Practising conservation

Today is Mahashivratri and I'm grabbing the opportunity to underline what I adore about Lord Shiva. Yes, he's the Destroyer, but he is also revered as a God easily pleased - and I love that he's known by his empathy for animals. Cobras twine benignly round his neck, his stead is the valiant Nandi. In fact, Mohenjodaro's legendary Pashupati seal depicts him surrounded by our furry friends. The message: life in harmony with nature and other creatures.

Would it be so difficult for environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh to set an example, attempt to emulate this perspective? If reports over the last week are anything to go by, efforts may well be on. Firstly, Ramesh's Rs46,000 crore 10-year afforestation plan, 'Green India Mission', has apparently got the PM's okay. The government will therefore apparently increase spend on forestry by 55% from the current Rs8,500 crore a year.

The environment ministry has also asked governments to identify and propose eco-sensitive areas around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, to the delight of conservationists, who stress the importance of such buffer zones along ecological corridors.
In the light of a recent survey that pegs a frightening 16 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide as being emitted by vehicles annually in Mumbai alone, there is a desperate need for the life breath of green cover.

The land mafia is anyway depleting green zones with alarming regularity, if PILs filed in city are to be believed.

Then, for our furry friends: Ramesh has proposed to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act to check unregulated pet trade in India. Something long overdue.

In any case, our relationship with animals around us is best described as uneasy. We’d like to see them in the aquarium or zoo, but should any transgress our ever-shifting geographical boundaries (leopards and the like in suburban colonies), we panic. I say 'ever-shifting' because both in Maharashtra and other states, the constant intrusion of man into jungle areas is a conservationist's nightmare.

In Gir, I witnessed first-hand, villagers attempting to scare off a lioness and her brethren who'd entered fields bordering the jungle. The villagers were at reach-out-and-touch distance, and the animals did not look amused. Local papers at the time spoke of lion attacks. But what do you expect? The jungle is not the villagers' territory, it's the lions'. Farmlands are increasingly infiltrating that space. Put yourself in the lions' place - who's the intruder?

In Mumbai last year, the elephant Laxmi at the zoo killed a man who apparently stole into her enclosure late at night. What would you do, if someone stole into your space, late night, in the same manner?

Both the aquarium and the zoo, in any case, leave much to be desired in animal upkeep. Last time I visited the city aquarium with my mom and toddler daughter, all three of us cried - my daughter because she didn't want to leave, my mom and I because the fish tanks looked unbelievably dirty and much too small for the bigger creatures.

The zoo, meanwhile, is caught in the quagmire of political dillydallying. Reports a few months ago, noted how the ancient rhino, incidentally called Shiva, was intensely frustrated, still to find a mate because authorities could not decide whether to let him travel or whether to borrow a mate from another state.

In so dismal a scenario, where animals are dependant on our interest in their welfare, Ramesh's proposal on their behalf can be viewed as a welcome and necessary step. Hopefully, there will be more such to follow.

As for the afforestation bid, better late than never — 2011 has already been declared the International Year of Forests by the UN. And then, they say that Shiva has always been a God, easily pleased.