conflicts

the war called conservation

zookkLeave a comment

I do not call myself as a pure conservationist but I do have the spirit to admire the beauty of creations. I would not hesitate to smash a mosquito and defend myself against a predator but I would always prefer tto leave them as they are with minimal intervention to what happens to them trusting the ecosystem that created them will take care of them. In nature everything is not a circle, straight line, ellipse or rectangle. Just because we do not know how to name them it does not mean they are shapeless. The truth is that they are just beyond our comprehension and nature has its own way of surviving.

I find it funny when people admire the china made fireworks but fail to make an attempt to admire the starry nights.

The western world has already wiped out more than 95% of their wild life. Fortunately, some of their Nature’s gift is still retained though it is left accessible only to those who could afford. In terms of wildlife, only Africa and India still has major percentage of them but many species are racing towards extinction due to human’s ignorance, negligence and in the name of greed.

Though I am no one in the whole scheme of things, I strongly believe Nature and Wildlife are true gifts to mankind and it belongs to all and none in particular. Those who are blessed with its bounty are lucky to live close enough to them and appreciate the marvel of the creations. To those who are far it is an effort even to the extent of spending the entire savings of lifetime. No one has the right to deprive another human from enjoying this gift.

It’s so depressing to see a system, created by mankind, making us be on the rat-race for living and savings, destroying nature and wildlife, eventually makes us spend more to experience them. What should have been everyone’s right suddenly has become luxury. To make it worse, the process continues in the name of development nourished with human greed. The people who have been living close to these areas are either being corrupted or being taken advantage to create the irreversible damage for short term gains in the name of poaching, hunting and development. Should we not be learning about co-existence from them?

The war called conservation is not the one that is fought with guns and pens. It’s not a war that is fought for one’s bread or survival but for the future generations. It’s not the one where group of people shouting slogans together. It’s not about feeding them for survival but leaving them unadulterated allowing them to live the way they are designed by nature.

  • It’s about loving nature, creations and the ecosystem on which these creations are depend upon.
  • It’s about making fellow humans understand its glory and making them carry the spirit.
  • It’s about raising awareness to authorities to align their policies towards conservation and balance the developmental areas.

Personally, if there is a political party that proposes that they would freeze all forests and marshlands from development, I would vote for them. Unfortunately, I have hardly heard of any such party. Should we raise awareness that there is a good vote bank for this?

 

Conservation Issues
Destruction of ecosystem
PC: Hardik Pala

human-animal conflict: a snapshot

zookkLeave a comment

One of the oldest conflict for resources has been between human and animals. Due to this only in few parts of the world, we could still see wild animals in real wild. However, over the recent past, the wild animals are at a greater risk and the rate of loss has been in multi-fold. Every now and then, all of us hear that some species or other is extinct. Most of them are due to conflicts that happens here and there in a small scale but later culminate to the complete species’ loss.

Few parts of the world have still managed to protect the habitat and its wildlife. Maintaining the complete the ecosystem has its own challenges and the biggest of them is human-animal conflict. Wildlife is affected in many forms:

  1. Deforestation affecting the habitats
  2. The constant need of encroachment by humans near the forest areas resulting in habitat loss
  3. Urbanization, Electric fences affecting the corridors that links forests
  4. Laying of high-speed highways through the forests
  5. Poisoning and hunting of wild animals
  6. Organized poaching

More often, forests are surrounded by villages. The villagers understand the nearby forest and related wildlife and they learn to co-exist with the related challenges. However, conflicts are very much on the rise. It’s not just that they get terrified by aggressive wild animals time to time but also very often, their farmland and cultivation get affected with even humble wild animals like deer and antelopes. When cattle are allowed to graze inside the forest land, few of them get killed by wild animals. Over a period, this creates the dissent and few villagers poison the wild animals. Sometimes they also form a mob and get into very violent actions against these animals.

Few species of animals like elephants migrate between forests during the year. They have been doing this historically over years and years. When their regular corridor has been cut off due to urbanization and through electric fencing protecting the farms, some of the affected elephants get aggressive and there is more conflict.

High speed roads around the forest areas are directly responsible for the maximum kills of wild animals. This has been the case in every part of the world. A search on internet on wildlife road kills will produce shocking statistics.

There is no simple solution to human-animal conflict. However, it is important that every human is aware of the conflict so that true wildlife remains in real wild for future generations and not just in zoo and in animated movies. The on the ground stake holders are the forest department and the villagers who have remained there for many generations. The forest departments and with volunteers have been constantly educating the villagers on how to handle conflict situations. This has reduced the conflicts in some parts. Funding from international organizations and responsible wildlife tourism also has helped in reducing the conflict. I have also come across volunteers who personally compensates the villagers for a cattle kill so that tigers/leopards do not get poisoned.