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By Lalitha Sridhar The free market economy has turned us into a consumerist people who lead insular lives and will not engage with issues such as conservation, says Valmik Thapar, tiger conservationist tiger conservationist, wildlife advisor, author, filmmaker and spokesperson for the natural world.Add to that the fact that India's corporate world has given nothing back to the natural world and that after Indira and Rajiv Gandhi there has been no political will to protect the environment, and we have a recipe for disaster
 "I became involved 26 years ago." I saw my first tiger at the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. My tiger guru was Fateh Singh Rathore. Till 1992, I was completely involved in recording the behaviour of the tiger over several films and about 10 books. The latest documentary, Danger in Tiger Paradise , is to be aired on BBC. It is that rarest of films which looks into the mind of this magnificent animal in a way I have not encountered before. As far as my work goes, in 1992, I got sucked into government-related work -- for instance, the Steering Committee on Project Tiger that I still serve 11 years after I joined. Through the process of serving on government bodies -- the Indian Board of Wildlife, Advisory Committees to state governments like the Rajasthan Wildlife Advisory Board -- I am able to be involved in policymaking and finding solutions to the crisis that we face today. More importantly, and more recently, the Central Empowered Committee constituted by the Supreme Court, of which I am a part, looks at forest issues and then refers and recommends matters to the Supreme Court for judgment. "I think if you take a decision to work with the government, you have to work at a furious pace, you have to fight, you have to battle, you have to be at par, be equal with them." Important issues related to 'Forest India ' are under government control via the Forest Department, not under the people. But forests are common wealth and cannot be under any personal jurisdiction so if you don't work in the system as a non-government person fighting the system, arguing, debating, shouting, screaming, you don't have a chance of bringing about any real change, any reform, any new thinking. The government needs you as much as you need them. You have to find ways, even though it can be frustrating -- and it is frustrating -- because there is only a 2% to 5% chance of success and 95% of your work is wasted. But you could still find one good person in government. It could be an IAS officer or a forest officer, it could be a policeman or someone in the judiciary. There will always be someone with an empathy or sympathy towards the natural world -- because the natural world creates that in the soul of a person. Always, there will be one in 10 or 20 people who would have, somehow and somewhere, been mesmerised. "Take Indira Gandhi herself. However much one disagreed with her politics, what she did after she took power in 1966, onwards of 1968, is extraordinary." She put a stop to hunting, to fur exports, she started Project Tiger, piloted the Wildlife Protection Act, piloted the Forest Conservation Act and created the Department of Environment. After she died, her son followed it up by setting up the Ministry of Environment & Projects. These are laws on which the whole country is based today, the pillars upon which it is built. Whether it is the DMK, the AIADMK or the BJP, they will have to follow the laws that Indira Gandhi made and that Rajiv Gandhi made. It was her personal obsession with forests that forced these laws and thank God they happened because otherwise we would not have had one inch of forest land left today. That's how serious it was. In 1968, every bit of forest was being hacked, every animal was being killed, travel agencies sold tiger shooting. She stopped all that. People forget that. Starting 1991-92, a lot of Public Interest Litigations were filed and the Supreme Court played the role of protector. After Narasimha Rao came into power, everything changed. We have simply ceased to have that kind of political will -- and we need it so desperately. From 1995 onwards, 200 orders and interim orders were passed by the Supreme Court -- stopping the saw mills of the North-east, banning timber cutting, saving the Western Ghats , not allowing any wood to be commercially sold. I have examined these orders. They are wonderful orders. If this had not been done by the Supreme Court, again, there would have been nothing. "What does the tiger symbolise? A healthy environment. Where the tiger lives, the butterfly lives." Suddenly, we had been transported to a free market economy where there was a lot of greed. At the time of independence the turnover from mining was Rs 48 crore; now it is Rs 48,000 crore and most of that land has come from forests. Mining is the most horrific activity, particularly in reserved forests. Our biggest failure came from the corporate world. It didn't contribute a teeny-weeny bit to the natural world. I met the CII to start a Green Fund to which every member should contribute. Because none of us, whether in the corporate world or otherwise, can live without the tiger. If you protect the tiger you protect the forests. You have 600 perennial rivers and streams originating in forests of India where the tiger lives. They feed the essence of life -- water. 100 million people depend directly or indirectly on forests. When we cut the forests down, we change the contours of the land. Mining has stripped our geography in Haryana, Rajasthan, Goa, the Western Ghats , the Aravallis. When we manipulate the natural world without thinking about our long-term needs, we lose water -- look at Chennai, Delhi , all thirsty for scarce water. To me, one of the greatest tragedies is that we lost political will along with the Gandhis. So the corporate world never gave anything back to the natural world and there was no political leadership with the required will. We were stuck with a tiny minority of forest officers who were committed to saving the national parks, and some concerned people outside who were battling and continue to battle. A great failure of our times is that more and more people are not engaged in the conservation movement and lead completely insular lives. In my opinion, things changed completely between 1981 and 1992, ushering in this free market economy via Narasimha Rao. TV came into every house. I always say old is gold. Once, there was another way in which this nation functioned. In the countryside, village people came out to fairs and festivals. They talked to each other -- they talked about why to save a forest and why not. Indigenous people, just 50 years back, lived in harmony with their environment. Big politics and business pressures resulted in their alienation. Locals may not have degrees but they understand their land much better. With basic talent they do brilliant work. They can be roped in for a vibrant conservation ethic, a successful movement. We are all just great yappers. Now we just sit there, wondering how to buy our next TV, or a TV if we don't have one, or which is the nearest electronic shop for the next gadget to acquire. Greed is overwhelming. And how to make money? By cutting forests. They are a common treasure house. "What is Project Tiger? A centrally sponsored scheme." After its creation by Indira Gandhi, till she died, Project Tiger was the most powerful conservation strategy because if anyone was detrimental to it, the phone would be picked up and the minister talked to -- there are hundreds of such recorded cases. Rajiv Gandhi continued to whatever extent he could, till he died. Since then, with all our political leadership, it becomes just disbursement of money. People sitting in Delhi release Rs 18 crore annually to 27 areas, through state governments. If only Indira Gandhi was sitting there, asking who is doing what, is that tiger safe? Then everybody would still be shivering. But you cannot persuade the PMs who have come and gone in the last ten years -- they are not interested. "20% of India , 1/5th of the country, is protected by 1,60,000 men." There is a 35% vacancy in the Forest Service and no fresh recruitments are taking place. There are no shifts, no uniforms, a 100 die each year, many more are disabled, nothing is done for the widows or the families. It's a 24-hour job, protecting our forests. They are our internal frontiers, constantly under threat from unseen enemies. National parks overlap state boundaries -- lines which tigers do not respect. To cite a simple example, the administration does not allocate the same wireless frequency to forest officers working in different states but falling under the same sanctuary. The Bandhipur-Wyanad-Mudhumalai forest belt is possibly the richest in the country and falls into three different states -- Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. These are the sort of policy-level changes that are required to impact conservation at the grassroots. Things move very, very slowly. But it is not for want of trying. Every scam, every 'development' project hits the natural world -- the poacher is actually the last in the line. The tiger has to evade all of these very real dangers. "The tiger is hardly going to sit at home waiting for the census enumerator to drop by." How many tigers are there in the Indian wild? About 3,600. I don't put too much faith in specific numbers. This is raw data and a lot of parameters and estimates may be skewed. A record 80,000 tigers were hunted and killed prior to Independence . So you can only imagine how their population has been decimated. Even after so many years, for me, understanding tiger behaviour is a learning experience. We do know that if a poacher kills one animal, he kills many animals. Such is the manner in which the natural food chain functions. Tiger populations occur in Nepal , Bhutan , Myanmar , Thailand , Siberia , Vietnam , perhaps a handful in China . An informed guess would be about 6-7,000 tigers in the wild, the world over. India has about 40% of the world tiger population. We have not put our heads together to make wildlife protection economically sustainable. I used to be sceptical about wildlife tourism but the African model is worth emulating. What we need is a fair spread of resorts that are available to everybody. Revenue must go to the park in question and not to the treasury. The tiger was worshipped wherever it walked -- if Durga rides a tiger to vanquish evil, it is a symbol of the most potent combination of humankind and beast. In China and Vietnam the tiger is a sign of regeneration, fertility and the defeat of evil. Early missionaries are recorded as having brought in guns to kill the tiger. An animal which was revered as God was defeated by greed and political ideology. Hundreds of PhDs can be written on different issues related to the tiger. The tiger evokes fear, power, inspiration and awe. It has as much of a right to live as you and me. "In 1992, I said that the tiger will not survive. I hope I will never have to make such statements again." At that point, I believed it. Fortunately, very, very fortunately, I was wrong. What I said then I will never be able to say again. That's the good news! I am hopeful that there will be enough young people who will enable the forests to survive. There have even been instances of vigilantism as forest defence but that is not going to help. We do need to review the laws -- forest officers are only supposed to defend themselves and they are dealing with the most dangerous criminals. The worst poachers are to be found in the best forests. People from different disciplines -- doctors, bureaucrats, conservationists, businessmen, journalists -- everyone can help. From encroachment upon forest land to the building of a new temple in protected areas, if you see something happening, report it. I wish the media would look into these issues with greater depth: they have to visit our national parks, sit there, go into depth, specialise a bit, understand and communicate. We don't have any magic wand at our disposal given the complex political fabric but we can minimise damage. Our forests are World Heritage sites and we must protect them as such. The tiger overwhelms me -- I know nothing else. (InfoChange News & Features, January 2004)
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