DT NEXT: You have been a resident of capital Chennai how as things changed with the bird life and the local extinction of small mammals.

Shekar Dattatri: In 1979, I had enumerated more than 120 species of birds in the Tiruvanmiyur region, which was a new suburb in those days. Today, it would be difficult to find more than 25-30 species consistently.  During the same year, I found 11 species of amphibians. Today, it would be hard to find more than 2 or 3.  Small mammals like mongooses and civets could only be seen in certain parts of the city before, and they still persist in small numbers here and there, thanks to their adaptability.

Snakes of all kinds can and do co-exist with humans in rural areas, and have done so for millennia.  However, it is unrealistic to expect such co-existence in confined urban areas. If they are not removed, they will be killed by someone.

First of all, there is no such thing as a stray wild animal! All the land that we humans now inhabit was once the domain of wild animals. The human population explosion and the spreading of our footprint to even the remotest corners of the world has turned wild animals into refugees in their own land. So, now, when they venture anywhere near human habitation, we term them as “straying wild animals”.  Be that as it may, any “rescue” of these so called “stray animals” should only be done on the basis of good science. Presently, this is rarely the case, and animals are trapped willy-nilly, in a knee-jerk reaction to public pressure. The poor “rescued” animal is then dumped in some unfamiliar territory, causing it tremendous stress. This does not solve any problems of conflict but only transfers the problem to another area. Also, we can’t club all wild animals in the same category, as they all have different habitat requirements and different behavioural traits. So, all solutions have to be species-specific and site-specific if they are to have some chance of success.

Ecological changes that result from the removal of a small population of a particular species from a particular landscape can often only be discerned over a long period of study. Therefore, it is impossible to say what the impact of removing six elephants from the Tiruvannamalai forests will have on the ecosystem as a whole. What we do know is that elephants often modify the landscape in a way that benefits many other wildlife species. They are also important seed dispersal agents and play an important role in maintaining the equilibrium of the ecosystems they live in.

The Great Indian bustard, which was once found in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and many other states, is now virtually extinct due to a variety of factors, including hunting, massive loss of grassland habitat and severe biotic pressures in the last remaining habitats. Vultures numbered in the millions even until the early 1990s, but declined by more than 95 per cent due the use of a drug called Diclofenac in livestock. When vultures fed on the carcasses of animals that contained residues of the drug, they died. Blackbuck antelopes used to roam by the tens of thousands in the plains of India even 50-60 years ago. Today, most of their habitat is gone due to agricultural expansion, urbanisation and industrialisation, and their numbers have plummeted. This is the story with hundreds of species in India.

Yes, but only if humans in these places are wiped out en masse as a result of some pandemic or natural disaster, and these urbanised areas revert to nature over time!

India once had a great ethos of reverence towards nature. We have excellent wildlife protection laws. But the sad truth is that governments, both in states and at the centre, regard wildlife conservation as an impediment to development. While a lot of lip service is paid to conservation, the reality on the ground is one of rampant degradation and destruction of the last remaining wilderness areas of our beautiful country. While a lot of money is spent on conserving a few charismatic animals like the tiger and the rhino, virtually every other species has been left to fend for itself. We should be greatly ashamed.