Mayur-da,
You miss the woods for the trees . I did make a mistake in writing Parag Das instead of Prahlad Goala but you made another by ridiculing the issue of rhino hunting and tmber smuggling.
What are your views on environmental protection in Assam?
Umesh
mayur bora <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This is simply shameful. Before asking for comments,
one should be careful about basic facts. "Parag Da
killed recently for writing about illegal activities
in jungle". The writer should immediately go to jungle
and start meditating to restore sanity.
Mayur
--- umesh sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
> What about rhinos and elephants, tigers etc in
> Kajiranga Rhino National Park etc? WHen forest
> chiefs are accused of killing intrepid reporters
> like Parag Das recently who wrote about illegal
> activities in the jungle - there cannot be no smoke
> without fire, or whatever..
>
> any comments?
>
>
> Umesh
>
> Editorial: 2006: The tiger re-appears
>
> =================================
>
> 2005 was definitely the year of the Indian tiger.
> The year began with
> the tragic news of this magnificent animal's
> disappearance from the
> Sariska tiger reserve, a protected space. This news
> became,
> appropriately, the nation's obsession. I was asked
> to chair a Task
> Force, and in three months we put out a report in
> the public domain.
> The report drew attention.
>
> When I introspect on what has happened in the name
> of the tiger this
> year, I feel bereft. Not only because we continue to
> lose tigers, but
> also because we continue to lose extremely precious
> time in holding on
> to such entrenched positions regarding the tiger -
> and conservation in
> general - that the statement "something has to be
> done about the tiger
> and conservation" holds no meaning at all. We are
> losing ground
> because we care: we care too much about our own
> stated positions that
> we simply cannot agree to move on what needs to be
> done. The plight of
> the tiger has become the country's biggest soap
> opera. It has drowned,
> again, in its own cacophony.
>
> Saving the tiger in 2006 will need us to change the
> terms of debate.
>
> Let me explain. When I was asked to chair the Task
> Force - to examine
> not only why tigers had disappeared in Sariska but
> also what needed to
> be done in the future to safeguard the tiger - I
> returned with renewed
> interest to an issue I was once deeply involved in.
> I had learnt after
> years of seeing and listening, that conservation in
> a poor and
> populated country like India could not afford to
> discount its greatest
> asset, its people. Here, then, was an opportunity to
> test my belief
> against reality, the situation on the ground.
>
> What a test it turned out to be. I still do not know
> how to thank the
> many people - wildlife researchers, conservation
> scientists, forest
> bureaucrats (retired and in the field), activists -
> who told me what
> needed to be done, in the short term and in the long
> term, to protect
> the tiger and other wild creatures. We can never do
> justice to all the
> voices of this complicated country. But the dots
> that exist must be
> joined.
>
> After 30 years of 'practical' conservation, people
> continue to live in
> tiger reserves. India's track record of relocation
> is pathetic -
> barely 80 of 1,500 villages in protected areas have
> been relocated.
> Worse, this relocation has been done mindlessly in
> many cases, leading
> to greater hostility between people and animals.
> This is definitely
> not good for conservation, or the tiger.
>
> So, can relocation remain a strong plank in the
> policy of the future?
> It is clear we must work towards inviolate spaces -
> areas for the
> tiger only - by identifying the villages that need
> to be relocated as
> quickly as possible. Two caveats need to kept in
> mind here: one, such
> relocation must be mindful of people's needs; and
> two, if all villages
> cannot be relocated, we must work towards reducing
> the obviously
> destructive hostility between people and tigers by
> learning to
> practice better coexistence. Since pressure from
> neighbouring (fringe)
> villages can often be great, so - even as we begin
> to relocate the
> ones within - we must also repair the relationship
> with the people
> outside.
>
> The issue clearly now is to move the boundaries of
> 'debate' into
> action. Can we identify habitations with maximum
> impacts on core tiger
> habitats? Most importantly, how do we begin to do
> something we haven't
> done in the last 30 years - relocate many more
> families, with speed
> and sensitivity, in the next few years? Can we
> finally ensure benefits
> of conservation to poor people, who will then agree
> to coexist with
> the tiger?
>
> Tough issues. Tough, because they have to be engaged
> with, and
> resolved. And this is where I begin to feel bereft:
> instead of
> engaging with these realities, the effort is still
> to keep the
> positions polarised in the simplistic manner of a
> schoolboy debate:
> those 'for the tiger only' against those who believe
> 'people and
> tigers will coexist'. I can understand that a few
> conservationists
> need to keep positions entrenched as they derive
> negative strength
> from it. They need the 'enemy camp' to constantly
> deride and condemn.
> But I cannot understand why the rest of the
> community of tiger
> lovers - and there is a large but silent group out
> there - prefers to
> keep the dogma, not the debate, alive.
>
> It is equally clear that poaching is a real and
> deadly threat to the
> tiger. The question is what needs to be done to
> contain (and
> eliminate) this criminal activity. Here, the answer
> lies in re-writing
> the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, amendments and
> all. It is today
> so weak that even if a poacher is caught, he cannot
> be convicted. We
> need to pressurise global institutions to take
> cognisance of evidence
> that international trade in tiger parts is alive and
> kicking - under
> their concerned noses. We need domestic institutions
> to investigate,
> and stymie, poaching. We definitely need
> strengthened efforts to
> protect the tiger by implementing carefully designed
> protection
> strategies and by working not against, but with
> local people.
>
> Here again, the agenda for reform is in danger of
> being lost to
> emotion and destructive intent: I speak of the
> renewed cry for guns
> and guards. The 'send-in-the-commandos' approach has
> been seriously
> tried and has seriously failed. It is no surprise
> that Sariska had the
> highest number of guards per square kilometre,
> Ranthambhore has armed
> police to guard its beleaguered tigers and Panna
> tiger reserve (where
> it is feared tigers are threatened) is one of the
> top spenders on
> conservation. Clearly, the answers will lie in doing
> more, but
> differently.
>
> Epitaph: If 2005 was the year of the disappearing
> tiger, it was
> because we allowed the tiger to become less
> important than the
> personalities that desire its survival. In 2006,
> this must change.
> Only then can the survival of the tiger be secured.
>
> - Sunita Narain
>
=== message truncated ===>
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Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
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