'It is possible to rescue and care for our hurt wildlife — we can help to heal them’

Kartick Satyanarayan is co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS. Writing in Times Evoke, he describes the efforts involved in saving and protecting wildlife:
Since I was a young boy, I’ve been awestruck by the beauty and vibrance of India’s wildlife. However, I’ve also been dismayed by the rate at which the habitats of our wildlife have been vanishing, leaving these species vulnerable to human beings. My determination to stop this has grown steadily.
While working as a field biologist in a national park some years ago, I helped the forest department apprehend a timber smuggler whose activities were damaging the forest’s ecosystem. This incident sparked a major change in me. I realised I had to do more to help — I had to become a real change-maker and use every m o m e n t t o protect nature’s amazing beings. This was truly my own SOS moment — a call of distress, coming to me from India’s wildlife. Inspired by this, in 1995, I founded Wildlife SOS. Our other co-founder was Geeta Seshamani and together with our dedicated team, we tried to make Wildlife SOS as effective as possible.

HOW THEY STREAM: Rescued elephants Coconut and Peanut enjoy a cool dip. Photo courtesy: K Satyanarayan
As part of our early efforts, we worked hard to stop a 400-year-old ‘tradition’ of ‘dancing bears’ prevalent across India. Alongside the rescue of 628 bears from this cruelty-ridden practice, Wildlife SOS established the world’s largest rehabilitation centre for sloth bears, based in Agra.
Being able to achieve one of the most impactful conservation success stories in the world, where people saw these animals, treated appallingly for centuries, in a new light, gave us the confidence to do more. We then established projects across India seeking to protect elephants, leopards, tigers, pangolins, snakes, crocodiles, tortoises, birds — and the habitats of these species. The basic tenet of conservation is that wild animals belong in the wild.

BEAR REALITY: Sloth bears, once made to ‘dance’, now rescued and living in Wildlife SOS’s care. Photo courtesy: K Satyanarayan
In recent decades though, India has lost 98% of its wild elephant population largely due to growing human-elephant conflicts, manifest in incidents of poaching, poisoning, etc. The loss of an expecting wild elephant, who was fed a crude bomb concealed in a fruit bait in Kerala in 2020, sparked global feeling. The tragic killing of yet another elephant in a bomb attack in Tamil Nadu in January 2021 highlighted the ugly reality of what these gentle beings still face. To combat such violence, often arising from humans angered by these animals trying to eat crops in their fields, Wildlife SOS introduced radio-collaring and an early warning alert system in collaboration with the forest department in central India — these have proven to be effective ways to mitigate human-elephant conflicts. In one instance, we fitted a GPS satellite transmitter-enabled radio collar on the matriarch of a wild elephant herd.

THE ROAD TO RECOVERY: Healing injured animals needs modern science — and a warm heart. Photo courtesy: K Satyanarayan
The early warning alert system would give the exact location of the elephants at frequent intervals, informing villagers about the herd’s movements and equipping them to prevent agricultural damage. This successfully reduced conflicts and helped coexistence between villagers and the elephants.

Additionally, Wildlife SOS conducts capacity-building workshops for such communities, focusing on elephant avoidance behaviour and crop protection. In 2010, Wildlife SOS established the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura, in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department. The Centre stands as a vibrant model for the modern, scientific and humane care of elephants. Over the past decade, Wildlife SOS has rescued several elephants used for begging, in weddings, processions and the entertainment and tourism industries.
In 2018, we established India’s first elephant hospital, equipped with veterinary and diagnostic facilities to provide highcquality care to elephants in need. Every rescued elephant brings with it an emotional ordeal we can feel. A story that moved all of us to tears was that of Raju — this kind natured elephant had been tightly restrained for years, with spiked chains piercing into his legs, violently ‘trained’ with spears and hooks.
When Raju’s chains were removed, his legs were oozing with pus. Six years since his rescue, Raju continues his journey to heal, with our team looking after his medical care. We only hope and pray that his inner hurt is healed too.

The ironies of how we treat our fellow beings abound. In India, elephants which are widely worshipped as divine often suffer brutal abuse. Wild elephant calves are poached from their habitats, isolated from their herds and put through a horrifying training process to break their spirit, make them domesticated and give rides to tourists. The illegal trafficking of elephants is fuelled by such ‘entertainment’ practices. Please help to save these gentle beings by rejecting such habits and speaking up for their rights. Like us, they are creatures of nature and they too deserve a peaceful and safe life.

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