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National Geographic : 2002 Jan
Contents
Their problems should be solved there. The remaining 3 percent should be left primarily for wildlife. We'll work with anyone-Marxists, Gandhians, businessmen, champions of tribal rights-provided it will help save wildlife and they agree to check their ideological baggage at the door." With so many obstacles in the way, with so many competing pressures on dwindling resources, and with government itself often divided as to how those resources should be allocated, what, I ask, can a few citizens really accomplish? Ullas seems almost indignant at the ques tion. "Not all politicians are stupid. Some times they can do good. You can seek out other concerned people and build alliances. You can kick up a row in the press. You can go to court." Wildlife First! has done all that and more on behalf of Kudremukh. One result was an order from the Indian Supreme Court demanding that the state explain why it permits mining in a national park in violation of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act. The Karnataka gov ernment tendered an awkward compromise: It denied the company's request to expand into new areas but simultaneously declared the present mining area no longer part of the national park so that the digging-and the pollution of the Bhadra River it causes can continue. Is Wildlife First! satisfied? "Of course not," Bhargav says. "The state has no right to give
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