India – Wild and Beautiful
Here is a land with a rich and varied heritage. A land wild and beautiful….INDIA.
A land blessed with a 2500-mile mountainous frontier in the North – the Himalayas. Where three of the country’s greatest rivers start as a playful trickle, meander through hills, forests, valleys… till they come down to the plateau, roaring with life and energy. The Indus, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.
And in the West and North West, the Thar Desert. Mile after unbroken mile of sand where none but the most sturdy specimens of plant and wildlife survive. All this just a few hundred miles from rich, tropical rain forests in the Ghats or the deciduous forests in the Central Plateau.
And right down in the South, a tapering triangle of beaches abounding in marine wealth.
A land teeming with not just a vast population of people of different castes, creed and colour but also of one of the richest reservoirs of plant and wildlife.
Yes, India is a wildlife paradise. But a paradise in the grip of danger and imminent destruction. Indiscriminate deforestation by industrial giants and firewood users…. hungry mouths that needed food and resorted to poaching…murder in the name of sport.
Slowly, vandalism of this kind is beginning to tell on the natural legacy of this country. The wildlife has started to dwindle, some face extinction.
What are we going to do about it? Are we going to let it slip out of our hands without a fight? Sit back and watch as the miraculous evolution of a million years, so necessary to the well being of man slowly confines itself to the pages of history?
No, said World Wildlife Fund-India and set about doing something concrete to promote conservation. Through TV, press, the radio – WWF started creating awareness about the dire need for conservation. And created specific projects to achieve this goal.
Like the Snake Park in Chennai where volunteers demonstrate to visitors just how harmless the majority of snakes are and how essential they are to keep the rat population in check.
Exhibitions – where the role of wildlife in Nature’s scheme of things is dwelt on.
Clubs for the young – to instil in the citizens of tomorrow the need for conservation today. Through nature orientation camps, bird watching, practical lessons in botany, geology…
Of course, most important of all, WWF’s special conservation project – Project Tiger.
The tiger. India’s national animal. An animal that has inspired poets, painters, photographers. 50 years ago, there were 40,000. Today there are a meagre 2000. The government spends around 5.5 million dollars to help preserve this species from extinction.
The list of plant life and wild life that needs to be preserved stretches on and on. WWF tries to do its bit wherever it can to make the goal of an ideal, balanced world possible. Especially here in India.
A land where prey and predator can live together – where no one ecosystem gets precedence over another. Where the laws of Nature are allowed to follow their course. Then, and then only will Nature’s delicate balance be restored. A dream maybe, but a dream that can come true with a little help from friends.
The profits from our greeting cards, calendars and gift articles are fuelled into much needed funds for the projects we support. Your help will be very welcome. In the form of subscriptions, donations.
For it is only with helping hands that we can make this dream a reality.
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