From a banker’s desk comes a call to corporates to protect the wild

The Indian Express , Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Correspondent : Staff Reporter
Mumbai, February 28:

WHILE the world around his 10th-floor Nariman Point office counted the minutes to the budget, boss Hemendra Kothari often worried about a faraway jungle out there. Within three swift days, Kothari has galvanised a pressure group of industry leaders to bring the plight of India’s vanishing tigers into government focus.

In a year, he wants the boardroom movement to grow to 100. ‘‘After enjoying wildlife for 30 years, I now want to give back,’’ explains Kothari, also founder of the Wildlife Conservation Trust. ‘‘I’m not an activist. But I hope the Prime Minister and chief ministers will take serious note when industry leaders speak up.’’

Those who know the man well can see that even he realises it’s been a long time since his last forest getaway. But Kothari (58) is equally at ease as chairman of financial services major DSP Merrill Lynch as he is spending meditative hours waiting for a tiger.

Heading to forests from Africa to Kaziranga every few months ‘‘for oxygen’’, he has stories straight from the jungle. Since his first tiger sighting at the Corbett reserve 15 years ago, he remembers tigers rubbing against his jeep, a mother and cubs at a kill, the rumble of angry tigers sparring and alarm calls of sambar.

But he’s also heard grim reports of poaching gangs and disappearing pugmarks. ‘‘How can forest guards with lathis fight armed poachers?’’ asks Kothari, once trained as a mountaineer. The initiative boosts rather lonely efforts to save wildlife. ‘‘It sends a message to the government that protecting wildlife is not a fringe concern,’’ says Bittu Sahgal, editor of Sanctuary magazine.

Belinda Wright, executive director, Wildlife Protection Society of India, calls this corporate effort ‘‘committed’’. Many corporate leaders are interested in wildlife and spend their leisure time in the jungle. But they cannot be expected to know how dire the situation is. Wildlife activists must blow the whistle,’’ she cautions. Kothari now hopes the movement will not ‘‘fizzle out’’.

His initial ideas include model villages so encroachers exit forests and facilitation of arms and jeeps for forest guards, not just lathis.

 
SOURCE : The Indian Express, Tuesday, March 01, 2005
 


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