Issue January 15 - 31, 2003

They have done what each of us should be doing.

FIRST of all, a confession. I love Nature, and animals great and small (maybe the only thing I will not love is a cockroach) and wildlife.
AND do very little about it.

IT pains me when I read or see documentaries — however beautiful — that talk of dwindling species, and when it comes to poachers or dying animals, I cannot even look. It is too much to bear.

WHICH is probably why, as I sat through one of the nicest evenings that Mumbai’s winter season has held, I found my eyes filling repeatedly with stupid tears.

I WAS at the third annual awards function held by ‘Sanctuary Magazine’ with a helping hand from ABN AMRO (we don’t usually give brand names in edit copy, but such yeoman service deserves special mention), and they were honouring seven good men. Men who had worked ceaselessly and selflessly, far from the madding crowd to go beyond the call of duty to protect God’s dumb creatures and to save the environment from pillage and looting.

The heartening thing was that the NCPA auditorium, which is fairly large and often half full, was packed to capacity. Even better, unlike the passive crowds that pack fashion events, this was a responsive, pulsating audience that hung on to every word spoken and clapped loudly at — and this is important — appropriate moments.

SCHOOL children formed a certain section of the hall, and it was wonderful how they responded spontaneously to everything that was shown or spoken through the one-and-a-half hour event.

THE Earth Heroes had come from far and wide — from the jungles of MP and the forest reserves in Rajasthan, from the Andamans and from nearby Borivli National Park. The common thread that tied them was the bond they shared with Nature, and their refusal to compromise its safety in the face of a corrupt system, or pressure, or even threat to self and family.

THE awardees had been sifted out from across many applicants, and though there must be many more almost as deserving, there was no denying that here were the real guardians of the nation’s treasures.

THERE was little fuss and minimum showmanship, but the event held its own grandeur and dignity, and not little of which came from the deeply-felt conviction of all the key players. Sitting through the evening, as I heard of the reversals that had been effected in stopping some of the destruction by man of Nature and our forest cover, I began to feel there was hope, and that we would have a legacy of wilderness to hand over to future generations.

A million children had already been roped in to help save the tiger from poaching and extinction. Soon, more from the younger generation will join it, and an army will rise to fight for the wild.

I LEFT in hope and drove home with my heart singing. As I parked my car, I noticed that someone had cut the young new branches off the tree that grows opposite my house. There would be, I knew, no one who would own up, no witnesses to the act. It had happened before.

I WENT to sleep wondering if the evening was only a silver bubble in a sea of filth.


The Editor