Considering how governments have handed forests to destructive industries, why don’t these wildlife-first organisations demand the eviction of the Forest Departments from forest lands?
Imagine people who live in clearings inside an extensive dense forest, cultivating paddy, harvesting grass, bamboo, and mushrooms, and hunting the occasional deer. They stay awake at night, beating drums to tell their elephant brothers not to come for their hard-earned crop. Once the harvest is over, they sing songs in praise of their animist jungle gods.
Imagine another scene. Towering hillocks of black tailings left from mining. Not a scrap of greenery anywhere. Trees cut and carted away. People driven from their villages. The wildlife has fled or is long dead. In their place are powerful machines digging into the ground and coughing exhaust. Dust churned up from their activities settles in layers upon everything.
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