ANIMAL SPIRIT
Manoj Gogoi never had a high ambition in life. As a driver, he was happy taking tourists to the Kaziranga National Park
(KNP) in a jeep owned by a friend. One afternoon in 2005, waiting for tourists, Gogoi noticed a person sitting by the national highway bifurcating KNP, engrossed in a colourful book about birds. He peeped into the book from behind. After a while, the man turned around and asked: “Do you like birds?” He was Ashok Verma, a researcher at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
There began Gogoi’s transformation into a wildlife rescuer at KNP. Verma gifted Gogoi a pair of binoculars and trained him to spot birds. Gogoi soon graduated to a tourist guide. The next year, he volunteered for several months at BNHS in Mumbai, learning more about wildlife.
On October 10, 2007, Gogoi, now a full-fledged guide, saw villagers around KNP trying to kill a python that had swallowed a hen. He skillfully rescued the snake and released it inside the park. Soon after, he launched an NGO, the Naturalist for Rehabilitation of Snakes and Birds, with 11 friends. The aim was to set up an informant network and become a first responder for wildlife rescues. Since then, Gogoi has not only rescued hundreds of reptiles but also goes village to village, encouraging people not to kill snakes and inform him whenever they spot one.
Rescuing birds and wild animals, though, was a challenge, particularly during the annual floods at KNP. Also, Gogoi neither had the money nor a rehabilitation centre to keep the rescued wildlife. “I used to get Rs 1,500 as salary, but earned Rs 50,000-60,000 per month during the
tourist season. I spent all of that on wildlife rescue and rehabilitation,” says Gogoi.
He got lucky when Sonit Kumar Sen, the first tourist he took inside KNP as a guide, bought land in a village near the park and built an animal conservation centre for Gogoi. As word spread about his work, the Corbett Foundation, in 2013, approached Gogoi to run a rescue centre in Kaziranga. The next year, the foundation honoured him with the ‘Wildlife Warrior’ award.
Now, Gogoi hopes to open a centre to spread conservation awareness among people living around KNP. “Once we can make people understand why it’s important to protect wildlife, there will be hundreds of volunteers like me,” says Gogoi, as he gears up to release a banded krait and two red-necked keelbacks back into the wild. ■
“ONCE WE CAN MAKE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO PROTECT WILDLIFE, THERE WILL BE HUNDREDS OF VOLUNTEERS”
With a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from an institute in Ghaziabad and master’s in construction management from the New York University, Shriti Pandey’s life took an unexpected turn in 2016. Dogged by a feeling of unfulfillment, she decided to quit her job with a consultancy firm in New York and return to India. She spent the next 13 months in a remote village learning how to work in rural communities as part of a fellowship.
The idea for Strawcture Eco came to her while learning how to farm. “The inspiration came from a research paper that talked about the importance of circular economy and how something is considered waste only because we are limited in our imagination to turn it into something valuable,” she says.
According to the UN Environment Global Status Report 2017, the world will add two trillion sq. ft of buildings by 2060—the equivalent of putting up another New York City every month for the next 40 years, which spells doom for the environment. Through Strawcture Eco, Pandey wants to make buildings and houses more sustainable and accessible for all without harming the environment.
Pandey started working on Strawcture Eco in 2018 and got the company registered in June. She uses dry wall building material made of agri-fibre waste, which requires no water during installation and is 20 per cent cheaper than traditional brick and mortar. “We work with builders, architects and CSR funds to meet their requirement in a green way. In one year, we have done projects in six states with private builders, government and foundations, like SELCO,” she says.
India needs homes that are affordable so that 90 per cent of the families from the low income groups are not homeless. It has been hard to persuade stakeholders to see the value in what she is doing. “The journey has had highs that kept us going and lows that made us question everything,” she says.
“WE WORK WITH BUILDERS, ARCHITECTS AND CSR FUNDS TO MEET THEIR REQUIREMENTS IN A GREEN WAY”