21 Feb 2010, 0456 hrs IST, Lisa Mary Thomson, Ravi Teja Sharma & Aman Dhall , ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: A month ago, 1411 was just another number, with little significance for the average Indian, apart from being the year when Ahmedabad was founded. Then an ad began running on television channels, flashing the ominous news that there were only 1,411 tigers left in India. Overnight, saving the tiger became an issue of national pride—be it school children spouting their new-found knowledge, or the minister for environment and forests, announcing that the Wildlife Act of 1972 would be amended to include stricter punishment for poachers.
Compare this to the publicity that Project Tiger, a government-sponsored scheme running for almost four decades, has received. In a decade known for growing experimentation with public-private partnerships, it is not surprising that the private sector has stepped in to up the ante.
Call it CSR or brand promotion, wildlife seems to have found new champions in steely hearts of corporate India’s head honchos. What’s more, the benefit is mutual. “While corporates may hesitate to admit it, these campaigns earn them goodwill even as they spread awareness of wildlife conservation programmes,” says brand guru Jagdeep Kapoor.
After all, what does a telecom company have to do with tigers? According to Gurdeep Singh, COO of Aircel, which launched the ‘Save Our Tigers’ campaign, it was aimed at creating mass awareness about the diminishing tiger population and engaging the youth to spread the message, especially in the digital space. It also came from a deepfelt understanding that today’s youth in India give far more weightage to a brand which wasn’t just transactional but has a deeper connection to society.
But even as Aircel used its trump card of being a communication facilitator to support the cause of the national animal, many corporates have overcome tiger-mania to launch campaigns around other endangered species. Take for instance, Tata Chemicals, which along with the Wildlife Trust of India and the State Forest department, started a project in 2003 to improve the chances of survival of the whale shark and create awareness among coastal communities. That apart, they also partnered with the Gujarat state forest department to built parapets around 1,002 open wells which lions used to fall into.
“While the company has spent around Rs 1.5 crore towards wildlife conservation in India over the years, it is looking at spending another Rs 2 crores in the next five years as a part of its plan of giving back to mother earth,” says B Sudhakar, chief human resources officer, Tata Chemicals.
At HSBC, which goes by the mantra of sustainable development, the projects have ranged from mapping avifauna diversity and protecting the nesting habitats of Olive Ridley turtles which visit Orissa’s shores, to working with Reefwatch to assess the habitat for the sea cow or the dugong. Their interest in the Olive Ridley is shared by menswear accessories and apparel brand Turtle which contributes close to Rs 10 lakh a year towards the Olive Ridley turtle conservation. For them it is about protecting their namesake, according to director Amit Ladsaria.
They also give customers a chance to contribute by allowing them to redeem points accumulated on purchases towards donations to wildlife.
Often though, initiatives have been spearheaded by an individual or corporate leader as in the case of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch where their eight-year old interest in environment and tiger preservation was driven by their ex-chairman Hemendra Kothari, an avid wildlife and conservation enthusiast.
In fact, Kothari even set up his own Wildlife Charity Trust (WCT) in 2002, which apart from giving consultancy services to forest officers, plays an active role in dealing with grass roots needs of those who work in the forest and the communities living there.
Dr Anish Andheria, project director at WCT, says that their strategy has been to play a supplementary role in tiger reserves where the government is involved, so that the impact can be much larger. In addition to giving vehicles to national parks, providing good drinking water for forest officials in the Sunderbans and giving kits for the special task force, they have also lately begun addressing health and education issues of the communities around the area through the Hemendra Kothari Foundation.
Dr Andheria also adds an interesting twist to the entire conservation tale. “Tigers can be protected only if the people around them find them interesting. We need to stop people from looking at tigers as a problem animal. Moreover, we need to give communities in the area life-skills so they aren’t tempted to kill an animal for a few hundred rupees,” he says.
Addressing the conflict between humans and elephants, for example, has been the main thrust of Nokia’s project in the South Western Ghats, in addition to conserving the Nilgiri Tahr, a species only found in that region.
Compare this to the publicity that Project Tiger, a government-sponsored scheme running for almost four decades, has received. In a decade known for growing experimentation with public-private partnerships, it is not surprising that the private sector has stepped in to up the ante.
Call it CSR or brand promotion, wildlife seems to have found new champions in steely hearts of corporate India’s head honchos. What’s more, the benefit is mutual. “While corporates may hesitate to admit it, these campaigns earn them goodwill even as they spread awareness of wildlife conservation programmes,” says brand guru Jagdeep Kapoor.
After all, what does a telecom company have to do with tigers? According to Gurdeep Singh, COO of Aircel, which launched the ‘Save Our Tigers’ campaign, it was aimed at creating mass awareness about the diminishing tiger population and engaging the youth to spread the message, especially in the digital space. It also came from a deepfelt understanding that today’s youth in India give far more weightage to a brand which wasn’t just transactional but has a deeper connection to society.
But even as Aircel used its trump card of being a communication facilitator to support the cause of the national animal, many corporates have overcome tiger-mania to launch campaigns around other endangered species. Take for instance, Tata Chemicals, which along with the Wildlife Trust of India and the State Forest department, started a project in 2003 to improve the chances of survival of the whale shark and create awareness among coastal communities. That apart, they also partnered with the Gujarat state forest department to built parapets around 1,002 open wells which lions used to fall into.
“While the company has spent around Rs 1.5 crore towards wildlife conservation in India over the years, it is looking at spending another Rs 2 crores in the next five years as a part of its plan of giving back to mother earth,” says B Sudhakar, chief human resources officer, Tata Chemicals.
At HSBC, which goes by the mantra of sustainable development, the projects have ranged from mapping avifauna diversity and protecting the nesting habitats of Olive Ridley turtles which visit Orissa’s shores, to working with Reefwatch to assess the habitat for the sea cow or the dugong. Their interest in the Olive Ridley is shared by menswear accessories and apparel brand Turtle which contributes close to Rs 10 lakh a year towards the Olive Ridley turtle conservation. For them it is about protecting their namesake, according to director Amit Ladsaria.
They also give customers a chance to contribute by allowing them to redeem points accumulated on purchases towards donations to wildlife.
Often though, initiatives have been spearheaded by an individual or corporate leader as in the case of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch where their eight-year old interest in environment and tiger preservation was driven by their ex-chairman Hemendra Kothari, an avid wildlife and conservation enthusiast.
In fact, Kothari even set up his own Wildlife Charity Trust (WCT) in 2002, which apart from giving consultancy services to forest officers, plays an active role in dealing with grass roots needs of those who work in the forest and the communities living there.
Dr Anish Andheria, project director at WCT, says that their strategy has been to play a supplementary role in tiger reserves where the government is involved, so that the impact can be much larger. In addition to giving vehicles to national parks, providing good drinking water for forest officials in the Sunderbans and giving kits for the special task force, they have also lately begun addressing health and education issues of the communities around the area through the Hemendra Kothari Foundation.
Dr Andheria also adds an interesting twist to the entire conservation tale. “Tigers can be protected only if the people around them find them interesting. We need to stop people from looking at tigers as a problem animal. Moreover, we need to give communities in the area life-skills so they aren’t tempted to kill an animal for a few hundred rupees,” he says.
Addressing the conflict between humans and elephants, for example, has been the main thrust of Nokia’s project in the South Western Ghats, in addition to conserving the Nilgiri Tahr, a species only found in that region.
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