Lucknow, December 12: Besides being a diehard tiger activist, Belinda Wright, founder and executive director of Delhi-based Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), is also a master of disguise. And it helps, especially while trying to trap poachers and middlemen. ‘‘I’m tailor-made for the job. I’m fair-skinned and a woman, which allows me to act innocent and pose as a buyer,’’ says Wright, who was honoured for her work in the area of tiger protection at the Sanctuary Asia Wildlife Awards on Friday.
In the last few years, however, it hasn’t been that easy. She’s become a well-recognised face and poachers have become wary. ‘‘Some poachers even carry my picture around and actually ask the person in front of them if the lady in the picture is the buyer,’’ she laughs. On several occasions, Wright has also come face-to-face with people she’s helped trap, but they haven’t recognised her in plain clothes.
Daughter of activist Ann Wright, she remembers the exact date when she was recruited as a tiger saviour — April 26, many years ago. ‘‘I was living in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh and had gone to a PCO some miles away to make a phone call. The man at the booth turned to me and asked if I wished to purchase some skins and I led him on,’’ says Wright.
Her group works with informers from tiger pockets around the country, trying to track down where the skins end up. ‘‘Wildlife crimes are definitely controlled in the cities. Most of the tiger skins are deposited in Delhi or taken to Kanpur for tanning,’’ she says. Recently, she discovered that the paw marks went all the way to Tibet. With the help of a spycam, she exposed that chubas made from tiger skins were the latest dangerous fashion. She also carries out enforcement workshops around the country.
A woman with no personal life, Wright lives in a state of constant emergency, sleeping for barely three hours a day. The Emmy award-winner says environmentalists no longer have the luxury of time. ‘‘It’s like fighting a war and the end is near. But I would gladly give my life for a single tiger,’’ says Wright, who’s currently assisting the prosecution of 152 poaching cases in New Delhi.
