Protection of wildlife
Wild life means animals and birds living in forests away from human habitation. It is a gift of nature and a thing of beauty that is to be preserved. It is not a game to be hunted. Recently man has forgotten this and is methodically destroying wild animals.
India can boast of a large variety of wild life. There are nearly 350 species of animals. 12,000 species of birds and 30,000 species of insects that comprise wild life. Much of the wild life in our country is peculiar and is not found any where else in the world. Animals like the Kashmir stag exist only in India and Pakistan. The swamp-deer is seen only in India. The four horned antelope is another such animal. The most beautiful of all deers, the spotted chital, the great one horned rhinoceros, the India lion and the Indian bison are animals peculiar to India. We have such a unique wild life in our forests. Many of these animals are on the path to extinction. It is our duty to protect these.
A large variety of animals co-exit in the forests. They do not come out into human habitations. But man often enters the forests and kills them for a variety of reasons. Hunting is a pastime pursued by the rich. They go into the forests fully armed and shoot down innocent animals for their pleasure. Often endangered species fall to their bullets. These hunters enter even wild life sanctuaries and hunt just for fun. They forget that man has no right over the lives of these animals. Hunting is an act of bravado for them. Of late this has become sport for politicians and cine actors.
Others kill wild animals for money. Many wild animals have great market value. The tusks of elephants, the hides of tigers and deers, and the nails of tigers are sold at high price. For these things the respective animals are killed. Some birds and animals are killed for the table. Animals like the elephants and lions are caught, tamed and employed in the circus. Thus killing of wild animals is on the increase. Men like veerappan live on hunting animals and smuggling their products. Thus a large number of animals are in the danger of extinction.
The government is taking steps to protect and preserve wild animals. National parks and wild life sanctuaries are established in good number. In 1972 wild life Protection Act was made to conserve and protect endangered species both inside and outside forests. At present there are 67 national parks and 394 wild life sanctuaries all over the country. In addition to these the ‘project tiger’ scheme was started in 1973. Forest guards and forest officers are employed to detect cases of violation of these Acts. In many forests hunting is prohibited. In spite of all these efforts the desired results are not achieved. Laxity on the part of the officials concerned is a reason for this. People should realize that wild life is a part of nature which should not be destroyed in mad way.
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