Walk-shop: A
walk for tiger conservation.
On 17th
April, 2012, a serene and peaceful valley of Tango-Cheri was filled with a
diverse crowd from various organizations like monks from Tango and Cheri
monasteries, participants from all time donors for tiger conservation
like WWF- Bhutan program and BTFEC, energetic conservationists from JDNP park,
representatives from various media agencies and other government
agencies. His Excellency Dr. Pema Gyamtsho, Hon’ble Minister of
Agriculture and Forests led the Tiger walk organized by WWF-Bhutan in
collaboration with the Department of Forests and Park Services. The WWF-Bhutan
and the DoFPS organized the walk-shop, so called tiger walk by the participants
in order to create an awareness on the importance of tiger conservation as
Bhutan is considered as the celebrity for the tiger conservation among the
tiger range countries.
The valley
is the closest tiger destination from Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan and
is considered to be the hub for tigers. So called ideal tiger habitat,
Bja-kamji valley (Cheri and Tango river basin) echoed the murmuring sound of
Tiger, Tiger, Tiger.....from every individual. To me, as a person working on
this very specie and currently holding the responsibility of looking after Tiger
Conservation, the word Tiger....Tiger...Tiger......sounded like a dharmic chant for tigers survival for
eternity.
To most of
the walkers on the day, the tiger pug marks (foot prints of carnivores) and the
scratch marks on the tree trunks have been just a hear say, where as for the
park officials and fellow conservationists, pug mark, scratch mark, scrape mark
(scratch on the ground), scats (droppings) and calls are a daily chant and I
call it as a conservation chant which forms the pillar for the dharmic chant through conservation.
Among the participants, some are already at the optimum age of growth and
have never realized that tigers would be roaming freely in the forest of
Tango and Cheri, but as the saying goes “better late than never”, they got to see and believe from the tiger
signs that tigers do really live in close proximity to the city. For some, it
was a reminder of the legacy from the fore fathers and for others, they took it
as a pride of having such a majestic species occupying the forest so close to
Tango and Cheri monasteries.
Despite
walking for about 2-3 hours on a slippery, rugged and narrow path that tigers
and their prey uses, none of the walkers complained of tiredness, rather
wanted the walk to be longer to see more of tiger signs along the route. For me
and my fellow park officials who are used to with such walks and signs
couldn’t believe that there are people who would love to see and feel
and conserve tigers as much as we do. It wasn’t a matter of concern, but a joy of relief, but reminded ourselves
not to relax as we know that tigers are disappearing in other parts of the
world through poaching and illegal trade and tigers in Bhutan are not exempted
from this. The day reminded me that if all Bhutanese unite for the cause of
saving tigers, our unity will definitely save our tigers in Bhutan.
Let’s
term our common effort as “conserving this endangered tigers for our next
generation”.
Let our
babies now and their babies in future get to see the majestic king of
jungle (TIGER) roaming freely in Bhutan
One great piece of article, i wish i was there too walking along you all.. but you can count me that i for one be a part of tiger savior in my own little ways....
ReplyDeleteHope your so called dharmic chant for tiger didnt disturb other living species that habitat in and around tango and cheri.....
ReplyDelete