By Team Mangalorean

Panaji, October 11, 2007: Someone getting wild or weird publicity for their page 3 acts is a commonest thing in the media today. But when it comes to actual issues in the wild (read wild life), the pens are never mightier than sword. In many cases,  the pens subtle their existence.

Amidst this reality, there is an exception. Meet Prerna Singh Bindra, a versatile wild life journalist, who has done an extensive research on India's jungles and jotted them down anecdote after anecdote in her recent book "The King and I: Travels in Tigerland."

"Our front pages are filled with politics, Bollywood, cricket with little space for wildlife and environment stories. There is awareness but it is not a priority at all," Bindra, who has penned around 1,000 articles in different publications and currently employed with The Pioneer, stated.

Talking to this reporter during a presentation and panel discussion on her book "The King and I: Travels in Tigerland" in Goa  recently,  Bindra said that wildlife and environment is a subject which requires constant monitoring and follow up.

Bindra in her book, which is aptly dressed by 200 wildlife photographs besides her experiences with the King - Tiger, has painted a real picture of a big cat.

Says the journalist, "it is not just media, the wildlife is not in the national consciousness itself. A national weekly gives annual awards judging states on various parameters but environment is never a consideration for such awards."

Bindra's book is a journey through some of India's most beautiful and renowned wildlife sanctuaries, nestled in the ruins of Rajasthani forts, among wild grasses, or in the distinctive wetlands of eastern India.

Accounts of her travels in these wild places are deeply personal sketches, bringing out with great finesse the lasting effects the place and its inhabitants have on the visitor.

"My first brush with the big cat was in 2001 at Ranthambore; We were in open jeep and it was surrounded by four tigers.. I felt so much blessed," says Bindra, who broke the news about poaching of tiger Bumbooram, affectionately named ‘Boomerang' by the visiting US President Bill Clinton, and his equally famous home, Ranthambhore.

The author painting the grim picture about the big cat says,"less than 3,000 tigers remain in the wild in India, the Asiatic Lion number any abysmal 350. The fate of the snow leopard is unknown while we lose a leopard a day.

"Poaching is a huge syndicate. Lot of money is involved in the trade. It's par with the drug trade," she notes.

According to her the funds required to protect wildlife are not enough. "Forest guards are ill equipped they go around with dandas… at times they are poorly paid," Bindra said narrating few anecdotes during her trips to wildlife sanctuaries.

"There is 30 to 40 per cent manpower shortage in the wildlife protection," she informed.

The journalist suggested that the help from the locals living within the wildlife can prove very useful. "These people should be shifted out from the wildlife and their knowledge should be used," she said.