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The heads of state of the world’s two largest democracies share the common interest that to conserve nature and compassion for wildlife. I had known of two such stories from the White House and had wondered if a similar lead would ever emerge from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The unbridled commercial interest in the USA came close to harvesting all Sequoias pines or the Redwoods for the wood pulp and safety matches industries. When the very last surviving patch of some 100 acres of Redwoods was sold out, an American citizen rose to the challenge. When all his efforts to save the last stand of the Redwoods fell on deaf ears, he tried to sneak into the White House and meet President Lincoln in person. He managed to slip past the security apparatus and reached the room adjoining the Oval office where the President was in a meeting. That is when he got detected and in the ensuing pandemonium President Lincoln came out to see the commotion for himself. The President called for a map and asked him to draw the boundary of the surviving glade of the Redwoods. There and then, Lincoln declared it a National Park. In a similar story, on his first morning in the White House, President Ronald Reagan encountered a few Chipmunks (a double of the Indian Squirrel in shape, size, habits and the endearing traits) sitting up-right on hind quarters, nibbling at acorns in his lawn. President Reagan was mesmerised. Thereafter every morning the President would broadcast peanuts on the lawn without fail and spend a few moments watching the chipmunks feeding. One morning the President had to chair a meeting in the Oval office much earlier than the daily schedule. Finding no peanuts on the lawn, several chipmunks clambered up the walls till a few among them gained the ledge of the window right opposite of where the President sat in his chair. When the President saw them, he devised a brief recess and quietly slipped out to feed peanuts to the chipmunks. President Reagan narrated this incident in a video on the White House made by a TV channel. A similar story emerged from the Rashtrapati Bhavan. On June 2 last year, out on his morning walk in the Mughal Gardens, President APJ Abdul Kalam noticed an adult peacock crouched and inert by the side of a bush while hundreds of others on the estate were active with the dawn chorus. The President noticed a big lump wedged between the mandibles and over the right eye of the peacock. The resident veterinary surgeon was immediately called to attend to the sick bird. On examination, it was found that a cancerous tumour was pressing on the right eye ball, blanking vision. The tumour had also lodged inside the mouth cavity and the bird could neither eat nor drink. The peacock was operated
upon the next day and the 3x4 cm tumour, along with its stalk
originating from turbinate bones, was removed. Nearly 48 hours later,
the bird took to feeding, his mandible fully functional. Two days later
the laboratory report declared that the growth was benign. The President
looked moved when on the seventh day the peacock was reintroduced to his
natural environment. |
