The much weathered controversy over the effects of television has died out with the passing of the century and television itself has evolved to become a darling of the masses, a beacon of light if you may. But in the fragile world of wildlife conservation, television has a very important role to play in the recognition of this very real and immediate worldwide event, the saving of flagship species from extinction.
Closer to home, the TV series “Man Eaters” aired on the National Geographic and Animal Planet channels raise some fundamental questions on how opinions should be shared. The series comes from the Westernized world where the understanding and awareness of conservation is much higher than it is here, in India. Many of the points or directions shared by renowned conservationists on this show are apparently ill-suited to India’s critical man-animal conflict situation. Let me tell you why.
Firstly, the show should be sensitized to bring about an acute change in the perception of the term “man-eater”, for such a term is used only when an animal begins killing and eating humans as a regular occurrence, rather than an off-on series of incidents where animals merely attack humans in both provoked and unprovoked circumstances. To break through to the largely uneducated and agrarian common man in India, local conservationists have been trying to bring the two species to co-exist, and even in the age of the internet and global media, there are people who live in fear of man-eaters in our own backyards. The show depicts these cats as man-eaters simply because they come into contact with man and a few attacks occur either on livestock or man. What this is doing is, creating a wrong line of thought and perception where viewers begin to view the animal as the culprit, having now selected humans as diet. In reality, these are a series of events leading up to change in animal behavior, which are usually omitted from the show as it does not make for nail-biting viewing.
Secondly, the educated and eminent conservationists who appear on this show should see this as an ideal platform to raise awareness on man-animal conflict rather than set a personal agenda. A select few are able to bring to the fore that the so called man-eaters are only isolated incidents and the very horror of living in fear of a tiger’s claw in your neck is not something we live with everyday. One of these eminent conservationists commented that all the tiger needs is space and that this is not asking for much. In India, space is probably the least available commodity, and comes at a high price. A very farfetched and insensitive comment to make, especially when the influence of such a show is felt far and wide.
Thirdly, with the cats now perceived as man eaters, every person who does not understand the intricate fabric that weaves wildlife conservation and human sustenance together in India will undoubtedly turn their views from conservation to building a fear of the big cats and move away from understanding what it takes to leave the wild, wild. In today’s world we need brave individuals who will attempt to build bridges between the two species rather than play blame games in the name of conservation. TV, especially responsible media channels such as these have a very important role in shaping the wildlife conservation effort in India as the TV is very much the preferred past time of the masses.
The truth is that these cats are not man-eaters at all. We cannot stop the world from turning, cannot stop the world from evolving, what we need to do is manage change and manage change in co-existence.
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