CONSERVATION THROUGH COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

Pashoo Pakshee and its founder Savini Sonavaria always fascinates me.

- Bhavna Menon

From creating awareness about wildlife, forests and tribes through their products, to help preserve traditional skill sets, to supporting close to 250 artisans across India, Savini has not only provided a sustainable livelihood opportunity to the most vulnerable of our community members across protected areas but also helped change mindsets socially as well as environmentally, thereby bringing people both in the rural and urban space, closer to nature. For this, she is our Green Warrior of the Month.

Could you tell our readers about your journey, and what inspired you to initiate alternate livelihoods for community members around tiger reserves under the ambit of Pashoo Pakshee?

Ever since I can remember I have been a nature lover and a wildlife enthusiast. My love for it only grew as I got to know more about it. I had done a couple of safaris with family and friends and I remember that I used to be super keen to buy wildlife souvenirs from the gift shops. Almost all of it was loud t-shirts, mugs & plastic keyrings. In 2013 when I was completing my master’s in Engineering, I chose to do a crossfunctional thesis with Nature Conservation Foundation to write an algorithm on bird call recognition. During the project, I interacted with a lot of conservation scientists and researchers and learnt about the pressing issue of man-animal conflict and the need to provide alternative livelihoods to communities who shared space with wildlife. This led me to the idea that why can’t communities living in the national park make souvenirs for the constant flow of tourists that visit these parks?