As a part of the silver jubilee celebrations of Salim Ali College of Ornithology (SACON) a special session on 'Right of Passage' - Conserving elephants amongst a billion people in association with Yi was hosted at the DJ Academy hall, CII Coimbatore zone.
Senior Advisor to the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Founder, Executive Director and CEO of Wildlife Trust of India, wildlife conversationalist, environmental commentator, author and photographer with a passion for the tuskers, Vivek Menon was here in the city, on an invite from the Coimbatore Chapter of Young Indians (Yi), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). This evening, Vivek was the guest speaker for the session.
Dr.K. Ramasamy, Vice Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Dr. Pramod, Senior Scientist and Principal, SACON were also present at the event.
Sharing his thoughts on the right of passage, he made a mention on the need to conserve elephants. “India is one of the few countries, where we don’t think about destroying fauna. We need complete conservations. Conservation is the art of possible and not the science of impossible. Science should be used as a tool but ethical ways too should be looked into.” Vivek Menon said.
He told his audience that included members of Yi, representatives of NGO's, students and environment enthusiasts that by erecting a fence we will successfully stop the movement of the huge tuskers. However, this he added will not work as elephants are huge creatures that require a massive space. By constructing a fence, the speaker shared we humans are being cruel to the elephant.
“Elephants are similar to human beings in many aspects. They exhibit similar emotions, grief, trauma exactly like human do. They are more intelligent than human beings.” Vivek Menon said. According to him, only space can save these creatures. “Elephants do not require a thick forest. They will be happy in a degraded forest too. We need to create more corridors to save these creatures.” Vivek Menon said.
Touching upon the increasing number of elephants being reported dead on train tracks, the speaker said “Slowing down the speed of the train is a next to impossible task. However, many other options can be adopted in order to bring down the elephant deaths on the train tracks. Psychology is changing.” Vivek Menon said.
