From a 17-year struggle to get a wetland conservation policy, to battling a court case against a superstar for killing a Blackbuck, to rescuing wild animals hit by speeding vehicles — the winners of the 2018 RBS Earth Awards are true heroes. Sangeeta Yadav talks to some of them
The wetland doctor
Around 15 to 20 per cent of India’s flora and fauna grow in wetlands which occupy only three per cent of the landscape. These wetlands have many benefits. First, they create a freshwater habitat for the aquatic species. Second, the mangroves and sediments help in the natural treatment of water for cultivation and drinking. Third, they recharge groundwater. Finally, they help curb air pollution through high humidity that the vegetation in the wetlands creates. Despite these advantages, wetlands are most neglected.
Wetland Science was first introduced in India in the 1960s by Dr Brij Gopal, a researcher and former professor from Jaipur who advocated the eradication of exotic invasive species from wetlands and emphasised the importance of biomass and primary productivity of wetland plants for human welfare.
“Wetlands, particularly the flood plains and small shallow water bodies have the potential to mitigate the impact of climate change and provide water and food security. But our depleting wetlands depend on our ability to manage the limited fresh water resources efficiently and meet human and environmental needs,” Dr Gopal, who was facilitated with the Nauman-Thienemann Medal of the International Society of Limnology and recently bestowed with the RBS Earth Hero Award for Lifetime Achievement, said.
Gopal has been studying wetland management and conservation for five decades. For him, the vast wetlands of the Yamuna have become his laboratory where he initiated several multi-disciplinary researchers to study wetland vegetation, invertebrate fauna, their interaction and relationship with pollution and hydrology.
“I connected with many eminent scientists working on wetlands, including Professor BJ Chapman of International Association of Ecology (INTECOL), who made it possible to hold India’s first International Wetlands Conference in New Delhi in September 1980. India then joined the RAMSAR Convention in 1982 and I was invited to be a member of UNEP-SCOPES Scientific Advisory Committee for wetland and Shallow Continental Water Bodies for five years from 1981 to 1985. Though I travel to different countries to study wetlands, back in India, my proposed scheme for wetlands based on hydrology started taking shape with the established Wetland Committee for India by Professor Subroto Khushoo, secretary, Department of Environment. But after his term got over, the scheme was put on hold because the new team didn’t know what to do and how to take this forward,” Dr Gopal recalls.
“In 1970, the then late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi had set-up a National Committee on Environmental Planning and Coordination (NCEPC) within the Department of Science and Technology with economist and Planning Commission, Pitambar Pant as its secretary. Both Pant and Prof CK Varshney organised the Stockholm Conference in 1972 in and also became instrumental in forming an exclusive Ministry of Environment and Forests in 1985,” Dr Gopal says, who was also felicitated as the first ever Young Scientist medal of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in 1975 by Indira Gandhi.
In 2001, Dr Gopal was nominated by the Planning Commission to work with a group of environmentalist for preparation of the 10th Plan document. The National Workshop on Conservation of Rivers and Flood Plains of India was organised by him in Delhi and the recommendations for flood plain restoration, constructed wetland technology and legislation for flood plain zoning, were included in the 10th Planning Commission.
After mapping the wetlands, the Space Application Centre report revealed that there are more than 2 lakh wetlands in India. The Supreme Court ordered the Ministry of Environment to conserve and notify them immediately under some rules. “After the SC order, the State Governments said that there were only a few left because they don’t consider rivers as wetlands. They swear by the RAMSAR Conventions and still opine that the rivers are not wetlands,” Prof Gopal asks.
Natural wetlands are alongside the river or lakes Governments don’t consider a few major sites as wetland. The ones which they do consider are the drinking water reservoirs. “I asked the Government if a drinking water body is not a wetland, then why is Bhoj lake a RAMSAR site? It was constructed several hundred years ago as a drinking water reservoir. If an urban water body in Bhopal can be RAMSAR site marking it as a wetland and attracting money from Asian Development Bank, why has the Ministry declared Dal Lake not a wetland. Dal lake is also a wetland. The Okhla area in Delhi-NCR can be a Bird Sanctuary but is not a wetland,” Prof Gopal tells you adding that the Government, ministers and bureaucrats have vested interest.
He was also instrumental in steering the draft notification on River Regulation Zone in 2015 which is yet to be vetted by the Ministry. “From giving the concept note, making presentations, forming the committee, preparing the draft to the debate in Parliament and pushing the file to the Minister’s table, we have been doing this for 15 years and still struggling to get it implemented. The matter is before the SC,” said Gopal who, for the last 17 years, has been fighting the Government in pursuit of preserving the flood plains from encroachment. “I am against development on the river front because to make just one ghat, the entire area is encroached. What is the need to have a 15 km ghat on the Sabarmati river which is filled with Narmada water? The Akshardham Temple was built on the flood plains of the Yamuna and then the Commonwealth Games led to more development around the river. Within the five km flood plains there are natural water bodies which need to be preserved. Delhi has 140 streams connecting the Aravali to the Yamuna. Most are either blocked or made into a sewage drains like in Najafgarh and Barahpulla. Hence the city faces waterlogging during the monsoons,” he explains.
His campaign to set up an Institute for Wetlands in India found a place in the 11th Five Year Plan but remains unfulfilled-though it was recommended in the declaration of the World Lake Conference organised by him in Jaipur in 2007. “We couldn’t get the funding from the ministry. But I am taking the vision forward with my institute, Centre for Inland Waters to be set up in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh,” Gopal said.
The Buck stops here
Establishing environmental protection measures in the jungles of Jodhpur by working with the Bishnoi community, addressing the of lack of infrastructure and resources and breaking the record of zero conviction rate in wildlife poaching cases are only some of the accomplishments for the 51-one-year-old Lalit Kumar Bora, who has worked relentlessly in all these areas. But his act of courage reflects in his 15 years of the fight for justice against those involved in the killing of two Blackbucks in Kanani village, Jodhpur.
It all started in 1998, when the cast and crew of Hum Saath Saath Hain came to shoot this film in Jodhpur. “On September 26, Salman Khan along with Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam went on a safari in an open white jeep. He asked the driver, Harish Dulani, to sit at the back and he drove inside the forest. On spotting the chinkaras, he stopped the car, stood up on the seat, aimed and fired a couple of shots. He asked the driver to put their bodies in the jeep and bring it to the hotel where the animals were skinned, cooked and eaten that night.
“Again on September 28, they went on a safari and did the same thing. But it was on October 2, when Salman Khan killed the Blackbucks. Some people from the Bishnoi community like Poonam Chand and Choogaram were a witness to this and complained. When the regional forest officer investigated the matter, Dhulani and the community narrated the incident. The proof collected was good enough to make an arrest. The forest officer handed over the investigation to me on October 7. Since then we have been on the case,” Bora recounts.
When the post-mortem report of the blackbuck came, it left everyone shocked. “The veterinary doctor said that the death occurred due to overeating and injury by a dog bite. Animals like blackbuck don’t overeat and no animal will die due to a bite. But we requested for a second post-mortem. The carcass was exhumed and the reports revealed that death was due to a gunshot. Also, the blood samples found on the jeep floor and the kitchen matched with that of the dead blackbucks,” Bora says.
With all the proofs, Bora made three cases of poaching — two for killing chinkaras, one for blackbucks and one for using an expired license of a fire arm. The court gave four days judicial custody to Salman Khan, who was arrested on October 12. “This news went viral. This was the first time an accused was given judicial custody in a poaching case. Since I didn’t have enough resources to investigate all the cases, I passed on the chinkara case to the police and decided to fight the Blackbuck case myself. Salman Khan, Saif, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali were named in the complaint in this case. A local boy, Dinesh Gaure, the spot boy, who is still absconding is also named,” Bora tells you.
For Bora, it was not easy to fight against such influential people. “Though we managed to get the judicial custody of Salman Khan, he was not cooperative in the investigation. He used a .22 revolver and .22 rifle. We asked for the weapons which he had sent to Mumbai and it took us three days to seize it. Its license had expired, which made for a separate case under the Arms Act. But he managed to get a temporary permit for two months. I was threatened: ‘Remember Mr Bora, if you are a forest officer, I am Veerapan. I will see you and will take this matter to the President’,” Bora recalls.
Since 1998 to 2018, the fight has continued and Bora has been part of each hearing with the 75-page statement, cross-question report. The result, Salman Khan was convicted under Section 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act and was given five years imprisonment; the others were acquitted. After spending two days in the Jodhpur Central Jail, Khan managed to get a bail.
There is a fear that Bora lives with — if he loses the case, the Forest Department might take a strict action against him by transferring to a remote area. If he wins there is fear too, that the case will be taken to a higher court.
However, being transferred to a remote area is something that he has lived through when he was posted in Bondhi district near Kota, Rajasthan for 11 months before Salman Khan case. It was Bora’s first posting where he had investigated a high-profile case (Rungta Krtishi Farm) of chinkara killing. But the case was closed and the culprit got away. That was when Bora was transferred to Jodhpur.
Taking advantage of the policy introduced by Chief Minister of Rajasthan for Government official to take a sabbatical for up to five years, Bora took a break and joined a wind energy company but it shut shop. So, now he has started his venture — Shree Cement Limited — providing electricity using solar energy,” Bora says.
‘Drive safely, save animals’
He sells tyres on National Highway 65 — from Kandla in Gujarat to Bathinda in Punjab. But this ordinary man is doing some extraordinary work — continuing the tradition of the Bishnoi community of rearing abandoned and injured animals like their children. Meet Peera Ram Bishnoi who is the last seven years has rescued antelopes, chinkaras, langoors, small Indian civets, hares, pelicans, owls and migratory Demoiselle cranes.
Some of these animals were hit by the high speeding vehicles passing through NH leaving them either injured and or disabled because they were attacked by wild dogs or poachers. But these animals were lucky and they found a home at Shri Jambeshwar Jeev Raksha Pradesh Sansthan run by Ram in Jalore, Rajasthan.
“There is a saying in our community — animals should be allowed to roam freely. But this has a down side in the modern world. Every day, we were a witness to dead or injured wild dogs, langoors and chinkaras on the road hit by trucks. It was heart-wrenching. Due to the encroachment of forest land for development and deforestation, the wildlife habitat is shrinking. There were so many injured animals that led me to set up a home for them,” Ram says who was recently awarded the RBS Save the Species Award.
The Class VIII dropout, Ram along with his wife and two sons look after the tyre shop, started 20 years back, and help him in run the rescue centre. Since the State Forest Department did not have a wildlife division in the area, the lack of expertise and skills among forest personnel led to high mortality of the endangered animals.
“I got training in first-aid at Jodhpur Zoo under two vets — Dr Sharvan S Rathore and Dr Hemant Joshi — for two months and developed an expertise in medicine and treating fractures,” Ram explains.
There are presently more than 400 chinkaras, peacocks, langoors and Demoiselle cranes getting medical treatment at the centre. “We had 5,000 to 7,000 blackbucks and 10,000 to 15,000 chinkaras in our village. But in three to four years, their population has come down. I used to rescue around 250 animals out of which 50 would survive. The rest would succumb to their injuries. During 2016-2017, the number of injured animals rescued increased to 400 out of which we managed to save around 200. Today, the rescue number has gone up to 500. Once the animals fully recover, they are released into the wild. But there are many disabled ones that can’t survive on their own in the wild. Such animals find a permanent home at the shelter,” Ram tells you and this leads to his biggest concern — to arrange funds for food and medicine.
“Monthly expenditure for providing fodder and water is approximately Rs 50,000 and around 2,000 members all over Rajasthan are supporting me my endeavour. They donate whatever they can like Rs 200 or cow milk or 10-15 days of fodder. Unfortunately, there is no support from the Government. A veterinary nurse is stationed full-time at the centre and a visit by the vet is scheduled on a weekly basis,” Ram says, who has a message to the drivers — drive safely, save animals.
Such is the love for the wildlife that many people from the community have lost their lives in preventing poaching of endangered species like chinkara and blackbuck.
“Around around 300-400 people have died while not only in protecting chinkaras and blackbucks from poachers but also saving the kheejri pedh — a tree known to give out oxygen 24x7. We need resources and manpower to protect the flora and fauna in our area. My aim is to save the environment for the future generations to be able to see them and not just know and read about them in the books,” Ram says.