#TGLIFE: How rich is the status of wildlife in India?
Prerna Singh Bindra: India has done a remarkable job in conservation. Indians have a lot to be proud of in conserving its wildlife, and biodiversity. India is looked upon as a global leader in conservation having pioneered initiatives to protect tigers and other rare species. It is also the custodian of species that are extinct - or found only in very low numbers elsewhere. Like the Gangetic dolphin - over 80 per cent of the global population inhabit the Ganga - Meghna - Brahmaputra river basin. Wild predators like tigers and leopards, and mega fauna such as elephants and bears, continue to thrive among a human population of 1.3 billion - and counting. While predators have mostly been wiped off in most of Europe and America, India's people are remarkably accepting of predators in their midst: revering nature is intrinsic in our culture.
Are our efforts to conserve and preserve, enough?
We can conserve, if there is the will to do it of both governments which provides the legal institutional framework, as well as the people, whose cooperation is integral to any conservation project. Both Project Tiger and Project Crocodile were pioneering initiatives of their time that revived critically endangered species - that a country like India had the recourses and the will to do this is worth emulating. Having said that, India's wildlife is in a crisis today - it is being poached ruthlessly to feed the illegal wildlife trade and its habitat is being destroyed at an alarming scale. More worryingly, there is a severe absence of political will to conserve wildlife, and unless we muster up the will, and rally for wildlife...its future is grim.
Share your experiences as a member of various wildlife conservation boards
I have served on the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) (chaired by the Prime Minister) in 2010 -13 and was also part of its core standing committee, empowered to take decisions on projects/activities within, and around Protected Areas; as well as on crucial issues and policies concerning wildlife. I have also served on the State Board for Wildlife, Uttarakhand. As part of NBWL we consistently sought to address the fact that the board was being reduced to a rubber stamp to facilitate clearance of projects which would be detrimental to wildlife (incidentally during 2009-14, only 12 per cent projects were rejected), while its mandate of conservation, was taking a backseat. It is not only about the number of rejections - but about governance of such decision-making bodies, which are purportedly independent but have been rendered toothless. Agendas are circulated at the 11th hour, with insufficient information - so how is it informed decision-making? It is an issue of transparency and governance - agenda of the meetings are rarely in the public domain.
What are the difficulties faced by wildlife conservationists in India?
The mandate of the National Board for Wildlife is conservation, yet, in two years, starting May 2014, it rejected less than one per cent of projects inside and in the immediate vicinity of Protected Areas. Many of these are damaging to wildlife - a few among them include the Ken-Betwa river linking that would drown, disembowel and split Panna Tiger Reserve; a road through Kutch Wildlife Sanctuary that would endangered the flamingo's only nesting site in India; the missile-firing testing system on the ecologically fragile Tillanchong island, which is home to the endemic the Nicobar megapode - to name a few.
Share with us your struggles, battles and triumphs
My conservation work has taken me on extensive travels to some of the remotest forests, sanctuaries and reserves across the country which has helped me gain an insight on their management, how policy shapes action on the ground and the problems and constraints faced by park managements. I have also travelled in forests under the influence of Left Wing Extremism, and was part of a team appointed by the Government of India to assess the management of tiger reserves in the ‘red corridor'. While my key expertise is conservation policy, advocacy and communication, my primary focus is protecting wildlife habitats and critically endangered species like the Great Indian Bustard, hangul etc. I have done investigative stories going undercover to expose ivory and shahtoosh trade. I am happy that my efforts have helped draw attention to crucial conservation issues, and several of these have resulted in successful action.
While the larger part of improving policies and legal structures lies with the government, what can be done on an individual level, by the citizens of the country, to help the cause?
A lot! We must speak up for wildlife - we need to arm ourselves with knowledge, and use it to spread the word about how endangered wildlife is, why it matters to us, and we need to make ourselves heard. The health of our environment matters to all of us - we need forests and oceans - as they are the lungs of the earth giving us the oxygen we breathe. India's forests absorb 11 per cent of greenhouse gasses. Nature is important for our survival - and we must value it.
About the author
Prerna Singh Bindra has been a crucial part of interventions that have helped protect the nesting grounds of vultures in Gujarat, prevent the widening of a road in Valmiki Tiger Reserve as well as consolidate the Terai landscape through the notification of Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary, Nainadevi Himalayan Conservation Reserve and Pawalgarh Conservation Reserve etc. She has to her credit 1,500 odd articles on nature and wildlife published in India Today, The Asian Age, The Pioneer, Tehelka, Hindustan Times, Lonely Planet, NatGeo Traveller India, Conservation India and The Times of India.
