‘The Wildlife Protection Act is anti-people’: Madhav Gadgil

The eminent ecologist explains why the wildlife lobby is often indifferent to the plight of the common man

An award-winning ecologist, Madhav Gadgil has researched extensively on the participatory monitoring of biodiversity. His work has led to the recognition of ‘People’s Biodiversity Registers’ under the Biological Diversity Act (2002). With this, for the first time, the communities’ traditional knowledge of their natural resources was acknowledged. He now lives in Pune and continues to have his fingers on the pulse of conservation issues in the country and remains a passionate advocate of people-centric conservation.

During a lifetime spent writing on the environment, you’ve come up with very detailed policy documents that have found their way into India’s environmental laws. So, how do you feel about the state of the environment in India today?

The state of the environment has been progressively deteriorating. Let me give you just one example: the major project Koyna Hydroelectric Project in Maharashtra. It has been implemented in such a way that there was a large scale, unnecessary destruction of forests. A huge number of people were never properly compensated when their lands went under water. That was 1956. In 2022, there has still been no adequate rehabilitation of these refugees.

In a recent interview, you said it’s time to review wildlife laws. You also said that “if conservation has led to an unusual rise in the population of wild boar, tigers or elephants, people should be allowed to shoot if they are under attack or if their crops are being destroyed. If wild boar meat is nutritious, why can’t the farmers be allowed to eat it?” Do you really think this is practical, especially at a time when wild species are facing so many threats?

These assertions are simply false. Where is the evidence that wildlife populations are declining? Take the elephant population, for instance. From 1975 to date, data on elephant population shows that it has at least tripled. The tiger task force report was very good. CBI made an inquiry and said that forest officials must have been involved in poaching. The forest department tried to blame the villagers. This is how the urban conservationist spreads wrong information.

Tigers are coming out of the reserves now and they are attacking and killing people. So the notion that wildlife is threatened is without empirical basis.

Is it justifiable to say that wildlife laws need to be relooked? If we tell people you can go ahead and kill tigers or crop-raiding animals, would that not open a Pandora’s box of indiscriminate hunting?