INDIAN WILDLIFE CHAMPION CAMPAIGNS IN BRITAIN

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Indian wildlife champion flies in

03 November 2005 07:04

 

Protecting elephants, tigers and rhinos - not to mention the odd bird under

threat from hormonal tribesmen - is all in a day's work for the Wildlife Trust

of India. On a flying visit to Norfolk, the organisation's executive director

Vivek Menon tells environment correspondent TARA GREAVES about some of its

pioneering work.

 

As a young boy growing up in Kerala in Southern India, Vivek Menon was always

bringing home injured monkeys, eagles and cats - that's leopards rather than

tabbies - even though his father did not like it.

 

What started as a simple love of wildlife soon flourished into a need to find

out more; and the curious youngster grew up to have a successful career as a

biologist, which eventually led to his award winning conservation work.

 

He formed the Wildlife Trust of India in 1997 - following years with the WWF -

and within a short space of time it has initiated action to ensure the survival

of hundreds of endangered species and wildlife habitats.

 

These days, he tells me when we meet between his lectures at the University of

East Anglia and the World Land Trust in Norwich, he is a conservationist rather

than an academic.

 

“In the modern sense, wildlife conservation in India has been going on for 200

years but in another sense it has been going on for 2000 years,” said Mr Menon,

who is based in New Delhi.

 

But the role that nature plays in the balance of life is something he feels has

been forgotten by more recent generations.

 

“In an ideal world my job should be redundant but times change,” he said.

 

“Although we work with elephants, tigers and rhinos - which are the three main

ones - I also like to think we are the God of small things too.

 

“For example, we thought that the markhor mountain goat, which has corkscrew

horns and a copper beard, was extinct but we funded a project and found 250 of

them near the Kashmir border.

 

“Another example is the Great Indian hornbill which is like a toucan. It is a

massive bird with a bright yellow beak. In an area near Burma they kill them

because it is a tribal custom to wear their beaks as hats - a man doesn't get a

bride unless he has one, so it is clearly important.

 

“I went there for some elephant work but people were coming up and saying can't

we do something about the birds, which were probably close to extinction.

 

“What we did was a trial project where we made fibre glass beaks. We started

with 100 at first but the men loved them because they didn't have insect holes

in them and they lasted longer. In the end they didn't even have to look like

real beaks - in fact the more flashy and gaudy the more the men liked them.”

 

Mr Menon's visit to Norwich marks the end of 40 days of travelling around the

world to raise awareness about the WTI's work, which includes rescue and

rehabilitation but also enforcement, in such dangerous areas as anti-poaching

and smuggling.

 

“In the early 90s we had a major problem with poaching of elephants. In India we

have 65pc of the population of Asian elephants but we haven't got enough males

because they were selected for their ivory,” he said.

 

“Elephants are what I am really interested in. If you try and settle an elephant

it's like trying to settle a nomad or a gypsy. They do not know how to grow food

so they eat what is there then move on. Some of the problems in Southern Africa

are down to confinement - our wildlife parks are not fenced.”

 

In 2001, Mr Menon, who has also written five books, won the Rufford Award for

International Conservation for his work to save the Asian elephant.

 

He added: “Elephants kill 250 people a year in India but we still consider it a

God and we would never cull one.

 

“About 10-12 years ago there was a man whose two sons were killed by elephants

while they were guarding the crops. I was asked to go with the Government

officer who was going to offer some recompense because he was afraid that he

could by lynched but when we arrived the old man fell at the officer's feet and

said 'I have lost my sons because God willed it'. There is a huge tolerance of

elephants but it is eroding.”

 

The World Land Trust, which is based in Halesworth, has been working with WTI on

a project to protect Asian elephants.

 

Working with the local community in the Garo Hills of north east India the

project aims to ensure the survival of about 20pc (9200 individuals) of the

world's Asian elephants.

 

Supporters have already funded work carried out in a wildlife corridor - routes

that elephants have taken for generations from one food source to another -

between the Rewak Forest Reserve and the Siju Wildlife Sanctuary, close to the

India-Bangladesh border.

 

“When I speak of India it is not like speaking of Britain, it is more like

speaking of Europe. There are 16 different languages and 1.2bn people and the

only thing uniting us is the line the British drew,” said Mr Menon.

 

“To do anything in terms of conservation is hard in such a vast landscape.”

 

But the WTI's invaluable work is making a difference - and ensuring not only the

survival of the country's wildlife and habitats but, as Mr Menon points out,

also the survival of its people.

 

To find out more visit www.wti.org.in.