Walk for the Bengal Tiger :
through the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve and
the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve
Purpose: To inform potential climate victims of the risks ahead and to seek their help to save the tiger and its mangrove habitat.
- Date: November 8-13, 2009
Coordinators:
Joydip and Suchandra Kundu
Kolkata Representatives for Sanctuary Asia
- Strategy: To use folk art, music and dance to convey information about wildlife conservation and climate change.
Partners:
The West Bengal Forest Department,
Sundarbans Tiger Reserve,
Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve,
National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA),
plus key NGOs working in the Sundarbans including
WWF-India, WPSI, ICNL, Tagore Society for Rural Development.
The Bengal Tiger Bachao (Save the Bengal Tiger) campaign is run by Sanctuary Asia and supported by The Bengal Tiger Line. Kids for Tigers, a network of one million Indian children, is a part and parcel of the campaign.
Walk for the Tiger, a mass contact initiative in the Sundarbans -- the world's largest mangrove forest -- was organised by the Bengal Tiger Bachao Campaign, supported by Bengal Tiger Line and the Wildlife Conservation Trust.
The purpose of the walk, which was only possible through the network created by existing NGOs and the wildlife protection staff, was to reach out to the world's most vulnerable population of humans (from climate change). Over 450,000 lakh people learned, possibly for the first time, that they were in harms way from wind and rising waters. We were able to convey to them what climate change was, what was causing it and how important it was to protect the Sundarbans' mangrove ecosystem. The tiger, we explained, was merely a symbol for the safe world that we are honour bound to leave for all children, particularly those of the Sundarbans.
Check out the Walk for the Bengal Tiger video clip on YouTube.
Note: On May 25, 2009 Cyclone Aila struck the Sundarbans. Homes were washed away and fields and water sources turned saline. Using dykes and 'bunds' large numbers of people actually live at or below sea level here. Several hundred people died. Over 200,000 humans were forced to abandon their homes and move northward. Perhaps around 50,000 will never return. These are amongst the world's first traumatised climate change migrants. There is every chance that around three or four million more innocents will be similarly victimised in the years ahead. The Bengal Tiger Bachao campaign has no local office of its own in the Sundarbans. Instead, we work through the Tiger Reserve and Biosphere Reserve officials, and, of course, the many NGOs who have already been working in this difficult, but vital habitat for several years. We seek to be the wind under their wings.
Together we can and will save the Tiger.
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