Centre for Environment and Law, NUALS has successfully organised "Truth About Tigers – the National Animal of India" a National Symposium on Conservation of Tigers on 5th and 6th of February, 2016. The symposium attracted huge participation from the law students and practicing lawyers with a turn up of around 180.
The inaugural event was attended by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, Prof. Leelakrishnan, Shekhar Dattatri and Praveen Bhargav. Hon’ble Mr. Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan inaugurated the symposium and also released the centre’s flagship journal the Environment, Law and Society Journal. The event was presided over by Prof. Dr. Rose Varghese, Vice-Chancellor, NUALS, Prof. Dr. M. C. Valson, Director, CEL and Smt. Kasthuri J., Research Associate, CEL.
The welcome address was delivered by Prof. Dr. Valson which was followed by the Presidential address by Prof. Dr. Rose Varghese. She spoke about addressing the issues of disappearance of India's tigers and the legal framework concerning tiger conservation.
In his inaugural address, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan spoke about his involvement in the Sabarimala judgment and its effects. He emphasized the value of the Constitutional framework and its parts that deal with wildlife and ecology. He believed judicial decisions are to be issue, time and space specific and hence, have to be reviewed every ten years to cope with change in public life. He stressed on a Tiger centric approach wherein the tiger needs to be undisturbed from human interferences. H also talked about the ill-effects of indiscriminate waste disposal that ultimately end up as food for the tiger’s prey thereby disturbing the food chain. He ended with the flora-fauna relationship that preserves the ecology of the land.
The first session began with the screening of The Truth About Tigers, a documentary by Mr. Shekhar Dattatri. Before this, Mr. Dattatri spoke about his life as a wildlife filmmaker and his subsequent foray into wildlife conservation through hard-hitting wildlife films. He stressed on the novel idea of a certain telecom operator to promote tiger conservation through ‘Save the Tiger’ campaign in Tamil Nadu and the shortcomings of the campaign also. He delved into films as a medium of conservation for tigers as it conveys the essence in a simple and relatable manner for the public. He then ended with a short narrative on his documentary wherein he spoke about the areas which the documentary dealt with viz, ecology or habitat of tigers, problems of tigers and solutions for the govt. and public.
The session ended with an interaction with Mr. Dattatri and Mr. Bharghav on issues pertaining to science in wildlife conservation, development vis-à-vis conservation, judicial intervention in wildlife conservation, zoos vis-à-vis conservation, compensatory afforestation, relocation of big cats, minor forest produces, wildlife corridors and human-animal conflict.
The second day of the seminar commenced with the welcome address by Professor Dr. M. C Valson addressing the august gathering and the Resource Persons. The theme for the session was 'Legal aspects of Tiger reserves and law pertaining to Tiger conservation' chaired by Mr. Praveen Bhargav. He began the presentation by citing certain statistics regarding tiger, including the number of reserves, estimated area of the tiger reserves and the tiger population. He differentiated between the methods of estimation of the number of tigers. He started off by mentioning that Tiger reserves are divided into core and buffer areas and added that a critical core surrounded by forested buffer area with an Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) is necessary for the structure of tiger reserve. He went on to essentially distinguish between a Sanctuary and a National Park. This differentiation was that while in a sanctuary, certain rights are allowed, in a national park, such rights are restricted and a national park can never be downgraded to a sanctuary.
He then moved on to the legal aspects of tiger conservation in light of the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. He continued by giving an overview of the management structure for conservation given under the Act. He spoke of the notifications of the National Parks and Sanctuaries.
The presentation emphasized on the prohibitive measures provided under the Act. Section 9 which prohibits the hunting of any animal listed in schedules 1 to 4 in the Act was mentioned as a cornerstone in the Act. Also sections 29 and 30 of the Act that dealt with the prevention of destruction of habitats were mentioned with due importance. He also touched upon issues of grazing, entry into reserves with weaponry and illegality of possession of wild animals. He subsequently elucidated on the powers conferred by the Act including the power of search and seizure in cases of illegal trade of wild animals, the procedure of filing complaints, compounding of offences and investigation by the Chief Wildlife Warden. He moreover stated the penalties for the offence of hunting wild animals in core areas and abetting the same which included imprisonment and fine.
Above all, the presentation threw light on the paramountcy of elevating the status of tiger reserves to national parks and sanctuaries for the application of the key provisions and restrictions of the Act to tiger reserves. He concluded the presentation with the significant judicial interventions since 1995, a couple of them being the T. N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India & Ors. and Centre for Environment and Law v. Union of India.
Towards the end of the session important questions regarding the presentation were raised on issues like lateral induction of domain experts, search and seizure of illegal wildlife products, specie centric approach, vermin killing and lawyer's role in conservation.
The last session dealt with Voluntary resettlement. The session started with a documentary by Mr. Dattatri. It emphasised on fair and voluntary relocation in a dignified manner. Many myths relating to the forest dwellers were extinguished and the need for an urbanized living was brought to the fore. The documentary compared the situation of forest dwellers in various countries in South America and Africa; distinguishing the same from the situation in India. It showcased the transition of the initial apprehension of the forest dwellers to the gradual acceptance that modernization was necessary and inevitable. The benefits of resettlement, for the forest dwellers in terms of their development, the wildlife in terms of their protection and healing of the ecosystem, were highlighted.
In the question and answer session following the documentary, it was clarified that forcible eviction of forest dwellers was not propagated, and only voluntary relocation was emphasised upon. Relocation and resettlement should be done in a comprehensive manner, with the main focus being on having provisions for enabling the resettlement of those forest dwellers who are willing to move to better pastures. This would further require a coordination among the Centre, State and the NGOs.
Later Dr. P. S. Easa enlightened the audience about the tiger landscapes by giving a statistical report of the number of tigers present in locations across India. He emphasised on the need for continuous forest landscapes rather than the current fragmented areas. He reasoned out the necessity for large areas of conservation for tigers, drawing an analogy between huge protected areas in different parts of the world. The other issue that he highlighted was regarding the reasons that lead to extinction of tigers, namely, genetic inbreeding, reduction in fitness and higher juvenile mortality.
There was a full panel discussion on various inter-disciplinary issues concerning tiger conservation. The panel emphasised the need for social scientists and lawyers to be inducted into the Indian Forest Services. The panel made a call to every member of civil society to lead the way and develop a compassion for wildlife.