Over the 20th century and to this day, several wildlife trusts have taken charge of separate tracts of land to help them recover lost green cover and certain animal species. These trusts and other independent organisations are doing ground-breaking work in helping the UK and other countries maintain their ecological framework, primarily by working to save endangered animals and birds. The following section highlights some of them and the peerless work they do.

Take a look at some of the local efforts to save endangered animals in the UK:

* The PTES (People’s Trust for Endangered Species) works with the vision of protecting and saving endangered animals in the UK and around the world. They do this by working closely with on-ground organisations and locals in affected areas to save endangered animals from extinction. They also fund extensive research in wildlife conservation and provide financial grants for those working in the area of conservation (researchers and experts are often selected for these).
How you can help: Donate to them or volunteer with local organisations that partner with them.

* The Natural History Museum does a large amount of work in the area of awareness and community education to shine a spotlight on endangered animals and birds in the UK. Thus far, it has successfully participated in campaigns to save animals and birds on the brink of extinction, from the Peregrine falcon to the sea otter, and from blue whales to Fisher’s estuarine moths. They also work extensively for flora in the UK.
How you can help: Stay in touch with their programmes on their website and support their team of 300 scientists and their research via donations.

* The Wildlife Conservation Society has offices in several countries, including the UK. The organisation collaborates with local communities in every area of its work to shape their future and take their help in preserving and conserving wildlife. It works for global conservation of endangered plants and animals, proper maintenance of zoos and aquariums, and towards mitigating climate crises and pandemics.
How you can help: You can donate for their work or volunteer in their target areas in your home country. Corporates are also encouraged to tie up for several conservation and awareness programmes.

What you can learn from their efforts

Saving endangered animals in the UK is not the sole responsibility or purview of a few committed organisations and the Government. Indeed, the Government announced a £220 million biodiversity fund to save endangered animals, in 2019. But these efforts can get a considerable boost with the active participation of every individual in the UK.

It’s quite simple to do, too: engage with the local wildlife conservation communities, abstain from purchasing products and services that use illegal animal parts or employ animals for laboratory testing, visit local parks to help wildlife tourism and donate to several related causes. Above all, do spread the word about the issue in your local community at every opportunity, be it by organising seminars or engaging the youth in fun events aimed at animal protection and conservation.

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Once upon a time in India’s Northeast, there was a vast forest through which a river flowed. Until the mid-1980s, its grasslands were home to rare and endangered one-horned rhinoceroses, tigers, elephants and pygmy hogs. However, it became an arena of violent socio-political conflict when the local Bodos began agitating for a separate state. Forest management took a back seat and by 2000, Manas was almost completely stripped of its rich flora and fauna, including all its 100 rhinos. It was at this time that the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) along with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) intervened to help these threatened animals. “While there were no rhinos left in Manas National Park, our assessment was that it was still capable of being a healthy habitat for rhinos,” says Vivek Menon, executive director, WTI. In conjunction with the Bodoland Territorial Council and the forest department of Assam, WTI-IFAW created a unique programme in 2002 to revive Manas and its biodiversity, embodied by the one-horned rhino.

“We set up India’s first rescue and rehabilitation centre, Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), near a protected area – in this case, Kaziranga,” says Menon. Here, orphaned rhino calves are hand-reared (some even bottle-fed) for up to three years. “Then we transport them to Manas, allow a one-year period for acclimatisation in controlled but wild conditions and then release them into the jungle,” he says. The presence of the one-horned rhino, the largest herbivore of the grasslands, is a sign that the habitat is in good ecological health. “This augurs well for smaller, lesser-known grassland animals such as pygmy hogs,” he says. For the rhino’s continued survival, its grassland habitat was protected and rewilded.

“Unlike other species that have adapted to diverse habitats, rhinos can only survive in grasslands, that too on very specific grasses,” Menon explains.

In 2011, Manas National Park was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger and was commended for its efforts in preservation. Last month, the 12th annual camera trapping survey conducted in the forest recorded a three-fold increase in the number of adult tigers – an indicator species for forests rich in biodiversity, in the park. The return of Manas’ wildlife, including rhino conservation efforts, has positive connotations not only for wildlife conservation but also for the communities around the protected areas. For the Bodos, and the Assamese, the Manas turnaround symbolises a resurgence of their ethnic pride, which has taken a battering in the last few decades.

“When we began this project, I never doubted nature’s resilience for a minute,” Menon says. Today, Manas represents hope – hope that it is possible to reverse some of the depredations of poaching, social unrest and climate change on nature; hope that in spite of, and with some help from, humankind, the law of the jungle can prevail once more.

Author: Geetanjali Krishna, The India Story Agency for Sacred Groves
Images Credit: Rhino banner image – Zahir Abbas/ Wikimedia Commons, 1. Gitartha Bordoloi/ Wikimedia Commons, 2. Kaushik Saikia/ Wikimedia Commons, 3. Sashanka for WTI-IFAW, 4. Biswajit Baruah for WTI-IFAW, 5. Julia Cumes for WTI-IFAW
(Wikimedia License – https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)

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