Review of Wildlife India@50: Wild encounters

The ceremonious airlifting of the long extinct cheetah, from Namibia to the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, and a recent report indicting humans for being responsible for the extermination of at least 70% of the world’s wildlife, offer a disturbing backdrop to reading WildlifeIndia@50. Edited by Manoj Kumar Misra, a former member of the Indian Forest Service, the book critiques five decades of the Wildlife Act, 1972, with short, personal experiences by administrators, foresters, conservationists, activists and journalists that include a stellar list from renowned conservationist and tireless forester H.S. If the difficulty of implementing the law is one area of focus, the book also looks at other issues including the need for “inviolate habitats”, why some man-animal conflicts are intractable, illegal wildlife trade, conservation challenges, and the saving of species like tigers, lions, elephants, crocodiles and the great Indian bustard. Far from serving its primary objective — to be “ever vigilant in the cause of free-loving fellow citizens i.e., wild animals and birds” — the provisions of the legislation have been twisted to grant rights to violate wildlife habitats. In future, animals at the centre of the conflict should be counted, and their needs accounted for.” The volume makes for interesting, amusing, and sometimes shocking, reading, highlighting the fact that the power of citizens to question the decision of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife is legally out of question.