A Lament to the Woods
a few weeks ago, while rewatching the remains of On Air With AIB, i ended up watching Karunesh Talwar’s rendition of Sun Raha Hai Na Tu, where he sings a rather poignant ballad on dwindling numbers of the Great Indian Bustard. You can see it here . this was 2015. fucking 2015. i actually tried to look up what was the current state of these birds. we had about 250 individuals in 2011 which got down to 150 by 2018, and just hear this, there has been literally no census since then.
in 2013, Rajasthan launched Project Great India Bustard. From their website , i quote
Once more than 1000 individuals few decades back, bustard population shrunk to 745 in the year 1978, 600 in 2001, 300 in 2008 and not more than 125 in the current year, 2013.
from once a candidate to be the national bird of the country, this is here we are. fortunately, there has been some positive news in the recent times like this one , an official population census still has not been commissioned. There is this interview to maybe go through, but the situation is more or less grim as ever.
just not sand #
Rajasthan is actually a wildlife hotspot. this will probably comes off as pretty surprising to most of the people. but that is fine. the people west of Aravalli basically took the whole state’s identity onto themselves. perhaps that’s a good topic to discuss some other day. but no really. the Keoladeo National Park is the paradise for migratory birds and everyone probably has heard of Ranthambore . there is a so much treasure on towards the east of Aravalli, but it feels like the people are blind to see and chrish it.
this post was motivated by two stories i came to know about recently. the first one is about tigers being poached in multiple sanctuaries of the state and the second one concerns with the forest of Shahbad being wiped out to make power plant. Project Tiger was always a good initiative. but when you have more tigers now than the forests can handle then what? More designated sanctuaries and parks are created. with no resources allocated to them. tigers are released from the crowded sanctuary to the new one. and because almost no measures are taken (or let’s be honest, even if there were any would any of that have mattered in this country?) and hence, those tigers perish at the hands of poachers.
and the forest of Shahbad? it’s a designated conservation reserve in the state. and now the government wants to build a power plant. and you will see that some intellectuals have come forward to led protests . so brave, ain’t it? here’s the thing though, and it’s this deep-seated irony that plagues the current times. everyone loves to protest. it’s easier. it brings you fame and glory. it’s enforcement of a self-righteous feeling to waive off the guilt. virtue signalling at its finest. in the day they fight for the “cause”, and in the night, the same sleep with air conditioners in each of their rooms. of course, we need more power. we need because we use it so much. the government is worse. they say, we will cut the forest and plant trees elsewhere. let me tell you how this one goes: they usually offload this work to government servants (think teachers). for a sense of credibility, each planted tree is to be geo-tagged. you can laugh now. because this actually doesn’t happen. the data entried are fudged by just filing random nearby co-ordinates and whatnot. and in the rare cases where trees (read plants) are actually planted? well often it’s on the fucking roadside, without any fence arounf them. they end up becoming the breakfast of grazers nearby.
we will lose all forests. we will lose all animals. we will do it with complete understanding of how disastrous it is, and yet we will do it.
i say on behalf of all humans: i’m hurt. and i did this to myself.