thoughts of an ex poacher

[Ranbir Mahapatra]

I agree. India's land to its vast population is skewed.

Forest land is getting depleted. Pressure is high on it. We can draw a line or an electric fence today around all these forest land of ours. Tomorrow we have to break those fences and build new ones. Demand is going to increase not decrease. Not giving an alternative means of livelihood is like suppressing the problem and not eradicating it.

I agree with you: We cannot please every Tom, Dick and Harry. Here man's (the usurpers) survival is pitted against the wildlife survival. In last 60yrs, man's priority has always superseded to that of the animal. Hence I am worried.

I am reminded of a social intervention during the Indian Emergency. To tackle India's galloping population, Sanjay Gandhi launched an ambitious sterilization program. History books and sociologists have unanimously declared it a spectacularly resounding failure.

I think our talks of absolute containment is similar to that. Pawan mentioned about witnessing nature on a bicycle. I am wondering if 20 of us (wildlife enthusiasts, photographers, conservationists) enlisting 5 great local poachers for tracking + 8 migrant villagers to carry heavy equipment perhaps and going by foot to track and explore the forest is a better way of conservation than creating more chasm between all the parties.

[Aditya Panda]

Having ranted on all this while about the necessity of isolating communities from wildlife reserves, let me add that I believe that the first beneficiaries of tourism/any other commercial benefit of wildlife reserves should be the very communities that have moved out to make space for wildlife. The kind of tourism you have suggested can be put into practice on the fringes of Protected Areas and along corridors connecting these PAs. This way, the PA serves as the strictly protected 'nucleus' habitat while at the same time pressure on the fringes is reduced and corridors are protected. But there is no second thought about the fact that our PAs must be absolutely devoid of any human habitation.