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Animal activist Pawan Sharma: Wildlife is our living heritage and we are failing every day to preserve it
Pawan S. Sharma, who is the Founder and President of RAWW, shares how the state of wildlife in India is worsening with every passing day with cruelty and destruction of habitat increasing.
It's not just about what happened in Kerala but it's about the whole country and the world, not just a species but whole wildlife together is in great distress. The state of wildlife is getting bad to worst with every passing day, and its simply reflecting on how we as the most dominant species are unable to protect and in fact killing our planet. Right from the destruction of habitat to hunting and poaching the cruelty is increasing and the wild kinds are facing super threat and extinction.
Elephants are called gentle giants and are called for a reason. One of the most intelligent and largest living mammals on earth. What happened in Kerala was just a teaser and not even a trailer of whats happening in the country. Irrespective of the government and nongovernment agencies trying their best to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, we are as good as the top minority community or group. Right from the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 we do have a system and protocol in place but its implementation has been a tough, tricky, exhausting and very difficult task.
Right from the huge population to the tough geographical conditions with very limited resources, infrastructure and manpower, conservation is quite a task to do. Indian wildlife is our living heritage and we are failing every day to preserve it. The incident with the elephant at Kerla has hit the country hard and is gathering momentum to indicate the need for systematic, scientific and strategic action for the conservation of wildlife, which is the real need of the hour.
Coming to elephants which are considered as a god in our country, we see them begging on streets, giving joy rides, used in temples, for marriages, functions, performing in a circus, being gunned down for ivory and meeting with train accidents and so much more, is this what they deserve? In the past 12 years, I have closely worked with elephants, have rescued two in Mumbai and four from a circus at Nanded which were then sent to a rehab.
These animals in the wild and in captivity are quite different and go through a lot of cruelty in captivity. They are usually kept starving, chained, and beaten left right and centre to tame them. They are used for our human greed and the ones in the wild are equally killed and gunned down.
Hakka patas is what killed the elephant in Kerala. It is a method to create an explosive to hunt wild animals by mixing explosives in food and kept for animals to eat after which it explodes and killing the animal. These things happening in today's time simply indicates where we are heading towards, instead of accepting, sharing space and coexisting with the non-human living kinds we are just brutally eliminating them as humans.
Animals have always accepted and coexisted with us by changing their paths and evolving with every new threat we have added for them. In my view which I find is quite logical, the real growth, development and quality standard of living of a country is a direct reflection of the state of its environment and wildlife.
It does not matter how much you earn, you live in a bungalow or a hut, its more about the surroundings as a whole. Having a bungalow next to a big garbage dump yard is as good as living in hell.
We need to stop thinking about my job, my property, my family and accept the reality of life which is pure air, clean water, healthy food which can only come from a good environment, healthy forest and happy wildlife.
The elephants are one of the top protected species in India and are listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Act, they have equal protection as our national animal which is the tiger. And anybody attempting or killing it can be sentenced for unbailable imprisonment up to 7 years and fine as per the law. Article 51 A (g) states that it's our fundamental duty to protect our forests and wildlife. But are we doing that as the citizens of our nation?
By Pawan S. Sharma, Founder and President - RAWW. Honorary Wildlife Warden, Maharashtra State Forest Department.
