If you remove wildlife from city, you will lose all your flowers and trees, and your air: Maneka Gandhi

Bengaluru, September 29, 2019: People for Animals(PfA) Wildlife Hospital and Rescue Centre, Bangalore conducted ‘Living With The Wild’, a special event in the presence of its Chairperson, Maneka Gandhi at Bangalore International Centre on Saturday.

The event explored the need for the conservation of urban wild animals, the health of a fast-growing city, and the role of its citizens.

Prominent Bangaloreans Prof.Harini Nagendra, Leo F Saldhana, Dr Aravind Madhyastha, Prof MV Rajeev Gowda and PCCF (Wildlife), Sanjai Mohan in a panel discussion deliberated on the role and preservation of urban wildlife and measures that should be taken to protect the city's wildlife heritage. The panel also discussed a variety of issues that directly correlate to the ecology and wildlife of the city.

Maneka Gandhi, MP, Chairperson, PfA who also grew up in Bangalore said, “Did you know this Wildlife Hospital alone has rescued 61 slender lorisis?. Every city needs a wildlife rescue centre and India’s glory is that we still have wildlife. Every single animal brings to us life, we don’t give it life. If you remove them, you will lose all your trees, you will lose all your flowers and you will lose your biodiversity”.

Alpana Bhartia, Founder Trustee, PfA Bangalore said, “I believe this event is the beginning of good engagement with the Corporate world of Bangalore. We need to focus on the wider viewpoint of what is Bangalore’s wildlife and why we all need to work together and support each other’s efforts and collaborate in a way only Bangalore can. We all can proudly call Bangalore a city for wildlife and together reinstate our title of city of lakes and sacred green spaces.”

The evening also witnessed the release of the short film, ‘Saving Wild City’ by Mahesh Bhat that captures the contribution of Boopesh Reddy, MD, BREN Corporation and how he went on to build a state of the art primate socialising habitat at PfA, Bangalore.