PANAJI
Only 5 per cent of India’s landmass makes up protected areas and if we continue to assault it, even that may not be left, wildlife photographer and explorer Sandesh Kadur has warned.
Speaking at the first day of the tenth D D Kosambi Festival of Ideas on the issue of India’s mountains, Kadur, who is known for his work on the BBC’s landmark Planet Earth 2 series and an award winning photographer, wildlife documentary filmmaker spoke of the devastating effects of dams and the need to understand nature.
“We conserve only what we love, we love only what we understand and we understand only what we are taught,” Kadur said.
He explained how mountains are quite literally the sources of life because they supply rivers, which in turn supplies water to animals and humankind.
“Without the Western Ghats, India would not have been discovered, as the peppers and cardamoms which drew the Europeans here would not have been there,” Kadur said as he took the audience through the diversity of the Western Ghats.
“The Western Ghats are the richest places for amphibians in the entire world,” he said.
He pointed out how, government policy, which included dams which more often than not were ecological disasters owing to their disruptive nature, become useless after a while through siltation and have to be removed.
“If you can see (pointing to an image on the screen) the area downstream is completely dry. In such a situation how do you expect all the species I have shown you which rely on water to survive? Fish need to travel upstream to breed,” he said adding that not just wildlife but also populations survive on the fish.
Referring to the reported loss of ₹25,000 crore per day on account of the conflict between the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu water wars, Kadur said that if this amount was spent on conserving the source of the rivers, it would be much better.
