The Hindu Business Line : Seeding love for wildlife

"The idea can be tried out if we can get a few corporates to adopt the villages on an experimental basis. The corporates and villagers can split the earnings on a 20:80 basis and also help wildlife."

"IF the choice is between development projects and forests, I am for protecting forests. I am against national parks and sanctuaries being encroached upon for mining and hydroelectric projects. In that sense, I am prepared to say no to development." That was my good friend Kishor Rithe.

He came over to my place in Borivili for lunch on Sunday. For a change, he had time to spare and the train for Amravati, where he stays and fights for the Melghat Tiger Reserve, was scheduled to leave late in the evening.

Recently, the Maharashtra Government scratched him from the State Wildlife Board and that hurt Kishor Rithe. "We are fast approaching a situation where the Centre and State Governments are increasingly getting upset over projects being stalled over environmental concerns. Sometime after the general elections, one can expect the ruling class to push ahead with the projects. That's worrying, as the job of preserving forests, rivers and the animals which live in them will get that much tougher."

The man is focussed and did not start on the ice-cold orange juice and banana chips Rama had placed on the table. We sat quietly for sometime before Kishor tasted the orange juice. He liked the banana chips from Kerala and wondered why the variety is not grown in Jalgaon, the banana-growing district in Maharashtra. Knowing nothing about bananas one took the help of Rama, who said she had not seen the long, deep-yellow Kerala variety anywhere else.

The man smiled when Rama asked him how he spent all his time roaming in the forests. He started talking of his four-year-old daughter, Shirshti. She attends a play-school and with summer vacation on, pesters Kishor whenever he is at home. She is there with Kishor when he works on the computer in the morning asking for a pencil and a paper. She insists on her father appreciating her scribble and Kishor cannot say no as Shrishti never gives up. "Every evening I have to tell her a story. I tell her tales of animals in the forests, about tigers, bears and sambhars. Sometimes I describe the manner animals get poached and she starts crying. I am trying to seed in her a love for wildlife," Kishor told me with some pride.

Sometime ago, Kishor had brought Shrishti on a visit to the Tadoba Tiger Reserve and we became friends. For five days, she was with us in the forest in temperatures above 40 degrees and did not make a nuisance of herself. Kishor liked my place with a view of the Thane creek glistening in the heat, mangroves and rice fields — essentially Lachman Singh country.

Rama had prepared a South Indian lunch with sambhar, curry and olan and was not sure whether Kishor would like it. Being a forester, Kishor has no particular taste, eating anything offered. Most of the time he lives on dal, roti and rice. He seemed to like Rama's fare and the talk again turned to forests. He referred to a telephone conversation with his friend, Bittu Sahgal, Editor of Sanctuary magazine, when Bittu came up with the idea of converting the buffer zones around the sanctuaries into forests with the help of the villagers living inside the zones. Apparently, the idea has worked well in the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

The buffer zone around the Park, occupied by villagers, was initially ill suited for agriculture. It was allowed to lie fallow for a few years to help forest growth. That offered additional space for wild animals straying from the Park. The homes of the villagers were done up for foreign tourists to stay and watch animals from near without getting into the core area. It guaranteed regular incomes for the villagers far exceeding that they would have made from farming and also got them interested in protecting the forest and animals. Villagers today have a stake in keeping alive the Kruger National Park.

Kishor liked Bittu's suggestion and he asked me, "Should we not try out the idea in India selecting one sanctuary for the experiment?" One had some doubts as villagers need some funds till the buffer zone turns into a forest. Kishor replied: "The idea can be tried out if we can get a few corporates to adopt the villages on an experimental basis. The corporates and villagers can split the earnings on a 20:80 basis and also help wildlife." In most sanctuaries in India, the buffer zones exist only on the topo maps and villagers regularly raid the parks and sanctuaries.

We finished lunch and it was time for Kishor to leave for a late afternoon appointment in the city. "We have to search for non-traditional means as otherwise the few remaining forests in the country will go," he told me as he left in an auto.

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