Page 97 - EarthHeroes

On a hot, dusty street in Chandrapur, cars honked their horns while moped drivers and cyclists stopped and stared as hundreds of schoolchildren marched past. Chants of, “Save the tiger! Save the forest!” drowned out the noise of the traffic. The students carried placards in English and Hindi. Many had faces painted with orange and black stripes and some wore tiger T-shirts bearing the words ‘Leave Me Alone’. The procession of 1,200 children poured through town beneath the bright midday sun. From the pavement, Bittu watched with pride.
It was December 2013 and the students were taking part in a rally for the Kids for Tigers campaign founded by Bittu Sahgal, editor of India’s longest-running nature magazine, Sanctuary Asia. The tiger is endangered throughout the world and today most live in captivity in zoos. One hundred years ago, 100,000 tigers lived across 30 countries, but today there are only around 3,900 left in the wild, with 76 per cent of those living in India. For centuries the tiger has been
an important part of Indian culture, art and stories. However, this magnificent animal is at risk as its forest habitat shrinks due to the rapid growth of the human population. This results in tigers straying into areas where humans live, where they may attack people or risk being killed. India has 50 tiger reserves, but even here they are threatened by poaching, illegally killed for their fur, bones and even their meat. Meanwhile, the country is experiencing the effects of climate change, with increased flooding, droughts and cyclones.
It was because of tigers that Bittu became a nature conservationist, or
wildlife protector. He was born in 1947 in Shimla, in the south-west Himalayan mountains. His family moved regularly for his father’s government job and although this meant Bittu changed school eight times, he also got to see many of India’s varied and beautiful landscapes: mountains, deserts, jungle, grasslands, wetlands, forest and the coast. In his twenties, he moved to the city, where he worked as a salesman – selling everything from buckets and toothpaste to soft drinks – and later in advertising. But he never lost his love of
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