A picture I took on arrival, at Delhi airport.
Pictures provided by
@Hunter-Habib earlier in this thread, a great contrast to media public presentation of great conservation success.
Quite a contrast to propaganda show.
While driving from international to domestic terminal, there were billboards of prime minister with cheetahs who were reintroduced (from Africa) to one of national parks.
On a first glimpse, to uninitiated tourist, India takes to great lengths to protect wildlife.
But, during my stay in rural parts of Bihar, and moving around in rural villages, I did not see any wildlife there, except large number of nilgais.
No chittal deer, no black buck, no gazelle, nothing.
Just crops, domestic cows, nigai, and jungle.
Nothing but Nilgai, who thrives because for Nilgai (a prolific breeder) there is no competition in the fields since there is no other herbivores, and because there is no predators to keep nilgai numbers down. No tigers, no leopards. One species only, means DESTROYED HABITAT, FOOD CHAIN AND ECO SYSTEM.
An interesting news came out today by Indian anchor. India conservation success.
Now that got me in check!
Hmmm? What to say?! Where I have been?
Roads passing areas devoid of wild life in India, I could easily compare to roads from Hosea Kutako int airport in Namibia, going few hours to farm lands, full of kudu, oryx, hartebeest, baboons, and warthogs alongside the road.
Obviously there are two types of "conservation successes" and I will have to work out the definition to what conservation success means in my vocabulary.
Despite the news anchor, I dont think India made remarkable success on conservation in general, rather they had few sporadic achievements. (one horned rhino is one example, with numbers comparable to black rhino in south Africa and Namibia).
There is an effort to introduce cheetah, but asiatic lions have been kept in one national park only, without attempt to reintroduce those lions in other parks. Status quo on lions, future in the balance
What I am seeing here in the Indian and British news is two agendas colliding, and both agendas against my own reasoning. The economist and news anchor rhetorics.
In the background of indian news, are the iconic species: tigers, one horned rhino, leopards, and riding elephants.
Wow, how that looks great!
(But why if this is not propaganda, why there is no chital deer, sambar deer, black buck, boar, nilgai, chnkara gazzele, monkey... or they are considered less "iconic" in rural agricultrue aras?
If this is not propaganda then, both the Indian anchor, and the economist forgot to mention destryed habitats, culling, and wastage of Nilgai meat that is berried into the ground, after culling operations, as we have seen on pictures provided by hunter habib. )
In reality, what I have seen is that wildlife protection act is destroying all tradition, and eventually destroying habitats due to encroachment and agriculture, banning any human interaction with wildlife.
Snake charmers (tradition of thousand years) are banned, arrested or snakes confiscated.
Domestic elephants (such as those on news), are in decline as new elephants can not be domesticated due to wildlife act, only if they are bread in captivity.
But the news anchor forgot to mention that
There are large tracks of land devoid of wildlife in total. And where there is no hunting, only agriculture, there is no wild animals.
Becasue nobody in rural area needs wild animals in their crop fields.
Interesting part is how The Economists interprets this. "Poeple are poor, and you are protecting animals?"
I wonder what is it all about?
Well below are links:
- the economist (
if someone has the paywall pass, can copy the article and paste here)
- Indian News
