Book Celebrates 50 Years of Wildlife Protection Act

Also current on the launch had been former chairman of the Wildlife Trust of India, Dr MK Ranjitsinh, and numerous writers who contributed to the publication, together with veteran journalist Usha Rai, conservationist Hemendra Singh Panwar, and author Prerna Bindra. They learn excerpts from the e-book and recounted tales of their profession in conservation and wildlife preservation.

Ranjitsinh, who contributed to the drafting of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, mentioned that he thought-about environmental conservationists to be true patriots. “There are conservationists who have laid down their lives for the cause over the years. They are shaheed (martyr),” he mentioned. 

Rai, who started working as a journalist within the ’60s, recalled how she solely had the choice to cowl the atmosphere at her first job as a result of all different beats had been taken up by male colleagues within the newsroom. She narrated her famed story about an elephant rider named Subedar Ali who was attacked by a tiger at Corbett National Park in 1984.

“Ali was taken to AIIMS and underwent nine operations over nine months. Returning to the jungle was not easy. But an award from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and kudos from far and near, helped him,” she mentioned.

Panwar, former founder director of Kanha Tiger Preserve, director of Project Tiger, and founder director of the Wildlife Institute of India, mentioned that the years 1967 to 1969 had been “epochal” years within the conservation story of India, mentioning how this e-book was being launched on the fiftieth anniversary of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. He recounted episodes of his profession when the Kanha National Park was expanded conserving into consideration the lives and rehabilitation of locals.

Bindra, who was a board member and standing committee member on the National Board for

Wildlife (NBWL) from 2010 to 2013, mentioned that her time on the organisation was disappointing and the method of environmental clearances for industrial initiatives was flawed.

“Proposals were shoved in at the eleventh hour. The accompanying information was incomplete or shoddy. Even the Environment Impact Assessment reports and maps were usually not provided,” she mentioned. “The NBWL can be a force for good and effect change. We were able to stop some destructive projects, like the missile firing testing system in the Tillanchong Wildlife Sanctuary,” she mentioned.

Misra, who presently convenes Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan for the rejuvenation of India’s rivers, emphasised that the e-book was not meant for a tutorial viewers however for most people on account of its storytelling bent. He later mentioned that he targeted on making certain that the 35 writers within the compilation had been various – by area, age, and gender – as a result of he wished to current a wildlife story that was holistically India in each sense.

“I wanted it to be a good mix of vintage and fresh. These writers are pioneers, professionals, and knowledgeable non-professionals,” he mentioned, including, “I asked the writers to share their lives, to write about their own wildlife conservation story.”