Why the Otter Needs You!
Many years ago, when I began studying the literature - the little there was (and is) - on otters in India, the first thing that struck me was just how much like us they were. It wasn’t just that they were social and familial, playful and boisterous, there was something more….something I could not quite articulate. As I have grown to know more about them and see them in a river, trotting up and down a sand bank or making their determined way ahead, noses in air, the stream behind them forming a classic Kelvin wake pattern, that ‘something’ has remained curiously elusive. What we do know though is that, in a dozen ways, our future and theirs are enmeshed in water.
Otters – eurasian otters – have made an extraordinary comeback in the UK after a few horrific decades when their population fell off a cliff. A few days ago, The Guardian carried an excellent piece on the comeback, with remarkable video footage of - hold your breath - an otter and a fox trotting along the high street of Lincoln city centre (they seemed like they were planning a major heist and had divided roles between them).
The reason for their comeback? Rivers and streams were – and are being – cleaned up: the release of toxic agriculture chemicals and industrial effluents into water was stopped with effective enforcement which included the banning of some nasty stuff. As is the case with most such ecosystems, rivers and otters bounced back in the blink of an eye in ecological time. This is, even for a developed country, an astonishing achievement and what it means is that humans too, not just otters, will benefit. Their survival and ours are joined at the hip.
In India, we have a long, long, long way to go to get there, but I am (surprisingly) optimistic and I believe – as you should too – that many generations from now will see smooth coated otters in their element in a flowing river. To make that happen, there is one thing each of us can do in our daily lives: consume safe food, grown without agricultural chemicals by responsible farmers. This means that we must read up on what we buy and where it is from and, if possible, who grew it. This isn’t just for India’s otters – of which there are three species here, all deeply vulnerable – but for us as well because we drink that water and consume trace elements of chemicals in those foods that are unsafe. And it is for the farmers who grow these organic crops, often against the tide; they are heroes, no less. The extra we pay to buy organic food is a modest insurance against toxicity in our bodies and is an assertion of right to a healthy ecosystem.
And remain an optimist, as you must!
