Go to Agra for the bears
Game, Seth & Match | Suhel Seth

There are very few things we have left in India to be proud of. And this is not a cynical view. We have a judiciary that people cast aspersions about; the politician is even more hated than Osama Bin Laden. Our bureaucrats are underpaid and thus have the right to under-perform. The next President of India will be every TV anchor’s delight as they start ripping her apart. Mayawati is a poor Dalit woman who mocks our intelligence by declaring assets worth Rs 52 crores, while P. Chidambaram cannot do anything to her about gift taxes and so on. Our home minister Shivraj Patil denies television sound-bites that he himself offers post his presidential snafu, and then we have the amazing science story in our country where BMWs (that run over six innocent people) turn into trucks, where a campaign says "Vote for the Taj" even though try getting to the Taj and you know why it really is a wonder, having survived the Mathura refinery.

Then there is the classic case of urban renewal in our country where mill-owners win their battles in court to destroy Mumbai, where the Mithi river in Mumbai causes floods every year turning Mahim into the poor man’s Venice, and not to mention rabid politicians like Mamata Banerjee who are hell-bent on preventing Bengal from getting any form of decent industry.

But amidst all this, there is hope. And a lot of it. There is a small organisation called Wildlife SOS which has saved many Prime Ministers from being bitten by snakes, which has rescued dancing bears and now has a sprawling bear shelter near Agra, and which catches lizards and other reptiles just like Lalu Yadav catches his own relatives cheating ticket conductors on various trains. And unlike the Maneka Gandhis and Sunita Narains, the SOS people remain unsung heroes.

But this is why I believe, having said everything, we are truly a great country. There are many like Wildlife SOS who are doing sterling work; who have volunteers who don’t get paid and funding which never seems to be easy, but not something that is a deterrent either.

Let me give you one example. That of the dancing bear. Something that we see so often on our Indian streets. The truth of the matter is that there is a tribe which makes money by getting these bears to dance for our voyeuristic pleasure. Not because the bear wants to dance, but only because they gash a rope through the bear’s nose, keep the wound raw and then tug at it so that what you and I see as a bear dance, is actually a cry of anguish.

But what have we done about it? Pretty much nothing. Except for this wonderful organisation which has now begun to appeal to people from the Kalandar tribe so that they then take up their offer of rehabilitation (Rs 50,000) and pursue an alternate career and hand over their bears to this organisation.

These bears are then transported to this sprawling rescue centre where they can live in the peace that is rightfully theirs. You might ask, is a bear important enough to merit an article? I think it is. Because the story is not about the bear. It is about organisations that are making a quiet difference to the India we live in and take for granted ever so often.

Why I am impressed with Wildlife SOS’ work is not because it is making a song and dance about wildlife. Instead, what is impressive is the manner in which it has addressed the problem of social displacement and tied it up with wildlife, which even the so-called Tiger Task Force (again under the able leadership of Sunita Narain who hasn’t ever seen a tiger) did not have the intelligence to do. In one swoop, it has not only enriched the lives of the people belonging to this tribe by showing them an alternative way of life, but has also ensured that the needs of wildlife sensitivity are met with graciousness and effectively. That to my mind has been its singular success.

It is this co-existence that must become the leitmotif of our policies on forest and wildlife conversation and not the manner in which we have decided to go about our task. Organisations like these, and I am sure there are many unsung ones, need the support of governments and citizens alike. They need that round of funding which is always so scarce. And they need the media attention. How long will this nation be on the fringes of complete lunacy with the media going berserk over brats falling into wells?

We need to focus on those people who bring about real change, which will help real people in a real way. A country which cannot care for those who can’t care for themselves can never be a sensitive nation and this is what we are slowly becoming.

There is no point voting for the Taj alone. Instead, we need to vote for these organisations, and if you need any more information of the work that Wildlife SOS is doing, then log on to www.wildlifesos.org.