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This article is about a social media campaign to garner support for conservation
of lesser-known, non-charismatic species (those with less appeal) such as turtles, pangolins, tokay
gecko, monitor lizards, owls, corals, sea cucumbers etc. It was initiated in
February this year. Jointly organised by TRAFFIC (the wildlife trade monitoring
network), WWF-India, and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), the campaign
managed to reach out to around 1.4 million people via Facebook Twitter and
Google.
Titled Preserving the Future: Stop Illegal Wildlife Trade,
the campaigners asserted that illegal trade of lesser known animal and bird
species go unreported calling for greater support for their conservation.
Statistics collected by them showed that annually hundreds
of pangolins, tortoises and lizards are plundered, tonnes of sea cucumbers are
captured and an approximate 700,000 birds are trapped illegally. However, this
blatant exploitation never comes to light and coupled with less information on
the species’ population status, poaching and smuggling practices, doubly
jeopardises their future.
The campaigners
The WCCB is the statutory body established by the Government
of India in 2007 to combat organised crimes against the wildlife. Currently,
Shyam Bhagat Negi is the additional director of WCCB.
TRAFFIC is an international organisation committed to ensure
that trade of flora and fauna does not threaten conservation of nature. It is a
joint program of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The latter is a worldwide NGO focussing on
environment conservation, operating in over a 100 countries. Its Indian unit is
called WWF-India.
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