The inaugural World Wildlife Day has just been observed across the globe. It is rather intriguing that the recognition to this highly important issue of conservation has taken so long to come. Has not the United Nations proclaimed an array of international days to commemorate events or issues less significant than this one? In the evolutionary process, the coming into being of the species of human beings is just one -although the most important one. Yet, the most intelligent creature cannot live alone. This planet's sustainability depends on maintenance of a healthy balance of bio-diversity. Its flora and fauna have adapted to ecological challenges through a process of permutation and combination. Already a large number of species of both worlds has disappeared from the face of the Earth.
Now the issue of conservation has become an overriding compulsion. However the occasion of the World Wildlife Day owes to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which was adopted as early as March 3, 1973. As the convention's title suggests, it was clearly an attempt to regulate the rampant billion-dollar trade in wild animals and plants. The idea was to stop the commercial overexploitation of herbs, plants and trees to the point of their total extinction and illegal trafficking in and poaching of games from the smallest to the largest for herbal medicines and aphrodisiacs. Since long before the expression of such a collective concern the world over, hunting expeditions were considered sports and bravery. Pictures of the hunter and his big games splashed newspaper pages and the man was viewed with esteem for his 'extraordinary' feat. In the United Kingdom, one of the most advanced countries in the world, controversy over fox hunting still rages indicating that the predatory instinct where pleasure is derived from cruelty in man has not quite ceased.
No animal other than man is known to kill for sport. The food chain is so delicately poised that there is a definite pattern of dependence of one on the other. Once man in his primitive stage when he was most vulnerable to animal attacks was not in an advantageous position but with the use of weapons he devised, he started getting the upper hand. Today, the automatic weapons are so powerful that even the fiercest and strongest of animals is no match for him. He can wipe out the entire pack with a single charge. It is this devastating power that has taught man to be prudent. If he opted for mass killing of tigers, lions, bears or other carnivores like his ancestor of the early days when rifles were just invented, this Earth would have been without any such animal now.
Fortunately for the world, biologists, environmentalists, anthropologists and experts in natural science have warned of dire consequences as a result of further upsetting of biodiversity and ecology. It is not just the killing of the fauna but also the depletion of forests and, of course, lately the global warming that have all given them a cause for serious concern. Phenomenal increase in population has forced people to clear forests and fell trees for human settlement, cultivation and setting up of industrial plants. The interests of man and animals have come to direct clash all around the world but in Asia, Africa and Latin America where the standard of living has not improved desirably, such confrontations have turned uglier.
Today human greed and competition have led to clandestine trade in rare live animal, animal parts and herbs and plants known for medicinal qualities. Elephants are killed in violation of the law for ivory, tigers for various body parts with aphrodisiac quality. Now the numbers of lions, tigers, elephants and bears, particularly the polar bears have fallen to alarming levels. In the Bangladesh part of the Sunderbans, the Royal Bengal tigers are more threatened than ever before and this is despite the fact that a conservation project was undertaken to save the animals.
Whether it is in the Sunderbans, Lawachhara or any other forest, such projects cannot be successfully implemented unless local people can be involved with the responsibility of their custodianship. They must be adequately convinced that to save themselves they must save the trees, other plant resources and the animals which live there. Protection of forests, water bodies and even plain lands in some cases proves crucial for sustainable development of a locality. Even the guest birds which arrive seasonally play a part in maintaining balance in Nature. There is as much need to protect the country's indigenous flora and fauna as the ones that migrate here in the winter and return to their lands of origin in the summer. Happily, some people have started appreciating the value of hosting them. But then there are others who engage in poaching simply for money.
Not all poachers catch and sell these birds because they are too poor to resist the easy catch. There are ones who do the crime out of habit. Better it would be if the media and civil society join hands in order to make people aware of the value of saving animals and birds that do not normally make dishes. As an omnivorous animal, man has a wide range of foods. He can very well do away with such exotic dishes in the interest of securing his future. Â
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com
Appreciating the value of conservation
Nilratan Halder | Published: March 07, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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