For the first time Amitabh Bachchan endorses Tiger Conservation, courtesy the NDTV-Aircel Save the Tiger campaign powered by Sanctuary Asia & WWF India.
Sopaan, New Delhi
March 26, 2010 Fri 6 : 53 AM
Oh dear, o dear o dear !! What on earth have I done ! Sent off an incomplete post !! My apologies dearest extended family, sincerely … I have dozed off in bed and not realized what I was doing … have just awakened with the lap top by my side and am certain that if it had had a pair of movable hands would have slapped me as I awoke !!
I hasten now to complete what was incomplete last night and to add afresh what I feel needs to be added today … and again … my sincerest regrets and apologies for this horrible lapse !!
So yes … back to yesterday and Delhi and to NDTV and Dr Pranoy Roy and the initiative taken by them and Aircel, the mobile giant, in their very noble and worthy campaign titled ‘Save Our Tigers’.
There was no time to come home so drove straight from the airport to the NDTV studios and into discussions and scripting for the recording of the promos that shall be aired, informing, pleading and convincing the people of our nation the immediate need to take some corrective steps in saving this very elegant and valuable national animal, the tiger. 1411 of them left according to research and study. And more startlingly, as revealed by a gracious wild life expert and volunteer at the press meet at the Imperial Hotel later, not more than twice the number of people present at the PC ( press conference ) ! And it was not such a packed audience !!
Several differently scripted promo’s were recorded against a green back ground, the convenient facility that shall allow graphic experts to fill in later, images commensurate with what my text was, both in English and Hindi. A young group of ladies and gentlemen, ladies in majority, conducted the shoot with dedicated aplomb, and in particular, the lovely Rubina who controlled the teleprompter and then was rushed off to the press conference where all the important dignitaries had assembled on stage against a pertinent background to talk about the national animal the Tiger.
Vikram Chandra, the eminent anchor of the station, conducted affairs. Vikram, son of my Delhi University mate ‘Chirpy’ Chandra go back many years. Yesterday whilst he stood for a keepsake photograph, he informed me how he had in his possession a photograph taken with me when he was half his size. And I remembered when and where it was that this had taken place. It was at the Government House in Bangalore, during the time when Chirpy’s father-in-law was the Governor of the State of Karnataka. I was in the city for the shooting of one of my films and had gone across to meet him. Chirpy, was a firebrand debater in University and I wonder if his pet name came from his this ability, and whether today his son Vikram has imbibed those special qualities as he conducts debate after debate on various sensitive and current national issues on NDTV ! Today, Vikram’s son and Navya and Agastya study at the same School as classmates and life has an uncanny circle to it does it not ??
The press meet was dignified and measured, most informative and of immense importance in telling people what the campaign was all about. The distinguished panel consisted of Pranoy of course as head of NDTV, the top brass of Aircel the mobile server, Wild Life representatives and Bittu Sehgal the eminent name in the world of wild life preservation and knowledged especially on the habits of the tiger.
Mr Ravi from the WWF ( World Wildlife Foundation ) had some interesting views and the one that I particularly liked was his somewhat emotional but symbolically patriotic description of the tiger within the context of India. The tiger he said, represented the Indian National flag, the tricolor – it bore the colors orange and black on its body and it walked on green grass – and therefore needed to be protected preserved and given a place of pride in our thinking. Bittu felt that tigers did not need any special care in being looked after, they had that inborn capacity to do so themselves. All we needed to do was to give them a free environment to roam and live without intrusion. Poaching needed to be stopped. Stop killing these prized animals for commercial and export gain. Skins being a huge earner for those that made it a sellable commodity. Apparently crushed nails of the tiger have great medicinal properties and China is a huge importer of this, in not too legal a manner. We need to increase the vigilance in guarding them and making sure that special forest corridors designated for the tiger are not infiltrated and usurped for other purposes. The tiger, in parts of the country, is a revered animal, prayers being offered to it. Bittu informs us that the regions where the tiger habitates are locations where great rivers originate. Protecting them therefore means protecting the origins of these great rivers, so important for human existence. Do we not know that all the major and important cities of the world have been built on the banks of important rivers ?
Graciously also, the WWF informs the large press turn out, of the valuable contribution made by Shweta when she had volunteered to take up the cause for the protection of the river dolphins in the State of Uttar Pradesh. Shweta had partaken in a television series and anchored a program that highlighted the terrible conditions of the rare river dolphins in the Ganga and how we needed to protect them. The WWF also acknowledged the effort being made by Abhishek in working for their Earth Day program, where the preservation of the environment shall be demonstrated by an hour long shut down of all
electricity all over the country. That happens on the 27th of this month between 8.30 and 9.30 PM I believe.
I have also assured and volunteered to carry a site on this blog that shall take us to the Aircel site which pledges support to this cause as also informs us on the details of this campaign. It will be there as a method to collect suggestions if any from readers on what we could do to preserve and save the tiger. These suggestions would then be forwarded to the concerned personnel in governance, for action to be taken_Amitabh Bachchan
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