In a just society, no justice for wildlife

The art of saving wildlife is a lot more complicated these days than it was earlier, even five years ago. Any move under the banner of wildlife conservation is today vehemently opposed, though not always from genuinely affected groups. Wildlife conservation has little patronage, rather it’s everyone’s whipping boy today. Some politicians have even taken this as a subject to rabble-rouse to gain political mileage.

The Forest Department which is the sole authority to manage and implement law enforcement activities in PAs is already opposed in their day-to-day affairs. In this scenario there are few initiatives that the department or those working on wildlife conservation can propose to implement.

Opposition has several reasons including from those with genuine reasons. However it mainly roots from misinformation and false campaigns. The recent victim is the intention to declare Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ) which allows judicious development around PAs. This is mandated to the department under the Environment Protection Act and a recent Supreme Court order. ESZs are to act as cushions to PAs where activities in the immediate vicinity of PAs would be compatible with that of wildlife conservation. These zones are to be delineated based on ecological importance of areas outside the PA boundaries. For instance, ESZ could consist of legally protected or unprotected forests which act as important wildlife corridors connecting other PAs, or villages that lie on the immediate boundaries of PAs.

However rumors have been floated that livelihood practices of communities living on the edge of PAs would be literally halted, obtaining electricity for housing or farming would be prohibited and such other distorted propaganda. If one would look carefully through the guidelines of ESZ it could well be utilized for the benefits of those living on the periphery of the PAs.

The conflict of land acquisition for developmental projects has gained gigantic proportions in the country with several thousand farmers fighting to save their lands each year. ESZ is a tool that could help people to mitigate this, atleast those that adjoin PAs. Setting up heavy industries on the PA boundaries are not favorable to wildlife conservation, neither does farmers want to part with their land for such purposes. Similarly land in critical wildlife corridors could also be protected from unscrupulous land grabbers, exploiters of natural resources and others who have effectively blocked many wildlife corridors in the name of tourism, granite stone quarrying and others. This is evidently seen around Corbett, Bandipur, Panna, BRT Wildlife Sanctuary and many other PAs in the country.

Conservation in practice is more to deal with crises and opportunities. ESZ poses a suitable opportunity for conservationists, whose time is largely swamped with firefighting activities, to take pre-emptive action. Instances of infrastructure, mining and other projects threatening several of our key wildlife habitats are numerous. Corbett, Kanha, Pench, Ranthambhore are all threatened by proposed highways, diamond mining has been a perennial problem for Panna and the list of such predicaments to PAs or critical wildlife corridors are long, eating up critical time and resources of several civil societies. Hence the burden to provide the stimulus should rest on the shoulders of civil societies to make this very important piece of legislation to be implemented and enforced on-ground.

ESZ gives conservationists an opportunity to arrest the loss of habitat connectivity and other insuperable odds that are bid against wildlife conservation. It will help us to have permeable landscapes especially for species that need to move between PAs in search of new territories for survival. Instances of tigers moving distances of nearly 300 kilometers have been recorded from Karnataka. If these connectivity routes are unprotected, as they are today, they would be filled with industries, highways, power projects, gas pipelines and other such developmental activities that may be important for economic prosperity but would act as permanent blocks for certain wildlife species.

In a just society there should be equal opportunity for everyone including non-human life forms. However wildlife conservation does not have a level playing field. It’s further weakened by high levels of political interference and lacks voice in the Government. In totality it’s nobody’s constituency. Those seriously interested in conservation are also minority in voice and gain little mileage with people who could change things on-ground. They are even looked as untouchables from the vast majority, even in the eyes of those who are in the vanguard of environmentalism.

So, it’s time to brace up so that land use around PAs would be in line with wildlife conservation and could directly benefit both wildlife and people.

An edited version of this article was published in Deccan Herald on 14-12-2011

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/211564/in-just-society-no-justice.html

Not out of the woods, yet

Landscpae species such as the elephant needs vast spaces. Pic:Sanjay Gubbi

Another year has passed since the last World Environment Day. The media and public had a burst of information about climate change and are perplexed by it as this hazard would directly affect Homo sapiens. On a global scale the society wakes up to such daunting environmental issues as it happened in the past with nuclear energy, greenhouse gases and others. Nonetheless there are equally serious concerns with saving species that co-inhabit this planet and has failed to generate similar levels of attention or commitment from the society.

Species conservation

The nation faces an uphill task in saving its national animal, the tiger. Loss of habitat and prey continue to threaten the tiger. However one question that draws the attention and curiosity of most people from laymen to policy makers, how many tigers do we have? Countrywide estimates of tiger densities that were recently put out by the Government drew flak from certain sections of the wildlife community. Nevertheless India is still the best prospect for saving this amber-eyed cat beyond our generations is a matter of solace.

Taking cue from the committee set up to devise policies to save tigers, the Government instituted the Elephant Task Force for drawing up plans to ensure the long-term future of this species. However due to lack of public and media pressure the recommendations of the task force did not go beyond the symbolic declaration of elephant as the national heritage animal. Wish the recommendations were taken seriously about the species which is largely responsible for creating tension amongst its human neighbours due to its ability to damage crops and inflict human fatalities.

The other species that draws attention due its biological and elastic nature of living close to humans and also responsible for high levels of conflict is the spotted cat; the leopard. The species continues to be hacked, stoned and burnt with little pragmatic approaches to reduce the problem. Very importantly the behaviour of people in situations when large-bodied wildlife enters human habitations is appalling. Large-scale public education and crowd management by the police are very essential.

Recent information reveals that tigers move vast distances in search of new territories. This brings into limelight the issue of creating corridors and holding on to viable forest cover between protected areas. In this direction the concept of critical wildlife habitats needs a relook. We need to identify and declare areas that are ecologically vital and provide linkages between source wildlife populations especially for wide-ranging species such as the tiger.

The future of large mammal conservation depends upon political will and integrated conservation planning. Pic:Sanjay Gubbi

The decision maker

After decades the country has a Minister for Environment and Forests who has made his presence felt. There is little doubt that a few issues could have been dealt in a more realistic manner. At present the ministry is more transparent and trying to move away from the tight totalitarian regime. Opportunities are provided to civil societies, eminent scientists to participate in the decision making processes which were almost non-existent during the previous administrations. The minister faced wrath of the business community for going by the rule book. A leading journal from the Wall Street touted him as someone with an ‘activist agenda’ and sacrificing economic growth for environmentalism.

Despite all the criticism I would say the minister got some respect to Paryavaran Bhavan which earlier acted only as a project clearing machinery. It is true that rearranging a system built over half a century is not as easy as rearranging nuts and bolts of machinery. There surely have been a few steps in the right direction that needs to be appreciated.

Infrastructure development should be kept out of critical wildlife habitats. Pic:Basavanna.H.S

Finally

Currently the world is filling up; filling up with more people. India announced its population to be about 1.21 billion, with it has also grown the economy. The mantra of perpetual development is now the secular religion. Development projects uninterruptedly continue to assault natural habitats. Today there is little doubt to believe that our world is crafted and guided by a few corporate houses and individuals. Development lobbyists from across the globe are the political actors deciding the way our wildlife habitats are sliced, cut, divided and distributed among several interest groups that want a piece of our wildlife turf.

It is not development versus wildlife conservation. A middle path where wildlife is kept at the core of development planning when it involves ecologically sensitive areas is the need of the hour. If highways, dams and mines do not slice the country’s four percent land area that harbours our national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, it makes little or no dent in the overall growth objectives of the country. In this world of limitless demands and with limited land area for wildlife, urgent steps are to be taken if we are serious about securing the homes of tigers, elephants, rhinos and other habitat-specialist species.

An edited version of this article has been published in The Hindu on 05-06-2011

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2011/06/05/stories/2011060550040100.htm