Cranes find their saviours among the poor

However, a World Bank-backed plan to reclaim their breeding ground and give them to farmers threatens to wipe out the rare birds

By Nirmal Ghosh
INDIA CORRESPONDENT

ETAWAH - In the lawless districts of Mainpuri and Etawah in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where banditry is common and a stunning 72 per cent of the population lives below the official poverty line, the people do not have much going for them - but they still find a place in their hearts to protect the endangered sarus crane.

The marshlands in the rice-growing area support up to 30 per cent of the 8,000 to 10,000 of the world's tallest flying birds.

As such, it has the world's largest density of these spectacular cranes which have survived because of local protection - without any official laws mandating it.

But there is foreboding in the air with a World Bank-backed scheme to reclaim wetlands, threatening to wipe out the birds.

Paradoxically, the local farmers do not know much about the scheme, which involves the conversion of wetlands for agriculture use.

The scheme is designed to give thousands of hectares of land, classified as 'wasteland', to farmers.

But researchers have pointed out that the 'wasteland' classification is bogus because much of the land is covered by fresh water and supports a wide range of biodiversity, and that the scheme would destroy the breeding habitat of the cranes.

The project is meant to reclaim 'sodic' or saline land, not fresh-water areas. But it is covering both in a scramble to bring more land under the plough to justify the US$121-million (S$212-million) loan.

Etawah and Mainpuri are districts with a rich history of bird life documented in the early 20th century by such legends as Allan Hume, the British administrator, bird watcher and poet.

At other places in India with a poor population and scarce resources, birds like the crane have been virtually wiped out except where the government has designated sanctuaries.

Locals are suspicious of outsiders; on several occasions Wildlife Institute of India researcher Gopi Sundar has trudged back to a country road after examining nests and eggs in waist-deep water to find local youths with hefty bamboo staves asking him what he thought he was up to.

The children of the rough people of this hardscrabble region grow up on touching folk tales revolving around the sarus cranes.

The World Bank project will change the face of the land, fuelling fears of environmentalists and social activists, who resent the fact that India is the Bank's largest debtor and question the ability of poor populations to pay back loans even in the long term.