Precious Lives, Precious People

My first acquaintance with Saleem had all the foreboding of an unpleasant experience. I was on a mission to collect huge quantities of water plants from a filthy desilted lake and transport it some 25 kms through untarred stretches of road on my 2 wheeler, with a pillion rider for company - all for some birds that I heard were being 'rescued'. I had no idea of what that meant except that it sounded like a good thing to do. But now I wondered what had made me agree to this insane undertaking.


and then I was glad I did. Nothing in my adult years till then had prepared me to experience the unconditional sense of humanity I was to see at the wildlife rehabilitation centre that Saleem had breathed life into.


Saleem is one of those rare gifted individuals that one can only look up in awe at. And if lucky, one gets to work with him and see some miracles happen with human hands! In the many years that I have been associated with Saleem, I have many many experiences that kept telling me to keep hope, be positive and cherish those magical moments when one sees the earth coming back to life, when colors refill the sky and when nature comes together in ways that re-build faith in the good deed.


To believe that a large tract of dry, rocky land can be greened, to mobilize an army of volunteers to spare their time week on week, hours at stretch, to study and carefully plan a variety of trees meant to replicate the local ecosystem, to water, to plant, to dig up a pond, to lay trenches, and to carefully nurture the rejuvenation of this ecosystem, requires conviction, an infectious passion, and a never-say-die attitude. Saleem showed us all that it is possible. As volunteers at the centre, we became converts filled with a sense of pride about every sapling we planted that grew into a tree, every corner of a trench we dug to channel water into spaces that needed it, every 'pathi' we designed and every patch that we de-weeded to make all this happen. We now believed that we can do this again and do more!

There were birds that came writhing in pain, that instantly calmed in his hands; snakes in pain thought dangerous to handle, that he cared for with the greatest patience and sympathy; snakes eggs that he incubated in a makeshift incubator for a couple of months, to successfully release the young into the wild; 2 day old chicks that were fed hourly for weeks on end before they grew into their adult plummage and flew out into the world; baby squirrels that scampered around the place as they feasted off the natural habitat that was built for them; foxes with mutilated limbs (caught in animal traps), birds of prey (road hits), injured monkeys in for  long term treatment, confiscated quails, circus bears, tortoises, turtles and other reptiles that were casualties of the city's unbridled construction activities. And this list doesn't come close to the variety and numbers of cases that he gave his attention to.

This would have been an enviable range of work for any qualified veterinary surgeon in the country. So what further amazes is Saleem's self-taught knowledge and skills in this field. To define him as a wildlife rehabber or enthusiast or photographer or naturalist or animal lover or illustrator any such, will be to do gross injustice to him because while he is all this, he is much more. He is what we need more of (may his tribe increase) to ensure the world is a better place to live, to learn to appreciate the beauty around us, to believe in the power of one...

Smita