The report in The Pioneer on Friday that leopards are disappearing faster than tigers in India confirms an apprehension that has been haunting all concerned with wildlife preservation in the country for some time. The statistics, to make what can only be described as a gross understatement, are alarming. According to wildlife conservators, at least 500 of the spotted felines are killed every year.
That this is not an exaggeration becomes clear from reports sent recently to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests by Chief Wildlife Wardens of all States and Deputy Directors of all regions, stating that at least 10 leopard skins are recovered for every 10 tiger skins. Things continuing as they are, leopards, which now number over 8,000 in the country, may become extinct in less than a decade.
Unfortunately, while admitting that there is a major crisis at hand, officials of the Ministry of Environment and Forests have yet to formulate a scheme to deal with the situation. It not only needs to craft one immediately but take a holistic approach in doing so, bearing in mind that it has to be an integral part of a wider plan to protect India's wildlife, which must have two distinct aspects. The first, of course, is taking firm steps to curb poaching, which is the main cause of wildlife depletion, and trade in animal skin and parts, which is the single most important cause of poaching. The second is linking the conservation of wildlife to the preservation of the environment that sustains it.
In the case of the first, the need to provide greater mobility and firearms to forest guards, lowering their average age to ensure that they can stand the rigours of forest life and increasing the frequency of patrolling has been repeatedly emphasised. Action needs to follow at the earliest. Equally, the CBI's proposal to amend the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, to make bail provisions for poaching cases as tough as those for drug trafficking and for setting up specific wildlife courts to do away with pending cases, needs to be implemented.
Also the setting up of a multi-agency National Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, which is now reportedly in the final stage of processing, requires hastening. As for the second task mentioned above, the main effort should be preventing continuing encroachment on forests by human habitation, agriculture and development and industrial projects. This spells disaster in three ways. It deprives wildlife space to live and breed.
Second, it leads to killing of wildlife by intruding humans to protect their crops and domestic animals. Third, the process gives access to poachers, and villagers and tribals colluding with them, easy access to forests. While the initiative taken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to protect the tiger is most commendable, it needs to be extended to cover all wildlife and must include a strategy to prod the State Governments, many of whom are totally indifferent to the fate of wildlife in their territories, into action. Ultimately, it is the State Governments that must deliver on the ground.
