Adventure & Wildlife Magazine - Vol 1|Issue 5-6| Nov 16 - Jan 17 Vol 2 | Issue 1 | Mar - May 2017 | Page 28

ADVENTURE & WILDLIFE
Wildlife SOS Celebrates World Environment Week
W
ildlife SOS is a non-profit organization
established in 1995 by Kartick Satyanarayan
and Geeta Seshamani with the primary objective of
rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife in distress in
the country. Wildlife SOS works to build lasting
partnerships with local communities, government
agencies and organisations with an endeavour towards
making them active participants and beneficiaries of
biodiversity conservation.
The organisation has evolved to actively work towards
protecting Indian wildlife, curtailing poaching and
the illegal wildlife trade, conserving habitats, studying
biodiversity, mitigating man-wildlife conflict,
conducting research and creating alternative and
sustainable livelihoods for erstwhile poacher
communities, sponsoring education for their children
and empowering their women.
Wildlife SOS’ major project was the abolition of the
barbaric practice of dancing bears in which sloth bear
cubs were poached from the wild and trained using
cruel methods to entertain tourists. Wildlife SOS
started work on the rehabilitation of the Kalandar
communities (originally Muslim gypsies with a highly
nomadic lifestyle who were famous for their mastery
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over animals) through education and an alternative
livelihood program as an extension of this dancing bear
rescue project.
Till date, they have rescued and rehabilitated 628
dancing bears that are now living peacefully in four large
natural sanctuaries across India, enjoying a life where
they’ll never again have to endure such cruelty and
pain. Of the four centres, the Bannerghatta Bear Rescue
Centre (BBRC) is located in the state of Karnataka and
is currently home to 78 sloth bears.
This year, as a collaborative initiative the team at BBRC
and the Bannerghatta National Park joined hands to
celebrate World Environment Week. They felt
that the best way to honour India’s rich natural
heritage was through spreading a conscious message by
conducting awareness building activities, in an effort
to inspire people to protect and preserveour diverse
wildlife species and their natural habitats.
The week-long event kicked off with a cleanliness
drive where 25 volunteers got together with the
Wildlife SOS staff at the Bannerghatta National Park.
Wildlife SOS Director-Wildlife Veterinary Operations
Dr. Arun A Sha and Assistant Director of Veterinary
Vol 2|Issue 1|Mar - May 2017