His Holiness The Dalai Lama at the launch of the Tibetan Conservation Awareness Campaign

New Delhi: With so much fur flying on the exposé on traditional chubas decorated with wildlife skins, hope for the tiger, leopard and otter emerges in curbing the demand and hence, the trade among the Tibetan community residing in India and Nepal.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama came last month to Majnu-ka-Tila, the Tibetan colony in Delhi and asked for his people to assemble. This was an unscheduled visit. When the people were assembled, he gave them a discourse on protection of environment and wildlife.

In his own way, he touched on the use of wildlife products and its trade and the adverse implications going against the tenets of Buddhism.

Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in partnership with Care for the Wild International has recently launched a campaign targeted at the Himalayan communities following increasing reports of wildlife seizures involving Tibetans.

Says Ashok Kumar, Vice Chairman of WTI, “We have a listening post in Majnu-ka-Tila and we are told that there is an impact. How deep, time will tell. We have learnt that he has done so at many other places in India and will continue to do so”.

Destination for tiger & leopard skins

Early next year is Kalachakra a great assembly of Tibetans and other communities of Trans-Himalayas. Something like 200,000 persons will assemble for Kalachakra. It has become known that he will give a similar discourse at the Kalachakra.

It is our belief that transformation of an ancient and traditional society is best achieved through within. Giving up Sati, untouchability and other social reforms took place from within. A campaign against the use of shahtoosh shawls has yielded dramatic results in the state of Punjab, where the aspiration to own a shahtoosh drastically reduced to almost nil after an intensive targeted campaign in Chandigarh. Yet another campaign on saving the whale shark, the biggest fish in the world that was targeted at fishermen has resulted in a fishing crew actually cutting their nets to release a whale shark!

With this belief, we had launched the Tibetan Conservation Awareness Campaign in Delhi on 6th April 2005 which was blessed by His Holiness The Dalai Lama. His message was recorded on audio and video and it will be carried to Tibetans in India and Nepal by a team from WTI comprising of Tibetans in India. Interactive meetings over several days will take place at each location during which other literature containing the message in English and the Tibetan script will be circulated and discussed.

WTI and its collaborator Care for the Wild International, as well as our supporter, the Rowell Fund hope that an innovative, yet non-invasive approach that is also supported by none other than His Holiness the Dalai Lama will generate empathy among the consumers for the living creatures, which are so mercilessly killed just so that their skins can decorate theirs.

The decision to chuck the skin chubas would definitely have to come from within and therein lies a measure of success of this campaign.

Photo Credit: WTI Photo Stock