‘Social engineering is key to conserving wildlife’

So says Vivek Menon, executive director of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), and one of the petitioners in the case which led to an interim order by the Supreme Court banning tourism in core areas of tiger reserves.

“Tourism is also social engineering, which is also not always a good thing. Only when it is done for the right purposes in the right way at moderate levels, it is beneficial,” Mr. Menon said and added that this was not his comment on the case which is still sub judice but an overall observation on tourism.

He was speaking toThe Hindu after a lecture he delivered in the memory of Dr. Vijay D. Anand, titled ‘Conservation is the art of the possible rather than the science of the impossible’.

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He cited examples of conservation initiatives by his team, which leveraged social and cultural factors to its advantage in saving specific species of wildlife from peril, at the same time not giving in to the idea that traditional practices were always right.

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“The method of using resources that worked for tribal communities many decades ago may not work now, given that commercial interests tend to come into play,” he said.

For instance, the WTI team found that there was some truth to the fact that Tibetan antelope or chiru was being exploitatively used by the Kashmiri weaving community to make Shahtoosh shawls. “It was used by the social elite, particularly among women, for whom it was a fashion statement. So, we got a fashionable woman to endorse our campaign that a product that killed antelope cannot be haute couture,” Mr. Menon said.