In celebration of the Year of the Tiger – we want to share with you information about The Big Cat Sanctuary and Paradise Wildlife Park’s latest conservation trip to India.
In April Tyler, Cameron and Aaron from CBBC’s One Zoo Three travelled to Maharashtra in India, to establish two new conservation partners – The Transit Treatment Centre (TTC) and Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT).
Tigers are an iconic species and have played a pivotal role in establishing both Paradise Wildlife Park and The Big Cat Sanctuary. The brothers journeyed through the heart of the Tadoba and Pench forests to see Bengal tigers in the wild and learn about how these beautiful animals are protected. After searching for hours the brothers found a stunning female tiger and her two cubs cooling off in a watering hole from the record high-temperature heat wave that overwhelmed central India in May. This was a wonderful moment which will live long in the memories of everyone on the trip.
The team travelled to the Wildlife Conservation Trust’s health camp where Forest Guards were undergoing health checks. Unfortunately, India ranks number one in mortalities of Forest Guards.
The frontline forest staff are deployed in protected areas around the country and work under very stressful conditions. Extreme weather, long and strenuous patrols, and encounters with armed poachers lead to high incidences of stress-related diseases. Apart from exposure to communicable diseases such as malaria, forest staff are also vulnerable to chronic non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. The remoteness of their locations, coupled with a lack of affordable and quality healthcare, exacerbates the problem.
WCT addresses this problem by conducting health check-up camps and providing preventive healthcare to frontline forest staff, free of cost. Both Charities are proud to partner with WCT, as by protecting the guards, we can protect the forest as well as the nearby communities.
The team then travelled to Nagpur to visit the Transit Treatment Centre which is an emergency animal hospital which successfully rescues and rehabilitates hundreds of wild animals every year. The team saw first-hand the incredible work they do by treating a severely dehydrated peacock, a paralysed Indian leopard and many species of birds and snakes that they hope to release back into the wild when safe to do so. The passion that the staff showed at the TTC was infectious and the brothers left the centre feeling inspired and more committed than ever to expanding both charities’ conservation efforts.
The holistic approach that both of these charities take gives wildlife in India a chance to recover and thrive. We are incredibly proud to support these unsung heroes and look forward to many more years of supporting vital front-line conservation in India.
To find out more about the Transit Treatment Centre and Wildlife Conservation Trust visit their websites.
