Must check governance deficit to ensure conservation

NEWDELHI: The 13th Conference of Parties-a high level international meeting- of the Convention of Migratory Species is taking place at Gandhinagar right now.

India is a host, but it also has one of the hardest tasks as home to hundreds of migratory species. Our challenge is to nurture them as urbanisation increases, development projects expand and the aam janta loses traditional values of conservation embedded in lifestyles.

Governance deficit is also a challenge. The catastrophe at Rajasthan’s Sambar Lake, in October 2019, killed upto 65,000 birds, according to locals.

Most of them migratory. What seems to have happened is that they got electrocuted from the exposed wires laid out for illegal submergible pumps. The pumps were needed to get the water, evaporated for salt.

Looking ahead, to implement the convention in India, we have to map out where the listed migratory creatures spend their time here, and their top vulnerabilities. The conservation plans for these must include intense local awareness and involve people living within the district or neighbouring districts for active conservation-even removing plastics from the ecosystem is a way forward, although monitoring is more useful.

All this must be reported by the administration and forest department jointly. Still, there is no substitute for focussed government intervention.

For example, rooting out illegal salt mining from Sambar is tough. But it must be done ruthlessly. Wherever applicable, implementing the provisions of this convention as a priority can become be the boost to conservation that we urgently need in our spectacular country.