A
doctor by profession, Pramod Patil has dedicated his life to saving
the Great Indian Bustard. Recently, he won the Whitley Award or the
Green Oscar for his work
By
Shevlin Sebastian
It
was at the suggestion of a friend that Pramod Patil went to the
Nannaj Sanctuary to see the Great Indian Bustard. And his first
sight, in August, 2003, turned out to be an unforgettable one. “The
bustard was 4' tall,” says Patil. “It had a black coloured cap
of feathers on the top of his head. The neck was thick and white,
while the wings and the body were brown in colour.”
Since
it was the breeding season, in order to attract the female, the male
had its tail up. Then it took small dance steps, went around in a
circle, and let out a mating call. “This call could be heard far
away,” says Patil.
What
Patil did not know then was that it was the beginning of a
fascination with the Great Indian Bustard. A trained doctor, he gave
up his profession and became a full-time conservationist working to
preserve the bird.
And
on April 29, this year, at the Royal Geographical Society in London,
Patil, 30, was presented with the Whitley Award, otherwise known as
the 'Green Oscar', by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne for his
work in the Thar Desert. The prize, worth 35,000 pounds, was
donated by The William Brake Charitable Trust.
Sadly,
the Great Indian Bustard is on the 'critically endangered'
list: there are less than 250 in India. They can be found in only
five states: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and
Andhra Pradesh. “It is one of the rarest birds in the world,”
says Patil.
Asked
the reasons why, Patil says, “Poaching is one major reason. The
meat is regarded as a delicacy. The bird can survive only in open
grasslands. But these grasslands are becoming less, thanks to rapid
industrialisation. The bustard often hits electrical lines and gets
electrocuted. And, finally, the bustard is a slow breeder. It lays
only one egg a year.”
This
egg, the size of five poultry eggs, looks like a round stone. “Since
they lay it in the open, it can easily be trampled upon by grazing
animals,” says Patil. “So, the egg is always under threat. It
takes one month for the baby to come out. And
a year for it to move away from the mother.”
Meanwhile,
Patil has been busy with his conservation efforts, thanks to the
support of the Bombay Natural History Society, BirdLife
International and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
In
the Thar Desert, he is doing surveys, and meets up with villagers
and children and makes them aware about the need to care for the
bustard.
“Along
with my team, we have been successful in developing an extensive
network of support,” he says. “In other states, we are
conducting workshops and training programmes for government staff.”
But
it is not easy to get close to a bustard. “It is one of the most
alert birds, because it has been attacked so often,” says Patil.
But once, Patil got a rare opportunity. He was sitting in a
camouflaged hide, made of grass and plants, at 3 a.m. at Solapur in
Maharashtra.
“A
bustard suddenly poked his head through the window,” he says. “The
bird was so close, yet it did not realise that I was there. It
foraged a bit. I made a sketch of it. Then it went away.”
Another
unforgettable experience was to meet the legendary naturalist David
Attenborough at the Whitley awards ceremony. “I told him that by
listening to him, during his famous television programmes, that I got
interested in wildlife,” says Patil. “But Attenborough said, 'I
think my voice triggered a passion that was already there'.”
(A
shorter version was published in Sunday Magazine, The New Indian
Express, South India and Delhi)
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