Wildlife SOS
Wildlife SOS is a conservation non-profit organisation in India, established in 1995 with the primary objective of rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife in distress, and preserving India's natural heritage. It is one of the largest wildlife organisations in South Asia.
WSOS worked to end the cruel and barbaric practice of dancing bears from the streets of India, while creating alternative livelihoods for the nomadic communities that depended on the exploitation of the bears. It also rehabilitates sloth bears and more recently elephants. Wildlife SOS also runs projects focused on mitigation of human wildlife conflict with regard to species like leopards, macaques, elephants, moon bears, snakes, and other animals across several states in India. In addition, their work includes projects targeted at biodiversity and habitat conservation, awareness workshops and anti-poaching operations, as well as the rehabilitation of communities dependent on performing or working animals for their livelihood.
Wild life SOS features in a documentary show series of History TV called India's Jungle Heroes.
History
Wildlife SOS was founded in 1995 by Kartick Satyanarayan and Geeta Seshamani with the motive of protecting and preserving India's natural heritage, forests, and wildlife. Initially dedicated to resolving the centuries-old practice of 'dancing' bears, the organisation now runs several projects across the country focused on rescuing wildlife in distress, mitigating human-animal conflict, habitat restoration, raising awareness, training enforcement officers, conducting scientific research, and conservation studies, combating illegal wildlife trade and trafficking and rehabilitating wildlife-dependent communities.In 2005, as Wildlife SOS co-founders Kartick Satyanarayan and Geeta Seshamani visited the United States for fundraising and awareness engagements.
In 2009, Wildlife SOS UK was launched as a 5013 charity organization in support of the conservation work taking place in India. Wildlife SOS UK works in collaboration with the volunteers and staff in India to raise awareness and funds for their various ongoing projects.
Mission
Wildlife SOS aims to protect and preserve India's wildlife, run rehabilitation and rescue centres for wildlife, conserve habitats, raise awareness, conduct research, study biodiversity and provide sustainable alternative livelihoods for communities otherwise dependent on wildlife to earn a livelihood.The organisation is undertaking several conservation projects: Dancing Bear Project, Elephant Conservation and Care, Leopard Conservation, Tribal Rehabilitation Program, Human-Bear Conflict Mitigation, Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation, Anti-Poaching, Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation, Habitat Conservation, Research and Conservation, and Training and Awareness. Wildlife SOS takes a comprehensive approach to saving India's wildlife through conservation.
Animal welfare
Wildlife SOS works to protect India's wildlife, provides care for animals who cannot return to the wild and medical treatment for animals that can be released, offers rescue services for captive and abused animals, and advocates to prevent animals from being exploited for entertainment. The organisation is equipped with rescue and medical teams, a dedicated elephant ambulance, 12 sanctuaries, and a unit for treating elephants and advanced studies to improve care.Research
Wildlife SOS uses technology like drones and camera traps to study elephants, leopards, sloth bears, and other animals in their native habitat. It also conducts animal care studies at its rescue facilities and gathers information to better understand all of India's sensitive and threatened species. WSOS works with partners around the world to learn more about protecting and caring for the species most endangered. Wildlife SOS also works with local communities through outreach programs and workshops to reduce or resolve human-wildlife conflicts.Community empowerment
Wildlife SOS works towards empowering local communities like the Kalandar community, which earlier relied on bear dancing for their livelihoods. It imparts education to the children of the Kalandar community and provides opportunities for the members to financially sustain themselves with alternative livelihoods. Moreover, WSOS also provides training to those residing close to human-wildlife conflict zones.Projects
Sloth bears
The Sloth bear is a medium-sized omnivorous species of bear found in the Indian subcontinent, predominantly India, with a small population in Nepal and Bhutan and a sub-species in Sri Lanka. This species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.One of the major threats to these bears has been the exploitation of sloth bears as ‘dancing’ bears by members of a nomadic tribe known as the Kalandars or Qalandars. Today, poaching and trafficking of live bears and their body parts for use in traditional Chinese medicine, increasing human-wildlife conflict, habitat fragmentation and deforestation have led to the declining numbers of sloth bears in the wild.
Wildlife SOS is credited with rescuing bears from the ‘dancing bear’ practices and poachers and rehabilitating them in one of four centres in India.
- Agra Bear Rescue Facility in Agra
- Bannerghatta Bear Rescue Facility in Karnataka
- Van Vihar Bear Rescue Facility in Bhopal
- Purulia Bear Rescue Centre in West Bengal
Elephants
The Indian elephant is one type of three recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, native to mainland Asia and is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.Elephants are under threat due to poaching, habitat destruction, man-animal conflict, and encroachment etc. Ignorance and a lack of awareness have resulted in the continuous enslavement of these animals as working elephants - to beg, for display in temples, for performances and entertainment.
Wildlife SOS works in collaboration with the Government of India's Project Elephant and in partnership with the Haryana Forest Department at Ban Santour and the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department at Mathura to confiscate abused and mistreated elephants and provide them safe and healthy retirement in one of the three elephant sanctuaries it manages - the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura, the Elephant Rescue Centre in Haryana, and a Treatment Unit in Agra.
Wildlife SOS is caring for 36 rehabilitated elephants at these centers. Medical treatment is made available for injured or sick elephants, and handlers, known as mahouts, are trained to carry out humane treatment and management of the animals to improve their working conditions and reduce illicit poaching and mistreatment of the animals.
The main objectives of these centres are to eradicate illegal trafficking and holding of elephants, create a platform for public awareness about the threats faced by Asian elephants, and ensure the safety and protection of elephants in the wild. As a first in India, a humane, modern, and scientific model has been implemented by Wildlife SOS to manage elephants in order to replace prevailing methods involving abuse and starvation of elephants, and risks to owners and mahouts.
Wildlife SOS veterinarians and trained staff work round the clock to cater to the needs of rescued and rehabilitated Asian elephants. Wildlife SOS has constructed a Treatment Unit in Churmura, Uttar Pradesh, designed to treat injured, sick or geriatric elephants. The Unit is equipped with an inbuilt path lab to test and diagnose elephants for a host of diseases and pathogens and hoist and support structure to deal with emergencies. To avoid spread of diseases, the Treatment Unit quarantines the ailing elephant for the required duration.
The Treatment Unit also has an interpretation centre and observation window for visiting veterinarians, biologists, and elephant caretakers from around the world to observe and learn about veterinary care for captive Asian elephants. The Unit has modern medical facilities for the treatment of injured elephants in distress like Wireless Digital X-Ray, Laser Treatment, Dental X-Ray, Thermal imaging, Hydrotherapy, Tranquilization Equipment, and Quarantine facilities. The Unit is located near Agra, in the Farah block of Mathura near the Elephant Conservation and Care Center run by Wildlife SOS.
'Refuse To Ride' campaign
for use in captivity is a serious threat faced by elephants across South and Southeast Asian countries. They are forced to beg on the streets, give rides to tourists, made to perform unnatural tricks in circuses, and kept shackled in temples. The rich cultural and natural heritage of these countries attracts a substantial footfall of tourists every year. For many tourists travelling to India, taking an elephant ride tops their bucket list of must-have experiences. But most people are not aware of the harsh reality behind how elephants have been tamed and the horrific abuse they must endure being "trained" for giving rides.To combat this cruel industry and educate people about elephant riding, Wildlife SOS launched a campaign called Refuse to Ride, in 2018, with the hope that the RTR campaign will educate the public and help bring a change for elephants all around the country.
Chhattisgarh wild elephant radio collaring project
The Mahasamund area of Chhattisgarh has been in the throes of human-elephant conflict ever since a herd of 19 wild elephants moved into the region after they were possibly displaced from the shrinking forests of Odisha or Jharkhand. Regular instances of crop-raiding and destruction of human habitations are the reason for the escalation of the conflict. When the Chhattisgarh Forest Department took the initiative to minimize the rapidly growing Human-Elephant Conflict, Wildlife SOS came up with a unique plan to use radio collars on the wild elephant herd so as to issue timely alerts to the villages, by effectively tracking the elephants’ movements.The radio-collaring program has been successful in raising awareness and involving local communities as stakeholders to effectively mitigate human-elephant conflict situations. The radio collar tracks the location of the matriarch of the herd so we can monitor whether or not she is approaching human settlement areas. Predicting the matriarch's location helps in assessing her possible route, which helps in reaching out to local community representatives to raise alerts in the village. This has led to the mitigation of conflict in areas that are prone to human-elephant encounters. Interactive discussions on the biology, behaviour, and ecology of wild elephants and the safety measures that can be adopted to avoid conflicts were conducted in awareness workshops. These sessions also educate the villagers about the reasons for such conflict, elephant behaviour, essential conflict mitigation strategies, and the importance of Early Warning Systems. In fact, through these sessions, volunteers actively help in alerting the villages when the elephants are nearby, thereby making communication during the time of distress more efficient and reliable.