3rd of March is celebrated as World Wildlife Day and I woke up to jot down few lines about my thoughts and feelings. World Wildlife Day seeks to raise global awareness of the World’s wild flora and fauna. This year’s theme is “Sustaining all life on earth”. This theme is so much relevant in this day and age where we are reminded by innocent kids like Valentina Elangbam, Greta Thunberg about the chronic damage we have to the earth. 

This just goes to show how deeply we have betrayed our conscience in every respect when it comes to our environmental responsibilities. It is saddening to see that only on days such as this we seek to be reminded of what we are accountable to. Remember that the earth does not belong to us, we belong to mother earth. It is paramount that each one of us goes through some form of true, meaningful personal connection with any form of flora and fauna at least once in our lives. Then only one will truly appreciate what it means to be part of such an ecosystem. 

I have always had a deep personal connect with our own Sangai (Rucervus eldii eldii), partly because I was born very close to its home, the Keibul Lamjao National Park and also because we as kids were taught to appreciate what we were blessed with in our village  i.e a floating national park home to a species found only in our state all over the world. Such seemingly small but meaningful things made us appreciate and empathize with the plight of the species from a very young age. I spent a huge chunk of my professional life dealing with the challenges faced by the Sangai, had a hard time spreading awareness along the surrounding areas of the national park for protection of the Sangai and other migratory birds in and around the loktak lake.

Even though those days were never easy, those were by far the best days of my life as we knew we were making a difference. This is what the younger generation ought to inculcate in their lifestyles which is dependent on technology all year round. There is a truly beautiful world outside the confines of social media, iPads and smartphones. A world full of endearing flora and fauna. 

I will make a small, heartfelt appeal to all my friends, colleagues and well wishers to take a small step; to devise a holistic, all inclusive, coherent action plan to save the beautiful and elegant Sangai from the harms it has endured since decades. It is high time we come together to save the species we take pride in calling our state animal.