Let Us Live

Do you remember the following?

Children stories - "Rare and Turtle", "Lion and Rat" etc

Phrases - "Dogs are men's best friends", "Hirni (female dear) jaisi chal (walk)"

Bollywood Songs - "Mahre hibra mein naache mor", "Hathi mere sathi"

Teasing lines and one liners - "Gainda (rhino - used for someone who is very fat)", "Maindak (frog - used for someone who makes irritating noise)"

The wonderful animals quoted in these could soon become a history and our coming generations would only think of them as fairy tales if they continue to diminish at the current rate. However bitter it might sound, but the mankind has been very cruel and selfish when it comes to other children of Mother Nature.

We humans have been using the resources available to us for both need and pleasure. While the need does seem relevant and logical, the usage of resources - both living and non-living has gone beyond required and is impacting the other species so much that some of them have already vanished and many are on the verge of extinction.

There is no doubt I am in for saving all of them - Frogs, Rhino, Elephant, Tigress,Blackbuck, Deer, Cobra, etc, all of them. But out of the twelve lives, I choose below three for this post:

Indian Wild Dog

So what if it's wild. So what if it's not that cute. It is a dog and an Indian. We can see all different foreign dogs around us. They definitely look awesome and make their owners proud. The other side that many of them suffer a lot because of the change in weather conditions and lifestyles they are subjected to is also true. It's time we do the deed to save at-least the species which belong to our own mother land 'The Indian Wild Dog' popularly known as the Dhole.

Did you know that Dhole is known to frighten even a tiger?

Indian Bull Frog

Honestly, I hate frogs. They are creepy and their skin is yuck (It might read not so fair, but I can't help feeling that way). These little creatures - the males, change their dark and dull skin to bright yellow accessorised with two blue vocal sacs during the mating season so that they can impress the female frogs. They look surprisingly beautiful at that time. Why do I want to save them? Because my kid love frog and its sound. I guess, all kids treasure making the sound of a frog.

Did you know that the Indian Bull Frog feeds on other tadpoles while it's a tadpole itself!

Asiatic Lioness

The Asiatic Lioness - the queen of the jungle is another powerful species and need to saved on priority. As much as the lions are to saved, lioness also need equal attention as they are the ones who can give birth to new generations. Being a female myself, I cannot skip this super queen.

Did you know that the majority of hunting for the pride is done my Female members in an Asiatic Lion's pride!

The main reason of all the animals being endangered is loss of habitat. In the race of development, man has taken away their place of living and food by excessive and unnecessary deforesting. With no place to thrive upon, the animals are forced to enter human societies and thus killed for being labeled as danger. A large population is not able to survive the changes. 

Illegal poaching is another major reason for their rapidly decreasing population. Hunting for animals is done for both pleasure and business. None of them makes sense. With the advancement of technology, all those feathers, skins, horns etc can easily be made just as pure as original. It's time we stop using those weapons and apply brains instead.

I want to mention again that despite of three specifically mentioned above, I raise mi hand to save all fifteen and may be more apart form them.

Below are some simple lines I am sure each one of them must be screaming with their heart:

Let me dance with my feathers among the rainbow,

Let me roar with the pride of king,

Let me make the ponds glow,

Let me feed the pride freely,

Let me flaunt my gorgeous skin,

Let me scare the Tigers away,

Let me crawl and hiss in my own home,

Let me display my horns proudly,

Let me eat with my fierce teeth,

Let us do everything freely,

LET US LIVE...

 I am participating in the Save the Species contest for the book “Capturing Wildlife Moments in India” in association with Saevus Wildlife India,  read the reviews for the book ‘Capturing Wildlife Moments in India’ here