BACHI SINGH BISHT is a Nature Warrior
from the north of India. Here, he shares his wisdom with
RAJESH MENON about how we can live in
tune with the natural world, and what is our role in caring for and
conserving nature.
Q: Tell us about how your passion for nature and conservation arose. Did
it start from childhood?
RM: My mother told me that we used to
live in a hut under a Gutel tree (Trewia Nudiflora). That’s where I was
born. I was brought up in a village surrounded by thick jungle. Until the
10th Standard, I went to a school located at the edge of the jungle near
an ancient canal. I feel these natural surroundings had a great impact on
me during my childhood. This is how my love for nature arose.
Q: Tell us about the work you do now?
RM: I became a nature guide, or
“Nature Warrior” as my friends call me, in the early ’90s. I have managed
wildlife lodges across Uttarakhand, Central India, Maharashtra and
Rajasthan, sharing my knowledge of birds, wildlife, and the conservation
of nature with others. Whenever opportunity presents itself, I am called
by wildlife training institutes and environmental education institutes
(both government and private) as a resource person, trainer, motivator,
subject expert, and as a Yoga instructor based on nature therapy. Right
now, I work as a freelance Nature Warrior and provide services wherever my
inner self takes me in preserving nature.
Q: How do you advise that we educate our children about caring for the
planet and relating to all living species?
RM: Using our five senses properly,
sincerely and honestly. The most important is to use our moral and civic
sense properly to avoid much of the nonsense going on around the world
toward nature. Being honest to one’s own inner self will improve our inner
connection with nature. Being disciplined and adhering to moral values in
every single act of our daily lives will make us better human beings.
Keeping ourselves sensitive to all beings will keep us responsible and
humble towards nature.
Q: What advice can you give to adults about social responsibility toward
nature?
RM: Keeping a mental, physical and
moral balance, respecting women and the elderly, and love and care for
young ones will go a long way. Every human being is made up of the five
elements: earth, water, air, fire and sky. As adults, we have to have the
right understanding of the true meaning of all these five elements and
value them at the minutest level.
Q: Tell us about Jim Corbett National Park. Are there enough places like
this in India to act as a refuge for natural wildlife? What more can we
do?
RM: Jim Corbett National Park is one
of the oldest in Asia, and the biodiversity here is unmatched. Here, the
tiger has one of the highest density populations in the Indian
subcontinent. India has more than fifty tiger reserves now, and tiger
conservation projects contribute toward their increasing numbers.
Our responsibility as individuals and the collective society is to
conserve nature. Rather than talking and writing, we need to act. Here and
now.
Interviewed & photography by
RAJESH MENON
