New Delhi: With all the discussions around wildlife conservation and more specifically on the dwindling tiger population, one thing that goes un-noticed is the conditions under which the conservation community operates. Constantly out in the wild and spending endless days and nights out in the field, one of the biggest risks to this brigade of un-flinching fighters is from the mosquito.

With a high prevalence of malaria, the field staff is constantly at risk from this life threatening disease and yet not too many organisations recognise this threat to our conservation efforts.

Vestergaard-Frandsen – a leading disease control products manufacturer – has provided insecticidal nets to the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), to help reduce these instances of vector-borne diseases among its field staff based in remote forested areas across the country.

Insecticidal nets are considered one of the best forms of prevention against vector borne diseases and both repel and kill mosquitoes when they come into contact with the nets.

A set of 50 mosquito nets were handed over by Neeraj Jain, Regional Head, Vestergaard-Frandsen, to Vivek Menon, Executive Director, WTI. With a number of WTI members having been affected by diseases like malaria & cerebral malaria over the years, the support has drawn absolute appreciation within the organisation.

Hemkanta Nath, an animal keeper who suffered three bouts of cerebral malaria, while he was deputed for the Asiatic black bear rehabilitation project in Pakke Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh, said, “My work involves hand-raising orphan animals which is much like parenting a human child. There is an emotional relationship between the animals and their foster parent, requiring different kinds of interactions, till the animals mature and become completely independent. We are grateful for this donation; this will undoubtedly reduce disturbances in our work caused by these avoidable illnesses.”

The nets will be distributed in various field offices of WTI, including northeast India, where maximum number of staff have inflicted such diseases.

“We are proud to have been able to participate in WTI’s commendable efforts towards protection of India’s wildlife. We also hope that tools like our nets will further increase confidence and efficiency amongst the field staff who risk their own lives for this effort” said Jain, Vestergaard-Frandsen.

“Our field staff has been doing a lot of great work without complaining about the hardships they face in the field, despite susceptibility to vector-borne diseases. We have had instances when our projects were temporarily stalled as our members fell ill. All these issues makes this gift by Vestergaard-Frandsen a very crucial one for us, and we express our heartfelt gratitude to the company,” said Menon, WTI.