Missing the neighbourhood for the trees

First, the locals report any new, suspicious person, and secondly, their natural skills at understanding the forest (from years of intelligent adjustment) and the movement of animals can be harnessed for conservation. Clearly, local stewardship of forests and animals, with official support is the most logical way forward.

But unfortunately, in many national parks, much of surrounding community has never been into the park! This is an area that NGOs can address — arranging educational trips especially for surrounding schools — for them to appreciate the animals, forests and birds. Additionally exposing students through awareness campaigns and national competitions would create better appreciation and understanding of problems surrounding parks. This could also encourage young people to join the forest service as forest guards ( who themselves are a dwindling breed).

The lack of livelihoods for populations around a park, need to be urgently addressed. They have no real interest in preserving the birds, trees or animals. In Africa, the communities around parks gain from tourists by selling their homemade products. With these eco-tourism models, the locals (and not just the resort owners) have a stake in keeping their reserves alive and flourishing. These incentives are critical, and local people must be persuaded that a sanctuary is a protected entity with economic security in its own right and not just a ‘jungle’. These tours were conducted in Corbett under the previous park director, and this is something every tiger reserve director needs to do.

Perhaps a point system could be established where a point is awarded to a park for every protection or preservation effort it makes in terms of better infrastructure, certification of guides, ethnicity of resorts, environment friendliness, innovative programmes like involving schools of the area in a competition linked to some aspect of the park, the community involvement and the gains to them.

The Wildlife Protection Society of India holds awareness workshops for people in Sunderbans where the incidents of man-eating are highest. The local feedback confirms that understanding the tiger is the most effective way of mitigating conflict. This is an idea that needs to be taken forward. In some reserves in states like Chattisgarh, the NTCA has specifically asked the state to co-ordinate with NGOs for heightened awareness.

There are many creative ways to amplify this message. For instance, a ‘tiger band’ that came together on Tiger Day, July 25 (Jim Corbett’s birthday), got me thinking — could we reach out to individuals and communities in innovative ways to spread these stories — why not in song? How many community songs in villages are about preservation? I recently visited the village of Bakhotra in Gujarat, where the residents sing bhajans and songs most evenings. Can we not weave messages to conserve the environment into their songs?

In protecting our wildlife we protect our forests and mitigate the effects of climate change — surely a win-win for all.

The writer is a young environmentalist