Big Idea: To create a positive and measurable change in people’s perceptions to improve the conservation and welfare of wildlife in India with at least six planned campaigns.
The Natural Heritage Campaign (NHC) division is the voice of conservation action in WTI. As the name suggests the division aspires to create a positive and measurable change in people’s perceptions of wildlife conservation and Natural Heritage in India. NHC bridges the gap between conservation action and community participation.
Through NHCs, WTI has been able to achieve ‘zero hunting’ of whale sharks along the Sourashtra Coast of Gujarat. The campaign is one of the stellar conservation stories that have come out of India in the past decade. The Gujarat Whale Shark Conservation campaign has successfully converted the fishers who once hunted the species, into protectors. Equally remarkable is the fact that the fish has achieved an iconic status as Vhali, or ‘the loved one’ in Gujarat with thousands of schoolchildren painting it, celebrating its arrival with plays and street drama, and with six towns on the western coast of India declaring it their city’s mascot.
Natural Heritage Campaigns in WTI has spanned species and led to success like the rehabilitation of the Kalandar (Bear dancing) community, the ‘Say No To Shahtoosh’ campaign to stop the hunting of the Tibetan Antelope, the ‘Tibetan Awareness Campaign’ aimed at stopping the use of wildlife products and derivatives in the culture, The ‘Mongoose Hair Brush Campaign’ to expose the illegal trade in mongoose hair to manufacture paint brushes, ‘Animal Action Education’ to bring about environmental education and awareness among school children, and the ‘Wild Buffalo Campaign’ to instil a sense of pride and ownership for the State Animal of Chhattisgarh.
Campaigns as a tool, has also been used across all breadth projects of WTI, to achieve the mission of a “secure natural heritage of India”.
Current Projects Involved:
