India's forests are not wilderness but habitats. Our wildlife management strategy must for this reason be inclusive of people who live in our national parks and not treat them as 'biotic interference'. An inept wildlife management policy ensures nobody wins
The wildlife week has just ended with barely a stir. And the plight of our animals in the wild remains what it has always been -- pitiable. Not just are they fast losing their habitat and contending with poachers, they are now facing the ire of the very people they once shared their homes with.
Barely has the memory of the brutal hacking of elephants in the Corbett National Park become dim, when the poisoning of ten pachyderms in Nameri National Park in Assam brought it all back. To make matters worse, five lions in what has been the country's pride, the Gir sanctuary, were found dead. While officials are taking great pains to project them as "natural deaths" evidence of poisoning and premeditated killing is all too clear. Which brings one back to the question -- why these deaths?
If anything the human-animal conflict is deepening by the day. This only goes to show that there is a serious flaw in our wildlife policy. Little effort has been made to address the problems of people who live in the forests. It is no wonder that such conflicts erupt.
As we have said often in these very columns, India's forests are not wilderness but habitats. Our wildlife management strategy must for this reason be inclusive of people who live in our national parks and not treat them as 'biotic interference'. As yet progress on this issue has been poor and worse, mean-minded. The concept of 'eco development' has been to give poor inhabitants some crumbs to turn their backs on forests. Worse, no efforts have been made to relocate these forest villages -- with expected results. All this is leading to a crisis that will not go away.
Wildlife weeks may come and go. But unless a serious effort is made to address all the issues involved, there is little hope.
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