In 2013, United Nations General Assembly proclaimed March 3 as world wild life day. This is the day to celebrate the flora and fauna present on this beautiful planet and raise awareness about the plight of the endangered species throughout the world and prevent them from getting extinct.

General Trend of Decline in wildlife population is seen throughout the world due to developmental pressure.

This year the mantra is to listen to the young voices because of following reasons.

Ø Population of Under 30 age group constitutes around 50% of total.

Ø Youth are leaders of tomorrow, they should learn from the experience of today’s leaders.

Ø They are the ones who are actively engaged in wild life conservation throughout the world.

Ø They can think out of the box to find novel solutions and have energy to implement them.

Ø Most of the wild life crime is now being conducted on the internet and most of the internet users are youth. So, youth can help in exposing these kind of horrendous crimes.

Ø We need to listen to young voices because new generation can implement new traditions of wildlife appreciation.

Ø For Generation Y, the millenials conserving and managing wildlife is not an option anymore,it has become an obligation. As a responsible citizen of India too this is mandatory as mentioned in Article 51A(g).

Ø Environmental protection is a fundamental duty of every citizen of this country under Article 51-A(g) of our Constitution which reads as follows:

“It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures.”

Thus, seeing all the above reasons youth can become voice of these Voiceless animals. Wildlife lovers who flock the safaris during their holidays won’t be able to digest the news of extinction of these endangered species. If given a chance future can best be prepared by those who will be part of it, because once they are older, they are more likely to support policies which they have helped formulate themselves. We need to promote their capabilities, make use of their energies and collaborate with experts which will enable us to tackle the challenges that are facing wildlife conservation. The elected governments should listen to juvenile voices to conserve wildlife because youth represent a percentage of population today but will be 100% of tomorrow population.

So don’t talk about change be the change, one might think, can a lone voice make any difference, yes it can. Together we can make a difference because we have the power to do something together, the worst we can do is Do Nothing. Use following hashtags #DoOneThingToday, #Youth4wildlife, #Youngvoices, #WWD2017, #Mahawildlife, #MahaForest in your tweet messages and tag Maharashtra Forest Department in the same.

So on this world wild life day, What steps are you going to take for wildlife conservation?