Featured here are some peacemakers in the man-animal conflict for whom wildlife conservation is more of a mission than hobby. Be it a website, awards, trusts or employee initiatives…caring about nature is second nature to them. Text by Rajiv Tikoo
Naina Lal Kidwai
Group General Manager & Country Head, HSBC in India
Conservation in DNA
In the NGO world in India, HSBC is known probably more for its work in the area of environment than in banking. Naina Lal Kidwai, group general manager and country head of HSBC in India, says, “The environment is at the core of our business. We see it as something that permeates our business and culture. For us to have a sustainable business, our customers need to follow sustainable practices. And if we can help our customers have sustainable practices, its better for them and us in the longer run. This philosophy drives ours work.”
The bank has a rather well-spread out corporate social responsibility (CSR) portfolio in wildlife, too. Its work ranges from supporting the Wildlife Protection Society of India to spread awareness amongst local communities and fisher folk on the need to protect the endangered Olive Ridley Turtle to collaborating with naturalist Sunjoy Monga to run an avifauna awareness project, which engages bird watchers to conduct bird census in 10 cities like Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur, Chennai, Calicut, Kochi and Trivandrum.
Kidwai explains, “Conservation is a part of our long term growth strategy. We are making it a part of our DNA. Its not about writing cheques, but actively engaging with the cause. When our employees volunteer to work with villagers to help in the preservation of turtles, the respect for nature gets embedded in their minds. It makes them change agents. It also helps in bonding and team building.”
HSBC is also supporting a reefwatch marine conservation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to study the sea cow (Dugong dugong), which is the only surviving species of herbivorous sea mammals, and a non-governmental organisation like the Conservation Action Trust to establish a Mangrove Wetland Centre near Mumbai. From time to time, the bank has supported the publication of wildlife books and even wildlife and environment film festivals held by organisations like the Centre for Media Studies. Besides, the bank conducts environment awareness programmes in schools on a rolling basis.
Kidwai herself takes time out to engage with such initiatives. She interacts with NGOs, at times gets involved at the conception stage to develop projects and also makes on-site visits whenever time permits.
The reasons are too compelling. She says, “Wild habitats are very important for our survival and economy. Responsible companies can make a difference in its conservation and for their own survival.”
Dilip D Khatau
Chairman, Conservation Corporation of India
Business + passion
When he set up Conservation Corporation of India, chairman Dilip D Khatau summed up the essence of his business of conservation in its name itself. Though the Mumbai-heaquartered holding company came up in 2009, development and operationalisation of various properties preceded it. The first wildlife resort Tiger Tops Corbett Lodge, which is now known as Infinity Corbett Wilderness, was set up on the bank of Kosi River on the outskirts of Corbett National Park in 1991.
On the other hand, he followed it up by setting up the Corbett Foundation in 1994. The public charitable trust undertakes conservation and development of forests. Khatau says his business and the trust are two sides of the same coin. He has simply married his principles of conservation with his business interests – and profitably.
In nineties, this was new territory for Khatau, who comes from a more than 100-year-old business family with interests spanning textiles, manufacturing, tourism and shipping. His life had begun quite differently. Growing up in a big family in a large house, he had a lot of pets including a tiger cub for company. In youth, he spent his holidays hunting. After studies, he went to Africa to look after family business there. “It was a turning point in my life. I got actively involved with conservation of wildlife.”
After spending 20 years in Africa, the wildlife enthusiast returned home to a country where, he recollects, gun licences had been issued under the garb of crop protection by petty politicians. Shooting and hunting were not constrained by any controls. Though an official hunting ban was imposed with the launch of Project Tiger in 1972, implementation was lacking and the prey base of deer, wild boar and small game was fast vanishing. He says, This was the awakening for me. It led to the setting up of his first property, Tiger Tops Corbett Lodge.
Getting a good response, Khatau followed it up with Infinity Rann of Kutch resort in Gujarat in 2008 and Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh in 2009. Next destinations include Kanha Tiger Reserve (Madhya Pradesh) and Kaziranga Tiger Reserve (Assam). He sees a lot of potential in wildlife tourism, naturally. If controlled and properly managed, wildlife tourism has every opportunity to flourish in India as in many East and South African countries, where the economies of these countries depend solely on wildlife tourism. The catch is to do it in a sustainable way.
Hemendra Kothari
Chairman, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers
A holistic approach
When Hemendra Kothari was chairman of DSP Merrill Lynch, he was instrumental in rallying a whos who of India Inc, including the Tatas, Birlas, Godrej, Piramals, Munjals and Mahendras to issue a statement pledging protection to wildlife.
After retiring in 2009 and taking over as chairman of asset management firm DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, the fourth generation scion of more than 100-year-old stock broker family is himself walking the talk.
As founder-chairman of the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT), which is dedicated to protect forest ecosystems and mitigate climate change, and founder-chairman of Hemendra Kothari Foundation, which works in the areas of environment and wildlife conservation in addition to education, healthcare, art, culture, heritage and sports, he is stepping up the pace of his work.
He says, “Most people in the corporate world are passionately interested in wildlife. I am trying to set an example myself and get them actively involved in the cause by either joining me or launching their own initiatives.”
The importance of the cause need not be overemphasised. He says, “Our survival is interlinked with the protection of our forests. They are vital for our water security and thereby agriculture and business.”
About 300 rivers originate 28 tiger reserves in the country. Besides, the forest is a natural carbon sink.
WCT is active in 17 national parks and sanctuaries in 10 states. It supports the conservation work by providing well-equipped vehicles for rapid response teams, integrated solar charging systems, trapping-cum-transportation cages, immobilization-cum-tranquilisation units and forest patrolling kits. The aim is to scale up activities to cover more than 25 national parks and sanctuaries, protect wildlife corridors, contribute to forest and wildlife conservation, and also interest corporate donors in the cause.
The work of WCT is complemented with the activities of the foundation. He explains, “Saving national parks and sanctuaries itself is not enough. We need to save the surrounding areas and empower neighbourhood communities, too. We seek to do it by not only focusing on their education, but also enhancing their healthcare facilities.”
“Besides, we impart vocational training to help them in income generation. It increases their awareness about the need to protect natural habitat and also reduces their dependence on it for their survival. We have to have a holistic approach.”
Meera Sanyal
Country Executive, India Royal Bank of Scotland
Develop, don’t degrade
When the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) India (the-then ABN Amro Bank) collaborated with wildlife magazine Sanctuary eleven years ago to organise the Sanctuary-RBS Wildlife Awards to felicitate earth heroes for protecting natural life support systems, which contribute to food and water security and economic development, it was a low-key event. Meera Sanyal, country executive, RBS India, says, “We began in a modest way, with no high expectations. To our pleasant surprise, it has become our flagship event.”
Over the years, the bank has expanded the scope of its work. Today, the RBS Foundation’s livelihood programme focuses on funding projects that enhance the income generation of marginalised communities living in and on the edge of critical ecosystems and bring down their dependence on these ecosystems. For example, the Melghat Tiger Reserve project in collaboration with an NGO, Satpuda Foundation, involved conducting a survey, which showed that there were 2,500 hectares of degraded land adjacent to the reserve. It was followed up with watershed development and plantation, which is not only a source of fruits and fuelwood for local communities, but also a carbon sink.
“An employee volunteering programme supplements such work by encouraging them to work with communities caught in the economic development-natural conservation crossfire,” says Sanyal. For example, the Bandhavgarh project involved staffers working with an NGO, Indian Grameen Services, to conduct a needs-and-capabilities survey of locals to help in the project conception of a project to improve land conditions and crop production. The Ranthambore livelihood Project entailed employees working with an NGO, Access, in conducting a door-to-door socio-economic survey to input into an income generation enhancement project of local communities. Even the Kanha National Park project began with a baseline survey. The next survey is planned near the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
Sanyal says, “The life of forest communities may seem idyllic, but its difficult living on the edge. We are making small interventions, using market forces. It also leads to their financial inclusion. But will they become our customers No, not in the near future. The bank does not operate in those areas. Nevertheless, there is a tangible impact. It generates client interest and goodwill. The staff is identifying with it. We attract and retain caring employees, who offer excellent customer services.”
S Ramadorai
Vice Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services
Shoot with cameras
After making Tata Consultancy Services a $ 6-billion global IT services company and becoming vicechairman, S Ramadorai is now nursing his childhood passion for wildlife. He recollects, “Appreciating nature and wildlife has been a part of my growing up days. Since there was no TV then, family outings to zoos and sanctuaries were much looked forward to events.”
It led to reading books on wildlife and seeing animals in their natural wilderness. He would particularly make it a point to visit game parks during his visits to the US. Subsequently when he got interested in photography, nature and animals became his natural models. A book or any exhibition may have to wait till he catches the right shots of the right animal, perhaps a tiger or a cheetah.
Along the way, he picked up some memorable experiences, encountering wild elephants, giraffes and a wide variety of birds in a private park called Ingala in South Africa, rare animals and birds in Iguasu on the Brazil-Argentine border, and more recently a reindeer at a polar station in Norway.
Ramadorai has also tried to popularise his wildlife passion at TCS by launching an employee engagement initiative, Maitree, in partnership with Sanctuary magazine to organise awareness programmes, conduct employee visits to sanctuaries and host wildlife photography contests.
He says, “I felt that TCS employees too would benefit by getting sensitised to the environment. Today the number of volunteers has grown to 45,000.”
TCS also brought out a coffee table book called ‘India Naturally’. Besides, TCS employees have also leveraged their IT skills and volunteered time to help the forest officials at Borivili National Park in Mumbai. He sees a larger role for technology not only in preservation and tracking, but also in bringing thrilling wildlife experiences into drawing rooms of people, who can’t travel.
Ramadorai says, “Each of us must encourage appreciation of nature and wildlife amongst our own families and larger networks. We must see ourselves in perspective, as a part of a larger system, which is why we must keep away from hunting sports and instead shoot with the camera.”
And there is a business case for it. He says, “Nature is a very delicately balanced system, with different elements of the system dependent on each other. Business too survives best in an ecosystem where the whole chain from the customer to the producer is a well balanced system. Both require a holistic approach of thinking.”
T Mallikarjuna Reddy
Executive Vice-Chairman, Arch Pharmalabs
Travel, don’t trample
T Mallikarjuna Reddy wears two hats. The executive vice-chairman & whole-time director of Hyderabad-based Arch Pharmalabs is also chairman & founder trustee of Asian Wildlife Foundation. While Arch Pharmalabs has won accolades for commercialising green chemistry, Asian Wildlife Foundation is leaving a footprint on the wildlife landscape by focusing on educating people on the need to conserve wildlife.
Saying that imparting education about environment, conservation and protection of habitats are the main objectives of the foundation, he adds, “We want people to feel and know how important these things are for all of us. We should catch people young. The foundation does it by organising educational tours for schoolchildren, at times giving them lessons under the canopy of a thick forest, and involving them in activities like essay writing competitions.”
He says that conservation, wildlife protection, and saving the tiger should not only be the words you listen from wildlife experts and conservationists and media, but one should get involved and make an on-the-spot study of the prevailing situation. He adds, “People should not be confined to cities and be part of a mechanical life. People, who can make a difference, should travel and know first hand whats happening to our ecosystem and forests. For example, he says, Tiger is our national animal and we should protect it by all means. While saving the tiger should be a top priority, but one should also know that there are millions of other species in the world that need protection as well.”
Reddy is himself passionate about wildlife travel and photography. He recollects, Every trip I make to any wilderness areas in India or Africa or South America is a great learning experience and memorable.
Rubbishing arguments that tourism affects wildlife, he says, I dont subscribe to the view that one should not travel to wildlife parks and disturb the habitat. I support wildlife travel. Without seeing for yourself, you will not know anything and you would not be able to contribute anything. It’s part of ones education.
He is also in favour of a business role in conservation of natural resources and endangered species. He has also invested in a worldwide wildlife travel start-up, PlanetWildlife, which conducts conservation tours and scientific expeditions around the world alongside routine tours. “Having said that”, he emphasises, “responsible tourism should be the key word. Minimum intrusion and high ethics are required.”
‘Travel, but don’t trample’ should be the way forward.
Source: The Financial Express
Published on 18 November 2010