{"id":32,"date":"2017-07-10T05:57:30","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T05:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/?page_id=32"},"modified":"2017-07-10T12:36:43","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T12:36:43","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/index.php\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am blessed to grow up in the lap of one of the largest City Forests in the world – Sanjay Gandhi National Park \u2026 And here is where I was inspired and devoted my life towards Conservation of Wildlife.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rescue operations <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I started young as a rescuer for animals and rescued parakeets, munias, tortoises, snakes, monkeys, sloth bears etc… I volunteered with WWF, BEAG, and BNHS throughout my early days. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a living, I started my career in the corporate world. Money was good but I remained unsatisfied within. A dream job to work on City Forests came calling with BNHS and with sincere dedication I worked in the field of Nature Conservation and have since never looked backed. \u00a0I quit BNHS in 2012 but continued my work with the Forest Department and floated an NGO, Forest and Wildlife Conservation Society in 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

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City Forest Initiatives<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Leopard are the prime predators of the forested areas of Mumbai and Thane, and \u00a0the vast infrastructural growth lead to \u00a0habitat \u00a0and prey base depletion of leopards. They then often come in conflict with humans due to these reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

I spearheaded the leopard awareness campaigns and identified potential leopard spots. Text with illustrations were designed in banners and posters, putting up posters and explaining the do\u2019s and don\u2019ts on sighting a leopard and also how to avert leopard attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea was to work for the conservation of leopards keeping human life as a focal point.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been working in close association of the Forest Department of SGNP in conducting regular campaigns since 2005, till date interacting with more than 50,000 people – tribals and non tribal\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

I act as a buffer in between the Forest department and locals \/ tribal\u2019s during rescue operations and human leopard conflict situations. I have been involved in various rescue operations conducted by Territorial and Wildlife wings of FD in Mumbai and Thane regions.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

Eco restoration<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Owing to its location within the City, the fringes of the park are threatened mainly of habitat destruction and alterations by encroachments, meaning loss of tree cover. In order the restore these degraded areas, afforestation of native species\u00a0 using scientific methodology was carried out since 2010 with the Forest department and till date more than 5000 saplings are planted with a mortality rate of less than 30% thus encouraging corporate CSR activities \u00a0and \u00a0developing relationship between urban development and nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

Religious threats and challenges<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Devotees throng the temples and dargahs in protected areas causing irreversible damage to the sensitive ecosystems of these forests due to garbage, plastic bags, litter, sound and air pollution and the worst of all \u00a0forest fires.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2000 I have been assisting the Forest Department of SGNP and TWLS in crowd management and control by providing volunteer support during festival days of Shivratri and Urs celebrated inside the park .<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years this has resulted in fewer and controlled crowds in SGNP Borivali and also sensitized people in Yeur and TWLS.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

Research Initiatives<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Involvement in Wildlife census and population estimation studies on leopards done by Forest Department since 2002.<\/span><\/p>\n

A study was initiated between\u00a0\u00a0 2008-09 to understand the diet of the leopards in SGNP. The yearlong study, done in dry and wet seasons revealed 60% of the major diet as domestic dogs followed by rodents and others.<\/span><\/p>\n

A research grant to document the behavior and adaptability of leopards in human dominated forested landscapes funded by National Geographic Society throwing light on the unknown aspects and survival techniques of this elusive cat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assisted researchers for a comparative study between the biggest Urban Parks in the world with SGNP as one of them. The study was done by Urban Protected Area (Network) and Urban National Parks in Emerging Countries and Cities (UNPEC) funded by French National Agency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

Media communication<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Between 2000-05 the media portrayed the leopards negatively as man eaters. Since 2005 I have been educating the media and creating awareness about leopards regarding their prior existence and importance of this highly adaptable cat in the last remaining wilderness of Mumbai and Thane.I have been able to sensitize them about the threats faced for the cat\u2019s survival due to encroachments etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am active on social media like Face book and Twitter and created a group SGNP City Forests<\/em> in 2008 and the page carries articles, news, events, posts on day to day conservation issues of SGNP<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 3000 active members are there on the page, gathering a huge base towards the conservation issues of the SGNP. I have been vigilant on the encroachments, conflicts, mining and quarrying, misuse of Forest Right Acts, forest fires, conservation events etc, illicit liquor, religious encroachments, along with advocacy and lobbying with bureaucracy and media for the better protection measures of these protected areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

I appeared for a radio interview for BBC World service \u00a0Outlook programme on 05\/12\/2013 on my efforts\u00a0 of educating people to live side by side with Leopards. Also this was covered by Financial Times New York on 13\/11\/2013 , Caravan Magazine on17\/09\/2013 and \u00a0Gulf News 2008 .<\/span><\/p>\n

I was appreciated by Forest Department of SGNP for my continuous support and cooperation, for being a pillar to SGNP on the Wildlife Week 2013-14.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

Nature Education camps <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have been conducting wildlife educational and awareness tours in Tiger reserves, National park and sanctuaries, Marine parks, community reserves etc in various parts of India. These visits are not merely for sighting or photography of magnificent flora or fauna, but also to understand threats and challenges faced by the park and its protectors, Forest management practices, community conservation, socio economical aspects and conservation\/ research initiatives and develop forest values.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/br><\/p>\n

Educational Accomplishments <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lifelong learning of mangroves conducted by Lead India experts in 2008<\/span><\/p>\n

Completed International course (Education as a tool for species conservation with a focus on Tiger in India) conducted by Environmental Education and Conservation Global (USA), Wildlife Wing of Maharashtra Forest Department, Nature Conservation Society Amravati along with SGB University Amravati \u00a0in 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two day statistics workshop for field analysis by Dr. Qamar Qureshi from Wildlife Institute of India conducted by BNHS 2010<\/span><\/p>\n

Basic course in Ornithology conducted by BNHS at their field station in Point Calimere and was a field coordinator for the same course for two years. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction I am blessed to grow up in the lap of one of the largest City Forests in the world – Sanjay Gandhi National Park \u2026 And here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-32","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94,"href":"https:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/32\/revisions\/94"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwcsindia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}