Lakshmi Iyer
India Post News Service
FREMONT, CA: A group of Indian expats organized a protest in San Jose, California, against the killing of Avni, the tigress, in Maharashtra a few days ago. The group assembled in the morning on Sunday, November 11 in the trendy Santana Row area, bustling with high end stores and restaurants.
The sidewalks and buildings are currently all decked up for the holiday season. This was one of the many protests around the world for the cause. The chief organizers of this event were Indira Iyer and Seema Vaid. Incidentally, this also happened to be Veterans’ Day in the US.
Indira, an event host in San Jose, is an engineer by profession and is a self-described nature lover at heart who is passionate about sustainable living. She moved back to the States from India a couple of years ago. She spent over a decade working closely for the causes related to wildlife conservation and awareness with NGOs at the grassroots level in India. These included awareness programs in schools, wildlife education camps and empowerment of forest guards who she says, work hard in protecting forests with very meager resources.
She said, “Tigers, in particular, are close to my heart – I have trekked deep into the jungles of India and seen these beautiful animals on foot. They are shy, enigmatic and prefer to be left alone but are sadly persecuted by humans and critically endangered. They perform a very important function by their very existence as a keystone species – they are important for the health of forests and water bodies. Their extinction spells disaster for our own survival – that’s how important they are!
“I plan to continue to partner with NGOs and individuals who are passionate about the cause of conservation by building awareness in schools and communities (as we have done in India). Specifically, I would like to address the problem of habitat loss through focused afforestation initiatives in India. There is a lot of work that needs to be done at the policy level through government-citizen engagement especially where development agenda is in direct conflict with wildlife habitats.”
Seema Vaid, the co-organizer of the protest, is an IT consultant who works for Cisco. She has lived in the US for over 20 years. A vegan, Seema has been involved in various animal welfare causes. She has protested outside circuses and had organized an event for Wildlife SOS in the past.
Seema said, “I learned about Avni, through social media as #LetAvniLive was trending. I and many others signed petitions and e-mailed officials requesting them to protect Avni and her cubs. However I was horrified to hear the news that she had been shot and killed by a trophy hunter. I and Indira met and decided that we had to do something to raise awareness about Avni and in general about protection of wildlife and their habitat. We decided to join the global protests that were planned for November 11in 33 cities across the world. We intend to continue our efforts to sustain this movement to protect tigers and other wild animals and their habitat which are under threat in the name of development.”
“A Population explosion around the world presents a formidable challenge to human beings and animals as they struggle to co-exist and compete for the same resources – trying to maintain a fragile balance in a common ecosystem with other living beings like tigers. Expanding urban habitats must consider preservation of natural habitat of animals and evolve a formula of compromise to harmoniously coexist” said Sunil Kakkar, Bay Area Engineer, who turned up in support of the event.
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