WWF India : 40th anniversary highlights achievements

[Guest guest]

WWF-India: 40 years of Nature Conservation

 

WWF-India started life as a wildlife conservation organization. It was

founded in 1969 as a Charitable Public Trust, with the express objective of

ensuring the conservation of the country's wildlife and wild habitats. The

official launch of the Indian National Appeal (name given for National

offices by WWF-International) was done by the then PM Indira Gandhi on 27th

Nov 1969 at the India International Centre, New Delhi Aptly, it was then

known as the World Wildlife Fund-India. This was much before the terms

" wildlife " and " environment " had caught government or public attention. Even

the Wildlife (Protection) Act came into being three years later, in 1972.

WWF-India's beginnings were modest. Operating out of a limited office space

at the Horn Bill house in Mumbai and with very few full-time staff, it

relied largely on the goodwill of the close-knit group of its founders, and

other associates who voluntarily contributed their time and resources to the

work of the organization.

 

WWF-India took on and supported field projects aimed at protecting

endangered species of flora and fauna; initiated the country's first

large-scale education and awareness programme (through Nature Clubs) public

awareness of wildlife and nature conservation; and raised conservation funds

through appeals, campaigns, educational product sales, and so on.

Throughout the seventies and eighties, WWF-India kept its focus on wildlife

and nature conservation. It would be near impossible to list out all its

projects and other activities in the field of wildlife, but just to cite a

few pioneering examples.In the early seventies, WWF-India led a very

successful campaign to save the Great Indian Bustard, in the face of the

hunting forays of some invited guests.

 

The protest led to the Government reversing its permission for the hunting

expedition.It provided the seed grant for establishing the Madras Snake Park

in 1971, and again in 1975, helped establish the country's first Crocodile

Bank in collaboration with the Snake Park Trust.

 

In 1976, it sent an expedition led by Dr. Salim Ali, to Ladakh, to establish

the status of the rare Blacknecked Crane. In 1980, the Sea Turtle

Conservation Project was launched.

 

A whole host of other Indian species have received attention from time to

time. Among these are the Wolf, the Andaman Teal, the Hispid Hare, the Pygmy

Hog, the Flamingoes of Kachchh, the lesser Cats, the Greater Adjutant Stork

in Assam, the Hangul in Kashmir, and the Lion-tailed Macaque, to name just a

few.

 

More recently, there have been projects relating to the Asiatic Lion, the

highly endangered Himalayan Newt, the Red Panda, the Mountain Quail, the

Pheasants, the Great Indian Bustard, and several other species. Of course,

conservation of the tiger and its habitats has been high on the agenda right

from the beginning.

 

Right from the inception of Project Tiger, WWF-India has been involved with

the project in an advisory capacity. Several of WWF-India's Trustees -

eminent conservationists in their own right - have been on the Project Tiger

Steering Committee, the Indian Board for Wildlife, and other national apex

bodies for wildlife conservation.

 

The organization was also instrumental in securing the future of several

tiger habitats and other wilderness areas, through lobbying at the highest

levels. Among the significant ones are: the Dalma Hills (1976) and the

Gautama Buddha Sanctuaries (1978) in Bihar, the Eravikulam-Rajamalai in

Kerala to protect the Nilgiri Tahr, and the country's first Marine National

Park in the Gulf of Kachchh. It was also in the forefront of the campaigns

to save the world-famous Silent valley from a proposed hydroelectric project

and have it established as a National Park.

 

In 1984, its recommendation to notify Buxa in north Bengal as a Tiger

Reserve was accepted. The Government of Assam acted on a similar proposal

and in 1986, established the Dibru-Saikhowa Sanctuary. Other campaigns have

led to the establishment of the Delhi Wildlife Sanctuary, Mansarovar Lake

and Dodai Lake Sanctuaries, Balpakhram Sanctuary in Meghalaya. WWF-India has

also been engaged in legal activism to secure the future of a number of

sensitive wildlife areas, including Bhittarkanika in Orissa, Narayan Sarovar

in Gujarat, and the Delhi Ridge forest.

 

Another notable area of the organization's work is the monitoring of

wildlife trade through the TRAFFIC-division. It has ably assisted the

enforcement agencies over a number of years, in the work of field

investigations, raids and seizures, enforcement training, and field studies.

It has made notable contributions in the field of live bird trade, ivory,

edible swiftlet nests, sandalwood, shahtoosh, pangolin, musk, bear bile,

tiger parts, and rhino horn. One of the recent successful campaigns using

both print and electronic media is captioned " Don't Buy Trouble " and targets

potential customers of illegal wildlife products.

 

Today, WWF-India is not only the country's largest voluntary body in the

field of conservation, it has also grown into a network with a countrywide

presence, It has taken on diverse activities in the field of nature

protection - ranging from education and capacity building, to field projects

in biodiversity, to enviro-legal action, to policy studies and advocacy, to

even areas such as religion and conservation.

 

 

Shaila Sam

 

Senior Manager-Communications Incharge WWF India,

New Delhi Main +91 11 43516248