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Green
Berets
A
few single-minded crusaders fight for India's wildlife-or what's left
of it environment.
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ECONOMY
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Perform
Or Perish
Rich
states protest against the precedence to poverty over performance in allocation
of funds.
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Whimsical
Goodbye
Uma
Bharati's reckless streak shows up again, this time making her quit the
Lok Sabha.
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Home |
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From The Editor In Chief
So
why should we save that wolf on our cover? Indians concerned with conservation
are often dismissed as faddists and mocked as the "kutta-billi brigade".
Science tells you the other story-of the food chain that links man to
the most lowly creature, of nature's delicate balance that will suffer
irredeemable damage if species after species goes extinct. The depletion
of life's diversity hits you in the face when you realise as dazzling
an animal as the cheetah has not been spotted in the Indian jungle since
the early 20th century. India boasts a corpus of stringent wildlife protection
laws. A network of sanctuaries also exists to shelter vulnerable species.
The problem is the implementation. The crush of population makes the forest's
edge a battleground between man and animal. Poachers-remember Veerappan
too began as an ivory smuggler-are a constant threat. Amid such adversity
our story searches for heroes. Citizens with a crusader
spirit are supplementing or even replacing an ineffectual official
forest force. They have become the guardians of our natural heritage.
As Special Correspondent Vijay Jung Thapa, who anchored the story, puts
it, "They are the last stand of the Indian forest."
 Despite
the valour of a few good men, large segments of India still wallow in
mediocrity. The article on the preparation for the Sydney Olympics-the
second in our series-talks of how yet again Indian sport has shot itself
in the foot. A few weeks ago Sunita Rani, a middle-distance runner who
met qualifying standards in three Games events, broke down after six months
of pain. The team doctor had given her 15 injections without telling her
what they were. The upshot of this bizarre medical experiment is that
one of the country's best athletes has been incapacitated in an Olympic
year. Pity there are no game wardens to protect that most endangered of
species-the Indian sportsperson.
(Aroon
Purie)
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DESPATCHES |
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Her
Majesty's tongue is becoming a rage in Maharashtra schools, despite Thackeray's
edict against it. INDIA TODAY Principal Correspondent Farah Baria captures
the trend in
Despatches.
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The
stock markets are humming, and it's feel-good time once again, writes
INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 
