New Delhi: He rules celluloid screens and is known as the sultan of Bollywood. But little do people know that Bollywood stalwart Shah Rukh Khan has a passion for wildlife. And it is this love for the nature that has turned him now into a Wildlife conservationist.
While other celebrities are doing their bit for the environment, talking about global warming or posing as caged animals, Shah Rukh Khan will be doing his bit telling the country about the hardships faced by the forest guard to protect country's wildlife.
"He is our nation's unsung national hero-the India forest Guard. He is a real life hero because he does this to save the jungle, and the animals that live there. Day in and day out he is matching with and battling powerful enemies-wildlife poachers and timber smugglers, and he is willing to lay down his life for this," the NGO that will carry on the campaign with Shah Rukh Khan was quoted by PTI.
But why the forest guard? Aneeta (Tykee) Malhotra of Sanskara Trust and Asian Conservation Awareness Programme (ACAP), the NGO which has launched this awareness campaign
explains. "Forest guards because they are the ones who put themselves in danger to protect the wildlife and the forest, they deal with poachers, they are the ones reporting the
troubles in the jungle. Moreover, forest guards in India are working without proper facilities", she says.
One might question the contribution of an awareness campaign on forest guards in sensitising the public towards their environment. Here is the catch, while Shah Rukh speaks about the forest guard, the campaign asks people to help the forest guards by shunning wildlife products.
Aneeta says, "The general public is the consumer of those products which are manufactured from the depleting resources. There is a demand for ivory products, tiger products putting at risk many endangered species. Less of demand for such products will mean less of poaching, which would aid the forest guards."
(With PTI inputs)
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