Assam Editorial: Conservation of wildlife

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Link: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=mar2507\edit2

 

EDITORIAL

 

Conservation of wildlife

— Sawpon Dowerah

Recently there appeared a news item reporting the death of a flock of

27 or so vultures as a result of feeding on the carcass of a dog that

had allegedly been poised to death. The question that is uppermost

here is not so much about the poisoning of a dog to death. Pariah and

mad dogs that abound our streets in towns and villages need to be

eliminated and the use of poison as an instrument of elimination of

unwanted dogs is well understood. But what one fails to understand is

the irresponsible social behaviour of individuals in matters such as

disposing off dead animals. It needs hardly be stated that the most

natural way of disposing off the dead dog would have been to bury it

and not to dispose it off in a field so as to attract vultures and

other scavangers. In this case, the irresponsible social behaviour of

individuals has become the cause of the slaughter of a whole flock of

vultures that have of late been included in the endangered category.

 

The silver lining is that the authorities of Guwahati Zoo were able to

save one of the allegedly poisoned birds and bring it to the

protective custody of the zoo. It is heartening to note that the 11

national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in general and the Guwahati

Zoo in particular have always been playing a positive role not only in

the protection of endangered species and the ecosystems but also in

providing avenues for formal and informal environmental and ecosystem

education and research. The endangered species that have been

conserved include the capped langur, golden langur, the tiger, the

golden cat, the clouded leopard, the fishing cat, the leopard cat, the

bear cat, the sloth bear, the Indian pangolin, the hispid hare, the

parti-coloured flying squirrel, the great Indian one-horned rhino, the

elephant, the swamp deer, the pigmy hog and the Gangetic dolphin.

 

Proper conservation of these endangered species can yield positive

results. For example, the hog deer, an endangered species, has shown a

noticeable rise in its population in the Kaziranga national park. The

hog deer population was estimated at 5,374 in 2006, much higher than

the population of swamp deer put at 815. The rhino population has

reached 1,855, while, wild buffaloes numbered as many as 1,431. The

elephant population in the park was counted as 1940 in 2005 while the

tiger population has shrunk to only 85. Steps taken by different

organisations could have contributed to the rise in elephant

population. For example, in February last, six elephants were shifted

out of Kaziranga to Daimari forest range under Manas national park.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, the organisation behind the

endeavour, is being helped by its partner, Wildlife Trust of India,

the Assam forest department and the BTC in the first ever

translocation of elephants. A few months prior to this, the

organisation had successfully shifted three female rhino calves to

Manas after rescuing them from floods and kept them at a rescue centre

near Kaziranga.

 

Contrary to that, many animals and birds due to the absence of proper

protection and conservation had become extinct. The example of the

dodo is a striking one. Yet, interestingly enough, till the 15th

century, the dodo existed in Mauritius. It was a pigeon-like bird

about the size of a goose. The bird was first discovered in 1507 when

the earliest settlers arrived at the island. Instead of taking steps

for their conservation, these early settlers feasted on dodo meat and

eggs to such an extent that in less than a 100 years or so, the bird

completely disappeared from the animal world. Today the dodo exists

only in a phrase used in the English language. The phrase `dead as a

dodo' is used in the sense of `no longer interesting or valid. The

word dodo is also used in isolation also as in : " I didn't know that

he is such a dodo' meaning that `I didn't know that he is such a

stupid person'.

 

It is not only the dodo. Less than a 100 years after its discovery by

Europeans in the year 1877, the Pirzewalski's horse — called takhi by

the local people — became extinct even in its last retreat in the Gobi

desert in south-western Mongolia. Fortunately, a small population

survived in zoos. The zoo stock goes back to only 13 founder animals

imported by the German animal dealer Carl Hagenbeck and the Russian

landowner baron Faiz-Fein. It is fortunate that today the takhi

population is around 1500 in the world all in zoo captivity.

 

In, 1990, the German based Christian Oswald Foundation initiated a

reintroduction project in the Gobi area to ensure the expansion of

this near extinct species. In 1999, the international Takhi Group was

established to continue and expand on the basis of the original

project to reinstate the takhi in its natural habitat in the Gobi. It

has been reported that from 1992 to 2004, no less than 87 takhi bred

by 12 different institutions in 8 countries were returned to the Gobi

and were let loose in their natural surrounding. The most interesting

point about the takhi is that in spite of having been bred over

several generations in zoos across the world, the takhi adapted

readily to the conditions in the wild and the population is growing.

Currently, more research projects are being undertaken and more

releases are planned.

 

A distant cousin of the takhi is the wild ass known in India as the

khur (Equus hemoinus khur). It has been categorised as endangered

today. Yet thousands of years ago this variety of wild ass was found

abundantly in the south-Asian regions. They extended as far as West

Germany. But this species had faced a situation of near extinction. It

had become completely extinct in Pakistan. A small population of this

species exists in the Gujarat region struggling hard to survive the

threats of hunting, human interference, habitat destruction, disease,

drought, possible inbreeding and so on. It is time that steps are

taken to launch conservation projects for this species like the one

undertaken for the takhi.

 

It is in this context that the slaughter of the vultures in the little

village of Kamrup in Assam needs to be addressed. The vulture is

getting alarmingly reduced in number. If the kind of slaughter that

has been reported continues unabated, it would not be too long before

the vulture also joins the dodo in being an extinct bird. The zoos

have indeed a pious duty to perform in this regard by providing

natural habitats and building time bridges that are threatened in the

wild. The zoo animals do not perceive themselves as prisoners but as

owners of their enclosures, which they would like to keep protected

against intruders.

 

Conservation should not be seen merely as the responsibility of the

various organisations mentioned above but as a total social

responsibility. Some time ago there was the report of the concerted

efforts of a number of villagers living near the Orang national park

in Assam to kill a tiger that had somehow strayed out from the game

reserve. It was reported that a Royal Bengal Tiger killed a cow in a

village adjacent to the sanctuary. After killing the cow and eating a

portion of it, the tiger strayed away only to come back a little later

to feed on his remaining meal. Taking advantage of the tiger's absence

from the prey, some of the villagers came and sprayed poisonous

agricultural chemicals on the carcass. The tiger returned to its prey

and after eating the poisoned carcass, it died instantly. Unless man's

attitude towards tigers as creatures to be eliminated is changed, the

threat of extinction of this beautiful species will loom large.

Corbett, who knew so much about the tiger, was to remark that the

tiger is a large-hearted gentleman.