for a living planet Black Rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis <strong>WWF</strong>-Cannon / Michel TERRETTAZ
Panda March 2005 <strong>The</strong> affected peacock. Operation being performed by Maj. Y. Sudheer Kumar. <strong>The</strong> President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam happy to see the peacock restored to health. <strong>The</strong> President, A.P.J. Kalam looking fondly at the peacock back in the garden. 12 kids’ zone Caring for Nature and Wildlife Tales from the White House and the Rashtrapati Bhavan T he heads of states of the world’s two largest democracies have at last some common bond— conservation of nature and compassion for wildlife. I had known two such stories from the White House and had wondered if a similar lead would ever emerge from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Well, on 2 June 2004 this indeed happened! Going chronologically I will recount the two stories from the White House first. <strong>The</strong> sequoia pines or the redwoods as they are popularly called in their native California are truly giants among trees anywhere in the world. <strong>The</strong> largest surviving redwood today, named ‘General Sherman’ rises to a height of 274.9 feet and its girth at the base is 103 feet. As well as being the world’s largest living thing, it is also one of the oldest living things, being between 2,200 and 2,500 years! As it happens at times in the lives of all nations, the unbridled commercial interest in the USA came close to harvesting all the sequoias or redwoods for the wood pulp and safety match industries. When the very last surviving patch of some 100 acres of redwoods was sold, an American citizen rose to protest against this. When all his efforts to save the last stand of redwoods fell on deaf ears, he tried to sneak into the White House and meet President Lincoln in person. With amazing determination he managed to slip past the security apparatus and reached the room adjoining the Oval Office where the President was in a meeting. That is when he got detected and in the ensuing pandemonium President Lincoln came out to investigate the commotion for himself. <strong>The</strong> President heard out the ‘intruder’, called for a map and asked him to draw the boundary of the surviving glade of redwoods. <strong>The</strong>re and then, Lincoln declared it a National Park! I read this account in 1994 in an old issue of the National Geographic. Of the photographs accompanying the article, I found two very interesting. One showed the ‘intruder’ and the President poring over the map to determine the extent of what later became the Mariposa Grove and the Yesomite National Park in California. <strong>The</strong> second showed the President handing over a scroll of paper, presumably the presidential fiat instituting the National Park. <strong>The</strong> second story is from more recent times. On his first morning in the White House, President Ronald Reagan encountered a few chipmunks (a double of the <strong>India</strong>n squirrel in shape, size, habits and endearing traits) on the lawns, sitting upright on their hind quarters, nibbling acorns and looking fearlessly into his eyes. President Reagan was mesmerized. <strong>The</strong>reafter, every morning the President would broadcast peanuts on the lawn without fail and spend a few minutes watching the chipmunks feeding. One morning the President had to chair a meeting in the Oval Office much earlier than the daily schedule. Finding no peanuts on the lawn, several chipmunks clambered up the walls till a few among them gained the ledge of the window right opposite of where the President sat in his chair. Standing on their hind legs, pressing their bodies against the glass pane, the chipmunks made enough movements to draw the President’s eye. Without any fuss, Reagan devised a brief recess and quietly slipped out to feed peanuts to the chipmunks. President Reagan narrated this incident in a video on the White House made by a TV channel. Now the story which emerged from the Rashtrapati Bhavan does proud the legacy of Emperor Asoka. In 247 BC, through his Rock Edict I, Asoka forbade animal sacrifices and made the care of wildlife an instrument of state policy. As a people (in this land of Asoka), this injunction has regrettably been the least of our concerns. So when an incumbent of the Rashtrapati Bhavan reached out to an animal in distress moved by compassion, it is surely an occasion for celebration. On 2 June last year, out on his morning walk in the Mughal Gardens, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam noticed an adult peacock crouched and inert by the side of a bush while hundreds of others on the estate were active with the dawn chorus. <strong>The</strong> President noticed a big lump wedged between the mandibles and over the right eye of the peacock. <strong>The</strong> resident veterinary surgeon was immediately called to attend to the sick bird. On examination, Major Y. Sudheer Kumar found that a cancerous tumour was pressing on the right eyeball, blanking vision. <strong>The</strong> tumour had also lodged inside the mouth cavity and the bird could neither eat nor drink. <strong>The</strong> peacock was emaciated, acutely dehydrated and close to death. <strong>The</strong> peacock was operated upon the next day and the 3x4 cm. tumour, along with its stalk originating from turbinate bones, was removed. Forty-eight hours later, the bird took to feeding, his mandible fully functional and the sight in his right eye restored. Two days later the laboratory report declared that the growth was benign. <strong>The</strong> President was moved when on the seventh day the peacock was reintroduced to his natural environment. When a story is too good to believe, it becomes a legend. This one from the Rashtrapati Bhavan surely will in times ahead. If just one among every hundred of us were to emulate President Kalam, <strong>India</strong>’s biodiversity would prosper, and we would be well on the way to all-round sustainable development. Lt Gen Baljit Singh (retd) Former Trustee of <strong>WWF</strong>-<strong>India</strong> A variation of this was first published in <strong>The</strong> Tribune. We have published this article with the author’s permission.