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Need to preserve the big cats

"People have to realise that the environment is an asset that they have inherited not a resource that they can plunder,'' says Belinda Wright in conversation with Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Call her a single woman army or even an institution; author, filmmaker, conservationist and executive director of Wildlife Protection Society of India Belinda Wright fits into each of her multiple roles with surprising ease.

Having lived in India all her life, Ms. Wright has worked closely with the forest department and the police for several years now and has been responsible for hundreds of seizures and raids on poaching gangs across the country.

Having earned a name for herself in the business of conservation of the country's precious forests and wildlife, Ms. Wright took time out to join the launch of Jim Corbett Trust in the Capital this past Friday at the British Council here.

Stating that the need of the hour was ``actual ground work and not additional file work'', Ms. Wright says: "If we don't show urgency about the need to protect our big cats there just might not be enough cats to worry or protect later.'' Speaking about her work and what she claims to have started reluctantly, Ms. Wright says: "We need serious and truthful work to be done to preserve the big cats. We have now come to a point where India has to sit up and decide for itself about whether it wants the big cats around any longer or not. You can't make people want to protect the tiger or even start taking notice of the environment, people have to realise that the environment is an asset that they have inherited not a resource that they can plunder. It has to be preserved and passed on to the next generation. The responsibility cannot be shied away from.''

Adding that the need of the hour was to sit up and ``recognise the problem'', she says: "The Government is in such a state of denial about the falling number of tigers that there is virtually nothing that anybody can do. It is really simple to understand this phenomenon -- when the highest authority that makes rules and is also responsible for its effective implementation states that there is no problem so where is the need to look for a solution. And that is the biggest mistake we are making today.''

"There is little that small non-government organisations and environmentalists can do under such a situation,'' she adds, speaking about the response of the Government to the falling number of tigers.

"In India today it is not just the big cats that are in serious trouble there are several animals on the endangered list that we just might not see around for long if we aren't careful about conservation. Today for those of us associated with conservation this is an actual fear. Too much money, time and effort has been invested into the conservation of the big cats with the output not matching with the input. It should make us understand that there is something that we are doing which is not right, however, we select instead to bury this fact in file work,'' says Ms. Wright. Never really out of the news, the lady created a sensation when she recently exposed the brisk sale of tiger and leopard skins being carried out on the streets of Tibet. Ms. Wright received much international acclaim for `daring' to carry out the sting operation in Tibet.

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