| You are much better known as a
wildlife and legal expert than an accountant. Who really is
Biswajit Mohanty and how did he come to be one of the leading
lights of Orissa's wildlife movement?
I was born in 1963 in Cuttack, a beautiful, pollution-free
town girdled by two rivers in whose waters we could drink
and swim. Mesmerised, I would stare for hours at the Mahanadi's
swift and pure waters. I think the river caused me to fall
in love with nature. I studied at Stewart School and got a
commerce degree from Ravenshaw College, after which I joined
my father's Chartered Accountancy firm, which supports my
family and my wildlife mission even today. But I am also a
qualified lawyer and I have made it the purpose of my life
to use wildlife and environmental laws to defend nature. It's
tough sometimes to balance my professional work with wildlife
but I am used to this double role now!
And why do marine turtles take up such a huge chunk of
your life?
Marine turtles are living fossils. They were around long before
dinosaurs became extinct. Their migratory journeys across
the globe are legendary and scientists in India and overseas
are trying to track their journeys using satellites. Our myths
and legends are replete with references to turtles. Yet, in
recent years, I have walked the coasts of Orissa counting
dead turtles by the thousands. How can we do this to a species
that has overcome the trials of life over millions of years?
As anyone who has encountered a nesting sea turtle will confirm,
it is easy to fall in love with these gentle creatures! I
work with scientists, conservationists and fisherfolk to save
turtles - not just because I believe the species has a right
to survive, but also because saving turtles will ultimately
result in protecting coastal Orissa. Orissa is better known
around the world for its turtle arribada than any industrial
development.
You are also fighting to save Chilika.
That is true. At 900 sq. km., this is Asia's largest brackish
water lake, a Ramsar site. Unfortunately, it is under attack
from the prawn mafia, which uses money power to buy political
immunity. This is ruining the unique lake that plays host
to millions of waterfowl, Irrawady dolphins and uncounted
marine species. This is also detrimental to thousands of fisherfolk
who depend on the lake for their daily survival. Ironically,
the birds of Chilika have been eulogised by Oriya poets and
I still remember songs sung to me by my mother describing
the vast bird wealth and breathtaking beauty of the lake.
Can we possibly allow this lake to die?
What about the Supreme Court ruling in favour of small
fisherfolk and the protection of Chilika?
A whole series of court orders have been issued to protect
Chilika but to implement them, courts must rely on the state
administration. This is the problem. Officials drag their
feet and some even facilitate prawn farming, instead of curbing
it. This is not surprising when you consider the number of
state and central politicians, including ministers, whose
money is directly or indirectly invested in these farms. The
result has been a decline in fish catch of over 50 per cent.
And how have fisherfolk responded?
In India, tolerance is virtually a religion but even the peaceful
fisherfolk of Chilika were forced to agitate by uniting to
demolish prawn farms that were destroying their lake. A few
years ago, in a village called Sorana, three people lost their
lives when the police fired at them. As many as 5,000 fisherfolk
from 145 villages in 800 boats had taken action by demolishing
illegal prawn ponds during the day. At night, when their leaders
were about to be arrested, the people rose to defend them
and were shot. All this happened because the government failed
and people were forced to rise in their own defence. A likely
outcome of all this is a special Chilika Act to protect
traditional fishermen.
What steps do you advocate in such situations?
There is no use 'appealing' to politicians and the businessmen
who control them to respect the law. They may need some education,
but it still shocks me to hear local MLAs ask whether or not
turtles come to Orissa! To thwart exploiters, wildlife and
human rights groups must unite to demand enforcement of laws
and implementation of court orders. With law-makers fast becoming
law-breakers, I believe that the two other pillars of our
democracy must be activated, namely the free press and the
judiciary. And this is what we are doing. Without a supportive
and sensitive press, we would be nowhere.
But do we have support from the people? I believe some
fisherfolk are asking that saltwater crocs in Bhitarkanika
be shot!
That is not exactly true. Locals from the Kendrapada district
are proud of their saltwater crocodiles and mangroves. But
land-grabbers will never be 'friends of crocodiles'! Croc
numbers in the Bhitarkanika National Park have risen from
a few hundred to over a thousand. This is a result of mangrove
protection, which, Sanctuary readers will remember,
actually saved hundreds of lives when the super cyclone struck
last year. Croc protection benefits humans in the long run,
but these are after all the largest crocs in the world and
can overcome cattle, goats or humans who enter the park! In
a sense, the crocs are our forest guards that keep many illegal
Bangladeshi immigrants at bay! We have met with representatives
of the fishing community and explained the consequences of
over-fishing and why park boundaries must be respected. But
it all comes back to the prawn farms that induce people to
risk their lives in search of tiger prawn seedlings.
Other human-animal conflicts also seem to be doing the
rounds, elephants for instance.
You are probably referring to the unfortunate incident in
which a young girl was caught in the path of a herd of elephants
on the outskirts of Bhubaneshwar. The herd belongs to the
Chandaka forest and is often forced to leave the confines
of its natural habitat in search of food. This again is a
direct result of encroachment on forest lands that is causing
the 193 sq. km. sanctuary to shrink. Villagers inside the
sanctuary have converted prime elephant habitat into paddy
fields. The state government spends millions to construct
houses for these people. We are ourselves manufacturing human-animal
conflicts.
Very little is really written these days about the wildlife
of Orissa in the national press, a far cry from the days when
S.R. Choudhury of Simlipal and his famous tigress Khairi were
household words.
That may be true of the national press, but not of the local
press. We, in Orissa, can boast of one of the finest networks
of journalists who keep the establishment on their toes with
almost daily investigative reports. It was such individuals
who blew the lid on the Nandankanan tiger massacre. As I mentioned
earlier, I believe that the free press and television have
a historic role to play in protecting the wildlife of Orissa
and all other states. Some journalists have taken on powerful
bureaucrats and for their pains, false cases were filed against
them, even by some dubious forest officials (as revenge for
exposing the Nandankanan episode). As for Khairi, there is
no doubt that the tigress was a great ambassador for Project
Tiger, but in hindsight, we should remember that she was a
domestic cat, not a wild one!
You work with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS)
in Orissa...
I do. It is the oldest wildlife NGO and I am the coordinator
for the Society's Indian Bird Conservation Network (IBCN)
and Important Bird Areas (IBA) programme in Orissa. I believe
this venerable institution is destined to play a very vital
role in defending India's wildlife because it is independent
of the government, is trusted by all and is founded on solid
value systems and good science.
Which other groups do you work with and on what specific
issues?
The Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and its founder,
Belinda Wright has been a source of inspiration, advice and
support for years. I am, of course, part and parcel of the
Wildlife Society of Orissa. We also work with WTI, PETA, and
PFA. Mrs. Maneka Gandhi has invariably supported us by intervening
on vital issues. And, of course, we depend on Sanctuary and
its readership to mobilise support. Our core strength includes
dynamic forest officials like Sanjeev Chaddha, a dear friend,
with whom I work closely on wildlife contraband seizures.
Are your battles being won or lost? Is this a dangerous
occupation?
You win some and lose some. The battles are never-ending.
While the country was celebrating the closure of saw mills
in the northeast, for instance, we discovered an army of saw
mills (147) operating in the coastal districts of Balasore,
Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Khurda
and Puri. Unbelievably, the state government claims that no
saw mills have been operating in coastal Orissa after the
1999 super cyclone. The bureaucracy is pliable and in the
pay of saw mill owners. While I am not stupid, I refuse to
let fear dominate my life. When friends and family fear for
me, I refer them to the Gita, which advocates that
we do our duty without worrying too much about the outcome.
Vested interests must know that some people cannot be bought
or cowed down! Neither blind support nor criticism is valid.
We need issue-based action and should be willing to work with
anyone who can play a positive role. And we have had some
successes, such as getting the issuance of timber transit
permits stayed by the High Court of Orissa.
From what Bivash Pandav reports, another battle has been
added in the shape of an afforestation project started on
turtle nesting beaches.
That's right. There is no end to the destructive ideas these
people keep putting forward because their fundamentals are
wrong. The turtles have a tough life as it is and must now
contend with new enemies - the Dhamra port that threatens
the Banipahi mangrove flats (also a breeding site for horseshoe
crabs), an oil storage point, effluents from a fertiliser
factory... And now a deluge of funds from the central government
for plantation programmes has come as a gift to some forest
officers who know nothing about ecology. One forest division
spends nearly Rs. 80,000 per day just to water casuarina
plants. And to meet the targets (on the basis of which funds
are released), senior officers with the social forestry, afforestation
and territorial wings have instructed their staff to plant
directly on sandy beaches since they cannot find unencumbered
plots inland.
So who is now going to fight this new battle?
Who else? The same bunch of fire-fighters! Before one battle
ends, another begins. Poaching, illicit felling, leasing wildlife
habitat, posting of corrupt forest officials to the field,
turtle deaths because of illegal trawling, emergency court
cases... It tires one just to think of all this. Sometimes,
we also have to come to the defence of range officers who
are victimised by policemen working for timber smugglers.
Very often, morale is down because senior forest officers
turn a blind eye to such victimisation.
The Orissa Wildlife Wing, in fact, only woke up to the problem
of casuarina plantations on turtle nesting beaches when Operation
Kachhapa pointed it out in January 2002. The WII 1997 report
on sea turtles had already recommended that no nesting beaches
be used for casuarina plantations, but it was blissfully ignored.
Now the Chief Wildlife Warden has had to step in to prevent
another wing of the forest department from harming the state's
interests in the name of protection. It's a never-ending process
and you will probably have to take this up when the Standing
Committee of the Indian Board for Wildlife meets next and
order the state to uproot and replant the seedlings!
Which brings us to another sensitive issue, the missile
centre and its effect on turtles...
Bittu, at the risk of incurring the wrath of the entire
armed forces, whose support we so desperately need to protect
our turtle beaches, it is time for us to redefine patriotism.
How can we allow people to destroy India's natural heritage
in the name of defending the nation? This year, the lights
of the Wheeler missile base have so terribly affected the
turtle rookeries in Gahirmatha in the Kendrapada district
that no mass nesting took place at all. I hold the
illegal fishing by trawlers and the heavy artificial lights
of defence installations on Wheeler's island (testing site
for the famous Agni missiles) responsible. Turtles are sensitive
to lights, which disorient them. Thank god Banka Behari Das
is not alive to see how the promises made to him by Dr. Abdul
Kalam (to switch off illumination during the nesting season)
have been broken. The doctrine of 'public trust' is being
abused in Orissa by officials who destroy the natural heritage
that they are sworn to protect.
What about wild tigers and elephants? How are they doing
in Orissa?
Not too well. We know so little about the status of tigers
in the wild because virtually no funds are set aside for research
and monitoring. Once in a while, however, a little good news
creeps in, such as the sighting of a pair of tigers a couple
of years ago after a gap of 30 years in the Kuldiha Wildlife
Sanctuary in the Nilgiri Range of the Baripada Forest Division.
I believe that these may have come from Simlipal, indicating
that the connecting corridor is still viable for tigers, which
we thought was only being used by the more adaptable leopards.
Tigers have also been sighted at Barbara forests after a gap
of 30 years. But wildlife is in trouble all over Orissa and
this includes elephants. Seizures of ivory, the disturbance
of corridors, encroachments... the list is endless. Simlipal
is also under threat. The January 2002 census suggests that
tigers occupy only a third of the available habitat, with
buffers including 'secluded' valleys taken over by cattle
and goats. Once-tiny hamlets have trebled in size. Dozens
of government agencies destroy wildlife, while one tiny ill-equipped
agency, the Wildlife Wing, is expected to protect animals.
People accuse us of being alarmist, of being unduly negative.
Negative? For me, the Orissa coast is a temple. Respecting
this 480 km. strip and managing it correctly would sustain
at least a million fishermen and turtles, dolphins and horseshoe
crabs. But they want the Dhamra sea port, prawn farms, oil
terminals at Rushikulya, trawling in the prohibited zones
and regularisation of land grabs by 'vote-bank immigrants'
on the Kendrapada and Jagatsinghpur mangroves. Farmers are
encouraged to use pesticides and fertilisers in Simlipal.
The timber mafia operates with impunity in Satkosia. The Sunabeda
Sanctuary and its 20 tigers are being edged out by politically-supported
encroachers. Are we being negative?
You know about 'Kids for Tigers', the Sanctuary-Britannia
Tiger Programme. Any message for our one million tiger defenders?
Remember Nandankanan. Write to the authorities to say that
one wild tiger is worth all the white tigers they have ever
bred in captivity. Fight for wild tigers and their right to
wild spaces. Above all, talk to your parents, your teachers,
your elders and friends. Tell them that you dream of an India
in which not only tigers, but all living creatures including
humans have the right to a life of freedom and dignity. |
