Maneka Gandhi India's Greatest Woman

For me Maneka Ganghi is India's greatest woman. She is totally awesome. She is fighting the greatest of battles for the animals of India including, of course, cats both wild and domestic. Here she is being interviewed about wildlife conservation including the conservation of the tiger in India.



And, you know, it is shocking to hear and see this video and Maneka Ganghi is so wise, enlightened, intelligent and above all right in what she says. India should be at the forefront of animal welfare, teaming as it is (or was) with wildlife. It is a country made for wildlife species. Unfortunately humans also inhabit the country and most of them want to use and abuse animals for financial gain in a short term way. Better long term planning on how to live with our fellow creatures would bring far greater reward in the long term. And what good is CITES and the IUCN Red List for Indian wildlife? When you listen to Maneka Gandhi in the video it seems that there is open trade in animal parts. CITES is meant to stop that. The Indian government is just not doing the right things. It is far to passive in conservation and probably worse, active in doing the opposite in the name of short term, short sighted financial gain.

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Britain extirpated all large wild life in the Britain hundred of years ago so I am aware that people in the west, Europe and USA, have no right to criticize other countries and I am not criticizing, just commenting,

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Update: Maneka makes a very good point in the video. As wild animals become rarer due to humankind's activities, people kill them even faster. This is due to a short term mentality, which plagues mankind. We only think of getting it now and fail to see the long term consequences. A long term approach brings greater rewards but we as a world are highly disorganised and not coordinated enough to manage a long term approach. The world is changing. The Brits killed off most of its large animal wildlife hundreds of years ago. Maneka is at the leading edge in India of animal conservation and welfare but will the world change enough and quickly enough for the wildlife species of India to be preserved in the wild?

Being highly concerned as I am about the wild cats and domestic cats, particularly, for me, Maneka Gandhi India's Greatest Woman.

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