Environmentalist and publisher Bittu Sahgal’s project titled ‘Kids For Tigers’ has come a long way since it was first flagged off in 2000.
Ifthe adults can’t do it, let the children take over. That seems to be an idealphilosophy according to India’s well known environmentalist Bittu Sahgal, whohas also been at the forefront of saving the tiger in India from extinction. Itwas this thought that made him conceive an education programme for schoolsacross India in the year 2000 under the aegis of his magazine ‘Sanctuary Asia’.“Today it is an integral part of more than 275 schools and as many as 5,00,000students across 15 cities in India,” he says.
Accordingto Sahgal, the programme aims to bring out the vital connection between thesurvival of the tiger and the ecological security of the Indian subcontinent. “Through‘edutainment’ workshops, tiger fests, nature walks, film shows and tigerinformation kits, ‘Kids For Tigers’, as the programme is known, seeks toincrease awareness among children about India’s biodiversity and sensitize themto the fact that saving tigers and their forests will also secure our watersupply and help save ourselves. The rationale of the programme is that we cannotsave the tiger without saving its forest. If we do this, we are saving India’spurest water sources. And by saving fresh water, we save ourselves,” Sahgalelaborates.
Theproject does not believe that children must wait to become adults before takingcharge of their destinies. They are encouraged to make their voices heard, towrite to powerful decision-makers and influence their own families andcommunities. “Some of the world’s most credible wildlife experts have taken outtime to help groom the most promising among these tiger warriors in theirfuture role at the frontlines of the tiger’s defense,” he adds.
Nowkeen to take it ahead, Sahgal says that their team is willing to assist groupsaround the world with ideas and advice on how to win the support of children intheir communities for wider environmental action. “We aim to create a veritablearmy of supporters to save the tiger,” he says. With the tigers being in troubleall over again because the government itself is cutting down the tiger’s hometo make way for the spread of human habitats and poachers becoming active onceagain, Sahgal says that saving this fine beast should be taken up as a priorityissue. “And that is why it is so important to create a generation thatunderstands the seriousness of this need,” he says.
