Time to save the tiger

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Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”

Of the hundred times that we’ve come across messages regarding tiger conservation, there’s barely one that has stirred us to action. But to change that and show us the plight of the king of the jungle Shivani Wazir Pasrich in collaboration with the Taj Mahal Hotel has launched a three-pronged approach aimed at ecological conservation in an entertaining, engaging and hopefully effective way.
Shivani Wazir Productions has produced a theater performance, I Am The Tiger, that with the help of audience feedback will develop into a full-fledged musical over the course of the next year.
About her inspiration and the project, Shivani informs, “It was my childhood friend and conservationist Dr Latika Nath Rana’s idea that we should do something for the conservation of tigers. My mother in law had painted a picture of a tiger and recently gifted my father-in-law another tiger painting. I don’t know who is influenced by whom. I don’t know which is the source and which is the result. It’s closely knit, and we plan to develop it over the year with the inputs we receive.”
The second part of the initiative will be spearheaded by artist Anjolie Ela Menon and will involve schoolkids. “It will go on for the year. I hope things will snowball and grow. Our’s the first generation to understand the need for conservation. Some progress has been made with awareness spreading among people but it is a state of crisis as far as tigers are concerned and it requires conservation effort to begin in a big way from the next generation beginning from the schoolchildren. It’s difficult for the numbers of tigers to return to what what they were, but atleast the fear of extinction shouldn’t be lurking any more,” said Anjolie about the immediate need for such an effort.
“Next year we’re planning a ribbon of tiger paintings made by schoolchildren from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhawan and hope that it takes place over all state capitals as well,” Anjolie adds.
Schools like Assam Valley School, Sanskriti School (Delhi) and Mayo College Girls School (Ajmer) have committed to the project and the artistes expect more participation.
In addition, The I Am The Tiger Initiative by Dr Rana will bring conservationists and work towards experimenting with simpler versions of the musical with local people of the forest reserves and influence them to becoming guardians of the forests.