Sanctuary Asia & Bengal Tiger Line with the help of Sundarban Tiger Reserve launched the Royal Bengal Tiger Bachaao campaign - a commitment to save the tiger and its mangrove kingdom - the Sundarbans.
The launch was held at the start of National Wildlife Week at Kolkata's historic Town Hall Monday October 1, 2007 at 5.30pm. The day before the Kolkata media pitched in by taking the message to millions of Kolkata citizens. The popular Bengali satellite channel - Kolkata TV put out a 30 minute preview of the amazing and very flamboyant tiger dancers of Ganjam, who literally stole audience hearts at the Town Hall, Orissa and Friends 91.9FM, arguably the most popular FM station run by the Ananda Bazaar Patrika group created some truly creative radio spots urging citizens to "be there."
Joydip and Suchandra Kundu, Sanctuary's energetic Kolkata representatives made over 500 phone calls to inform people about the event and something really worked, because the Town Hall capacity of 600 was over run by around 900 young and old tiger defenders who seemed perfectly happy to stand and watch the proceedings.
The evening began with a welcome by both Sanctuary and Bengal Tiger Line, which was followed by an audio visual presentation by Bittu Sahgal on climate change, its impact on the Sundarbans and West Bengal and, more specifically the tiger. Mr.S.Sridhar- Director, Bengal Tiger Line expressed the stong support of his organisation for the tiger and the people of West Bengal.
Sanctuary's position has always been that NGOs have a supporting role to play and that Forest Departments and their frontline staff are key to the survival of the tiger. It was heartening to see therefore that West Bengal Forest Officials were present in full force including: Mr.Atanu Raha - PCCF, Mr.Niraj Singhal - Field Director Sundarban Tiger Reserve and Mr.Pradip Vyas - Jt.Director Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, Former Director of Project Tiger Mr.PK.Sen was also present as were Ms.Belinda Wright of WPSI, Ms.Debbie Banks from EIA-UK, former PCCF & CWLW of Karnataka Mr.S.K.Chakrabarti, Mr.Bikram Grewal and Mr.Sumit Sen, co-authors of The Sundarbans Inheritance were also present.
The presence of Smt.Tara Gandhi, wife of the West Bengal Governor, Mr. Gopal Gandhi symbolised the silent, yet strong support that the tiger and its defenders enjoy. Kids for Tigers, the Sanctuary Tiger Programme sponsored by Complan, sent tiger ambassadors from over 32 Kolkata schools together with their teachers and these kids were the centre of both attention and admiration.
Some measure of the support that the Royal Bengal Tiger enjoys can be assessed from the fact that the list of dignitaries present was longer and more varied than anyone could have imagined. The legendary footballer & Olympian Mr.Chuni Goswami, artist-painter Mr.Suvaprassana , singer and television anchor Mr.Anindya Chattopadhyay, actor Mr.Arindam Sil and singer Mr.Srikanto Acharya lent credibility and purpose to the event.
Hearteningly, credible and prominent Kolkata NGOs including ICNL, WWF, NEWS, ACT, CEMO, Canning Juktibadi Sangstha, Naturemates, Chetana, Junglees, Bali Nature & Wildlife Conservation Society were all present to endorse their support for the Royal Bengal Tiger.
A total of 15 Forest Guards from the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve plus five from the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve were honoured with certificates that were jointly presented to them by the ever-supportive actor Rahul Bose and Mr. S. Sridhar.
The evening was concluded by actor Rahul Bose and Joydip Kundu who respectively led the audience in taking this simple oath (in English and Bengali)
We promise to save the Bengal Tiger
We promise to protect its forest home
We promise to respect Nature
We make this promise to our children...
because their safety and happiness depends on us.
The launch turned out to be a national and Kolkata media event, but the true test of its success will follow in the months ahead as we painstakingly build support for the tiger and its threatened mangrove home.
For more information on the project, Contact Joydip & Suchandra Kundu at +91 9830092059, +91 9830093202 or email them at wildwatchers@gmail.com
Read The Sundarbans Inheritance, a Sanctuary Publication.
Send your comments on this article to info@sanctuaryasia.com
Source : http://sanctuaryasia.com/features/detailfeatures.php?id=842
Forget yourself for others, and others will never forget you.
No comments:
Post a Comment