All for the tiger

After a 27,500 km trip through 25 countries, championing the cause of the animal, entrepreneur Gautom Menon talks about his experiences, while on a recent visit to Kochi

Pics: Paul George Vedanayagam (left) and Gautom Menon beside their vehicle; Gautom Menon. Photo by Albin Mathew

By Shevlin Sebastian

On a highway in Kyrgyzstan, entrepreneur Gautom Menon was cruising along, with his friend Paul George Vedanayagam. Music was being played over the speaker system. The air-conditioner purred silently. It was an Indian Tata Hexa. They were feeling good.

However, in the distance, a sight made Gautom frown a bit. A policeman in a navy blue uniform with a large blue cap was waving them down. He slowed down.

Through Google Translate, the policeman said, “You are over-speeding -- 100 km per hour.”

Gautom said, “We never do more than 90 km/hour.”

“The speed limit is 80 km/hr,” said the policeman.

Gautom said, “Where is the evidence?”

The policeman smiled, looked at the sponsor logos on the car, took out a small tin box, with a slit and said, “You have a lot of resources to do such a long journey. So give us something.”

Gautom then took out a cash donation box and said, “We are also asking for donations.”

Then he told the policeman that the duo was on a 27,500 km journey, from India, across 25 countries to create awareness of the plight of tigers. Gautom is the founder and chief brand owner of the Wild Tiger Indian rum. And he also has a White Tiger Foundation called WTF with the tagline ‘Roar for our tigers’.

The policeman was still not convinced. Then Gautom hit the punchline: “We are in contact with your Ministry of Tourism. We will be in your main news tonight.”

Reluctantly, the policeman allowed them to go.

The duo set out on July 4 from the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve. From there, they went to Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Pance, Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Siliguri, Darjeeling, Guwahati, Shillong, Imphal and Myanmar.

“From Myanmar, we went to Thailand, Laos, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Italy and France,” says Gautom.

Along the way, they held meetings, did Powerpoint presentations, and media interviews to highlight the fact that there are only 4000 tigers worldwide.

“Out of this, 70 percent can be found in India,” says Gautom. “Which is why India is the land of the tiger. We need to act now. I always say, ‘Take a moment and look at the person on the left and right. We are the generation that is going to see the tiger being wiped out. So we should act now.’ Do remember the one-horned rhino has become extinct because of our apathy. So, we must make a difference.”

Everywhere they went the duo got a good reception. Except in China, where they eat tigers. “In China, they said just said, ‘Nice car. Can I take a selfie?’” says Gautom. “They showed no interest in the fate of the tiger.”

Incidentally, out of 50 tiger reserves in India, three have no tigers left, and they are all in the North-East. “They have been wiped out there, owing to the demand in China,” says Gautom.

The duo reached Cannes on October 4 in time for the annual convention of the Tax Free World Association. Around 35,000 people, including many CEOs, were present from all over the world. “We wanted to make it a big cause,” says Gautom. “And we wanted people to talk about it.”

And people did. Unfortunately, corporates in India are not talking about it. “Indian corporates always think of building a legacy by naming a school, hospital, or a sporting facility in their name,” says Gautom. “Very few of them think of adopting a tiger or doing something for the environment. But what we are trying to do is to ask firms who use animal images as their company’s logo to do something.”

Esso Corporation, which was the world’s largest company until a few years ago, has a tiger mascot. “After much pressure by [Padma Shree awardee] Dr K. Ullas Karanth, the No 1 tiger expert arguably in the world, they finally gave a paltry $10,000. It is a $45 billion company and their tagline is ‘put a tiger in the tank’. There is an urgent need for a mindset change.”

Gautom gives another example. “There is a billion-dollar company in Denmark called Flying Tiger,” he says. “Lennart Lajboschitz, one of the richest people in Denmark owns it. But the company wants to do something for education. That is important. But the link between the name of the company and the animal is not there.”

But there are exceptions. The owner of the Mumbai-headquartered DSP Black Rock Hemendra Kothari gives Rs 5-10 crore to his company’s Wildlife Conservation Trust. “He has single-handedly done so much for the wild cats,” says Gautom.

Meanwhile, Gautom, while on a recent visit to Kochi, was still assimilating his experiences. “I had such a wide variety of food, encountered so many different cultures, especially in the North-East and seen all types of weather -- desert storms, hail storms, landslides and floods. And everywhere I noticed that once people realised we were genuine travellers, they were willing to help us. We never felt threatened. The vast majority of people are good-hearted.”

(The New Indian Express, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram)