It was the year 2003. Mohammed Dilawar, a young man from Nashik, intent on pursuing a career in wildlife, was studying for his master’s degree in environment and ecology. Around the same time, the vulture decline was getting a lot of press, with the cause of the decline being attributed to diclofenac (a drug used to treat cattle) . Naturally, the news made the lad sit up and take notice. Vultures were declining, true, but where had the sparrows disappeared? Their chirping had after all been an inseparable part of the early morning symphony. Soon, saving the sparrow became Dilawar’s mission, and through awareness programmes and a bit of advocacy (“my sparrow had to fight the tiger”), Dilawar set about restoring this slight imbalance in nature. Again, like every other year, he happily plunged into the annual birding event, Big Bird Day, started by a Delhi-based team (Bikram Grewal and Nikhil Devasar) in 2004 and now celebrated across the country. Says Dilawar: “It’s a day of fun, getting together and exchanging notes. Also most importantly, we monitor the number and type of birds, putting up the data on relevant websites and social media, thus creating a valuable bird database.”
It’s not just the sparrow. Certain other avians, many of whom are getting scarcer and scarcer, seem to be getting a new lease of life, thanks to conservation efforts led by some individuals. It’s a crisis all right with a play of angry and accusing voices being heard across. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), on its part, had already sounded the alarm bell by listing a number of birds on the critically endangered list—the Great Indian Bustard (GIB), Jerdon’s Courser, Bengal Florican, Forest Owlet, Vulture, to name a few.
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An alarmed Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Prakash Javadekar, told the Lok Sabha this week that financial assistance is provided to the state governments under the Centrally sponsored scheme of Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats for protecting the GIB’s habitats. Already, biologists, scientists, environmentalists and conservationists have been working overtime to stop the rot, giving our winged friends a chance to see many more sunrises.
The GIB—tall, dark and terrestrial—has been looking straight down the barrel of the extinction gun for a good while now. Standing one metre above the ground, this heavy-bodied bird favours wide-open, short-grass plains. Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) Director Asad Rahmani, who has been studying the bird for the last 30 years, says the number is down to 100 now. “Since the 80s, we have been making recommendations to the government, but nothing has happened. Found earlier in eight sanctuaries (total 1,080 birds), it has become practically extinct from five of them. At Rollapadu in Andhra Pradesh, from 60 it has dwindled to just three-four; at Solapur (Maharashtra), of 27, there are just two left; at the Desert National Park in Rajasthan, what showed up as 200 numbers in the 80s has dropped to 50; at Karera (Madhya Pradesh), from 60, it has reduced to 20; and at Naliya (Kutch, Gujarat) there are just 25 birds left,” he explains.
With an air of mystery written all over it, the Jerdon’s Courser is on the ‘must-save’ list of birders. Supposedly extinct after 1900, it was rediscovered in 1986. Secretive and nocturnal, the bird is endemic to south India and is found only in Andhra Pradesh. Biologist-scientist P Jeganathan has been researching this bird since 2000. “Just because we do not see it, does not mean it is not there,” he says. Apparently, the bird which prefers open spaces and a scrub habitat was sighted at three new places at the Lankamalleshwara sanctuary in Andhra. “A water canal here had threatened to destroy two of its locations, but then the canal was re-routed,” he says.
Sparrows, which till recently co-existed merrily with human beings, have gone missing from urban spaces. “Everyone wants to save the glamorous species like the tiger or the threatened one like the GIB, but nobody is interested in the fate of the garden lizard, frogs or sparrow,” says Dilawar, who was dubbed crazy for wanting to save the tiny bird instead of the regal tiger.
On the other end of the spectrum is the sharp-beaked, talon-sporting huge bird of prey, the vulture, whose fate is definitely worse than its chirpy little clan member. Always associated with decay and death, these monstrous birds might give one the creeps, but hardly anyone is aware of the role they play in keeping the environment safe and clean. “There was a 99.9 per cent drop in vulture population, from four crores in the 80s to just one lakh in 2007,” says Vibhu Prakash, Principal Scientist, BNHS, and one of the key persons behind identifying the cause that led to vultures dying mysteriously.
Which brings us to the question as to why these birds are being forced into extinction? Are the causes man-made? Is the climate or lifestyle change (blame it on the Homo sapien) responsible? Is it because of government apathy? Or is it on account of a strange occurrence that involved the vulture? These raptors feed on carrion and a vulture flock can strip a dead animal bare in minutes. “Apparently, the drug used to treat cattle, that is diclofenac was found to be toxic to these raptors. When cattle died with the drug still present inside their bodies and the vultures fed on their carcasses, the latter developed renal failure and died a painful death. Since normally a large flock dined on the carrion, it meant that all suffered the same fate at one single time. Naturally, their population declined with an astonishing speed,” shares Prakash. Soon, BNHS got a ban on the drug with a new one replacing diclofenac.
On the other hand, man’s changing lifestyle put a crimp in the sparrow’s existence. Dilawar says, “Earlier sparrows would reside in the nooks and crannies afforded by the tiles on the roof, but the modern homes, completely cordoned off with gleaming glass and aluminum, seemed as if to close their hearts to the little visitor. Also, sights such as ladies of the household sharing gossip while cleaning grains and the local grocer laying bags of grain out in the open, remaining just memories, seemed to have adversely impacted the sparrows.”
Man-bird conflict has led to one elbowing out the other. That’s what has perpetrated the sorry plight of the GIBs. Says Rahmani: “The habitat of the birds coincides with human habitation and whenever that happens, there is always trouble. The birds flourish in large short-grass plains, a habitat also used by man for grazing, cultivation, etc. And then when the government thinks what is good for the goose is good for the gander, it complicates matters further.” Avid Goa-based birder Savio Fonseca blames it on the cropping pattern. “Earlier one grew maize, bajra and wheat, and the GIB would feed on the beetles that populated these crops. But now farmers having switched over to sugarcane have deprived the birds of this diet,” he says.
The same ills plague the Jerdon’s Courser, one of the rarest birds in the world which easily finds its way into the top 100 list. Says Jeganathan: “The bird inhabits scrub jungles, arid and semi-arid grasslands and when these habitats are abused and threatened, to make way for agriculture and human settlements, it puts the bird in peril. Add to that illegal trapping.”
Naturally, wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists have got their task cut out for them. For one, most people cannot see beyond that great big striped predator and perhaps the hulking beast with a trunk. Says wildlife filmmaker and conservationist Shekar Dattatri: “Smaller creatures like birds and insects perform fundamental tasks such as pollination and seed dispersal, without which the forests that animals like tigers and elephants depend on cannot thrive. So their conservation is vital for a healthy planet.” No wonder, Dilawar chose to champion the sparrow’s cause. He started by designing nest boxes in which the bird could live comfortably and breed, with a feeder providing it food. He says, “Made of recycled wood, the next box is a quality product, reasonably priced and has found takers across the country.” Through Nature Forever Society, he aims to reach out to citizens, educate and empower them.
Vultures, whose numbers had fallen below the critical level, needed to be saved on a war footing and it was decided to breed them in captivity. Says Prakash: “We selected 600 pairs of three vulture species from the wild. They are now being bred in four centres—Pinjore (Haryana), Buxa (West Bengal), Rani (Assam) and Bhopal (MP). The Central Zoo Authority has also pitched in, managing five such centres. The vulture being a slow-breeding, long-lived bird, it will take at least 5-10 years to measure the success of the breeding programme.” Next year, we hope to release 15 birds into the wild, he adds.
Right now though, there is one collective chant going around— save the GIB, which, if Dr Salim Ali’s recommendation was heeded, would have become India’s national bird. Rahmani says conservation programmes should involve people. Like, for instance, when the bird’s breeding season commences, people should be educated to stop using the place for, say, three-four months. There needs to be a strong grasslands management in place, after all some of these lands are owned by private individuals, he says, “Conservation should have a human face. For example, there are 70 villages inside the Desert National Park, one of the habitats of the GIB. The Wildlife (Protection) Act prohibits numerous activities and villagers have to bear the brunt. Some, for instance, have no recourse to water, electricity or roads.” In 2013, a recovery plan was put in place with specific recommendations, but the current government seems lax about it, he says, adding, “It should have started 10 years ago, we are already very late.”
Nikhil Devasar, birder and creator of Big Bird Day, says villagers who stay inside the sanctuary should participate in conservation; for example, forbid the dogs from eating up the eggs of the bustard and involve and educate schoolchildren by making them aware of what is happening around them. “Poaching is another problem and with an anti-poaching cell that looks good only on paper, it is another nail in the GIB’s coffin.” Says Savio: “The bird lays only one egg per year and if that gets destroyed, then we are in deep trouble. We could try artificial insemination.”
Saving the endangered species apart, it would be prudent to keep an eye on the vulnerable ones too. One among them is the Spot-billed Pelican which has been chosen along with Painted Storks to make its home (breeding site) in Kokkarebelur, a tiny village in Karnataka’s Mandya district. And one person responsible for its conservation and habitat has been K Manu, also fondly called ‘Pelican Manu’. “In 1995, I was commissioned by the Karnataka government to go to Kokkarebelur. Things were bad, chicks that fell down from trees would be eaten by dogs and to survive, pelicans needed a good supply of fish,” he recalls. This was the time when Mysore Amateur Naturalists was established. Manu first got the villagers involved, getting them to protect the nests and look after fallen fledglings, besides making arrangements to procure fish. Public debates regarding conserving lakes were taken up, with many check dams across streams getting removed. By 2007, the number of nests had gone up to 1,200. But things are not hunky dory anymore. The pelican numbers are dwindling, with less coming in and more going out, says Manu. He has now started another initiative Hejjarle Ballaga (Pelican Clan), which conducts environmental education programmes for children. That is the way forward, he says.
Another bird whose numbers have been dwindling is the Majestic Hornbill, those farmers of the forest, with nine species being found in India, mostly in the Western Ghats and the North-east, with the Narcondam island in the Andamans hosting the critically endangered Narcondam Nornbill. Divya Mudappa, scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), who has been researching the hornbill (Malabar Grey Hornbill) for almost a decade now, finds these birds fascinating with a peculiar behaviour —of returning to the same nests over and again. Habitat loss and hunting have threatened their existence. One way to protect them would be to protect large trees, those with big hollows inside them, and control hunting. Mudappa says, “One of my colleagues Aparajita Dutta has started the nest adoption programme in Arunachal Pradesh, where hunters (Nyishi tribe in the Pakke Tiger Reserve) have been persuaded to turn nest protectors.” But while conservation is happening on a local level, nationally much more needs to be done, she says.
Conservation, today, is not in the hands of scientists, biologists and government agencies alone. For many, the call of the wild proved to be so overwhelming that they gave up their jobs to devote themselves to wildlife. For Ramakrishnan ‘Ramki’ Sreenivasan, a successful entrepreneur (his company Marketics Technologies India in Bengaluru was acquired by WNS Global), wildlife has been a consuming passion. Later, when the need for conservation arose, Sreenivasan along with wildlife filmmaker and conservationist Shekar Dattatri went ahead and founded Conservation India (CI), a non-profit, non-commercial portal. “We wanted to bring conservation into the mainstream, make available tool kits and scientific knowhow, widen the stakeholder base from professionals to students to concerned citizens. We are neutral, we have no axe to grind,” he says. Last year, along with NCF, CI launched Hornbill Watch, a citizen-science initiative with an aim to create awareness about these species by having people report in with sighting and images. “When Amur Falcons were being slaughtered by the tens of thousands in Nagaland a couple of years ago, it was CI that brought the issue to attention, paving the way for an end to the massacre,” says Shekar.
The final stakeholder in conservation—the government—for the most part seems to be inviting scorn. Says Sreenivasan: “The government seems to be diluting environmental and wildlife laws for developmental projects. Less than 5 per cent of our land is protected which should remain an absolute no-go; in fact the government should have a vision to expand this to, say, 10-15 per cent. Development can happen in the remaining areas.” Shekar says though we have good conservation laws, including the Wildlife (Protection) Act, Forest Conservation Act and the Biodiversity Act, their implementation is inadequate.
On the positive side, steps taken to boost vulture population are showing success. The sparrow was made Delhi’s state bird in 2012 and a stamp was issued in its honour. The project to save the hornbill in the Narcondam island of the Andamans was stalled, but seems to have taken flight. Project Great Indian Bustard by the Rajasthan government was implemented to save the GIB.
Also, conservation need not always involve big money and immense labour. For instance, Dilawar introduced the World Sparrow Day on March 20 to spread awareness. Then, events such as Bird Days serve the same purpose, while bringing together birders. Says Chennai-based Dr Gita Dattatri who along with her husband Sanjay participated in the Big Bird Day event: “Conservation can start by making people aware. In places like the Pallikarnai marsh, for example, people are not even aware of the wonderful bio-diversity that exists in their own backyard. Discuss your hobbies with friends, if they like birds, ask them to tag along with you for bird-watching. Get children interested.”
When God created his most fascinating creation, he never meant to displace other creatures, big or small. But upsetting the cosmic applecart is certainly a recipe for disaster.
