar, the year also marked the rise of wildlife crime. It is today the third largest criminal industry in the world and can no more be sidelined as a mere environmental issue.
Nation’s pride
The biggest victory for India’s environmentalists in 2012 was the declaration of the Western Ghats as a World Heritage Site. The 1,600-km stretch is even older than the Himalayan ranges and a biodiversity hotspot. 30 per cent of plants found in the Western Ghats, along with 35 percent bird species, 20 per cent mammals, 60 percent reptile species and 70 per cent of amphibians are endemic to the area.
Although tea-coffee plantations, hydel projects, mining, and clever human encroachments have already gnawed into the Ghats, the global recognition hopefully will prevent permanent man-made damage.
Even as the Western Ghats got elevated to a must-visit destination in the tourist itinerary, India’s oldest eco-tourism ambassador namely the tiger was suddenly out of the travel circuit.
The Supreme Court banned tourism in the core areas of tiger reserves in July this year on a public interest petition that pleaded that critical tiger habitats should be kept inviolate of all types of human disturbances, including tourism.
Amidst much debate and after rushed eco-tourism guidelines presented by the centre, the ban was lifted in October. Thanks to the revamped guidelines, the tigers now have slightly more control on their marked territories though they still roam unshielded from poachers’ bullets.
Even before the year’s end, the official toll of tiger deaths has risen to 83 including 54 because of poaching and retaliatory killings. Comparatively, in 2011 total tiger deaths were 61. To protect the 300 odd tigers roaming in their states, Karnataka and its neighbour Tamil Nadu ,formed the Tiger Protection Force, a group of armed commandos especially trained to protect the mega predator. The National Tiger Conservation Authority has also earmarked 500 million rupees to form similar squads in 13 other tiger reserves of the country.
Critical concern
The news of another jungle royalty this year was assuring. The IUCN this year removed the Asiatic Lions from critically endangered list owing to its stable population in the jungles of Sasan Gir.
At the same time 132 other Indian plants and animals were declared critically endangered. Fortunately, thanks to ban on killer drugs, the three vulture species of India, also on the verge of extinction, showed signs of recovery.
Ironically, in spite of its god-gifted armour, one animal that withstood the maximum pain in 2012 was the Indian rhinoceros. As incessant rains converted the lush green valleys of Assam into watery graveyard the rhino trying to flee from the floods, became an easy target of poachers.
Some were brutally shot, some left to die with their horns removed. As per WWF, wildlife trade is today worth $ 19 billion. It is an organised crime with least bit of risk and maximum profit. The organisation found that rhino horns were sold at 30,000 USD per pound in the illegal markets. The lax implementation of wildlife laws in India only encouraged insurrectionists, separatists and extremists to access vast fortunes from unprotected forests.
In the global environment scenario, India pushed Russia into fourth place and is now the world’s third biggest emitter of CO2, after China and the US. But while economists still fail to measure the value of our natural assets and their role in securing the future of a country, individuals and communities chose to preserve these real treasures.
Social responsibility
Villagers in Karnataka recently came to the rescue of a tigresss caught in a barbed wire fence. Temples of Orissa decided to breed rare turtles in their ponds, just to give them a lease of life. An illiterate from Assam single-handedly converted a dry land to a verdant forest.
Researchers in Western Ghats set out to learn how frogs could aid them in understanding climate change. Camera traps, GPS systems, conservation drones made it possible to remotely access the well being of wildlife.
The year 2012 is different in the way people perceived the role of nature and environment in their lives. Some acts were driven by greed, others by need and still others with the sole intention of returning to the state of harmonious existence. At the end of one solar calendar and the beginning of another, let us hope the eco-consciousness quotient continues to rise.