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Morari Bapu helps save endangered whale shark

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=355068&ssid=26&sid=ENV

Ahmedabad, Feb 18: Efforts of a religious leader, who joined hands with wild life activists, has helped in the conservation of whale shark - hunted in large numbers on the Saurashtra coast of the state.

Whale shark used to be extensively hunted in 1980s and 90s for trade and the species was in danger of becoming locally extinct, Dhiresh Joshi of wildlife trust of India (WTI), who along with the state forest department launched a campaign to save it, said.

In 2000, when the marine mammal was included in Schedule 1 of Wild Life (protection) act by the Union Forest Ministry, hunting went down but it continued in some pockets, wildlife activists said.

Some of them, along with the state government, decided to rope in religious leader Morari Bapu to convince fishermen to stop hunting it.

Joshi said they had appealed to Bapu, a prominent religious leader, to support their cause of saving the whale shark, which comes for breeding to the Saurasthra coast from Australia.

Bapu immediatly agreed to lend support to their campaign in 2004, Joshi added.

"Earlier, we used to engage in whale shark conservation telling fishermen that they will be punished as per the law if they continue with the hunting of the whale shark," Joshi said.

"However, Morari Bapu brought an emotional angle to the campaign of saving the whale shark. His appeal to fishermen has gone down very well with the community," Joshi said.

Joshi added that no case of hunting of whale shark has been reported in the last two years.

Jayantibhai Takrasai, considered very close to Morari Bapu, said they had been approached by wild life activists and state government to support the "Save The Whale Shark" campaign.

"Bapu agreed and appealed to fishermen by approaching them against killing. In his appeal Bapu told fishermen to stop the killing of whale shark, which comes to breed in the Saurasthra coast and is also a vegetarian," Takrasai said.

The appeal made by Morari Bapu at different forums in the last two years has yielded positive results along with conservation efforts for the whale shark by wildlife activists and state government.

Bapu named the fish "vhali" (loved one) to popularise it.

Joshi said in the recent past, fisherman have released whale sharks from their nets, when caught by chance.

The state forest department has also made efforts to conserve the fish by declaring compensation for the first time for the fishermen, whose nets are being destroyed while rescuing the whale shark.

Gujarat Forest Minister Mangubhai Patel declared `kartik -purnima' (full moon day of month of karthik as per Hindu calendar) as a "whale shark day".

Every year this day will be celebrated with the fishermen community, he added.