More than six decades after the last cheetah disappeared from India - the only mammal the country has lost in a long time - the government has decided to reintroduce the fastest one.
The experts and the government have proffered few reasons why the spotted cat should be brought back. It's the only mammal whose name is derived from Sanskrit, for one. It will help preserve the grasslands and drylands in India, for another. The first is easily dismissed as posturing but the second reason is worth a serious look.
On any count, it's going to be a costly affair. Experts have suggested a ballpark figure of Rs 300 crore to be spent in the first year itself.
The cheetah sites will require constant money flow through the life of the project (read: endlessly). Much of the initial money is going to be spent on relocating more than 100 human habitations in the three sites where the experts want to set free the first set of imported cats.
The wildlife enthusiasts want to play down the trade-offs: the cheetah is bound to become the conservation star that turns grasslands and drylands into exclusive preserves just as the tiger had for decades in the forested parts of the country. Some of the settlements to be relocated are temporary – used by grazers – the cheetah enthusiasts point out.
That the temporary settlements are traditional livelihood sources for many in the arid Jaisalmer is yet to be discussed. In another site (Kuno-Palpur in Madhya Pradesh) many have been uprooted and displaced under controversial circumstances to bring in the lion, so relocating a few more villages shouldn't be difficult, they say.
To be fair, the cheetah enthusiasts have recommended "adequate and generous compensation with alternate arrangements" for those displaced. But in a country where most of the existing national parks and sanctuaries, including tiger reserves, were created at a time when traditional rights of people living in the forests were summarily dismissed, is yet another symbol of exclusivist conservation required? Almost every tiger reserve and dozens of national parks and sanctuaries continue to be battlefields between displaced local population and the forest department, with rights of the poor unresolved.
The UPA, under Sonia Gandhi, has been trying hard to restore these rights and correct a historical injustice that the government itself claims is one of the causes of alienation of forestdwellers.
Experts suggest the spillovers of tourism from the cheetah will provide livelihood to those displaced.
Five-star hotels at the edges of tiger reserves that earn Rs 40,000 a night showing off cordoned tigers to foreign tourists while the locals run tea shops or get employed as daily labour, one would think, would have taught the government a lesson.
No comments:
Post a Comment