Mariamma Charitable Trust (MCT), created by wildlife artist and activist Sunita Dhairyam in 2007, provides critical financial support for efforts that directly reduce human-wildlife conflict in the protected Bandipur forests in South India. MCT safeguards the welfare of large carnivores while providing compensation to villagers for livestock losses.
Dhairyam has long held a profound passion for nature and wildlife, having spent years in Zambia, studying in India, and living in the United States before establishing her home in Mangala village, a zone of human-wildlife conflict. Embedded in the community, she recognized the enormous impact of livestock kills on local village families.
MCT adopts a comprehensive conservation strategy, prioritizing the well-being of local communities near protected forest borders.
The MCT compensates families experiencing loss of domestic animals and livestock by large carnivores, such as tigers, leopards, and wild dogs. Compensation prevents retaliatory poisoning of livestock carcasses which in turn kills the carnivores.
MCT routinely conducts dog neutering and distemper clinics to reduce the chance of disease transfer between domestic animals and forest wildlife.
MCT is the first respondent for any medical emergencies in this fragile landscape which is part of the Niligiri Biosphere, where local village and tribal populations of villagers are poverty ridden.
MCT created “Belaku Kendra,” another brain child of Dhairyam, which focuses on health education and alternate livelihood training for disadvantaged village women. They are trained in crotchet and sewing and are provided regular salaries for their crafts, sold through MCT’s Temple Tree Designs.
We are in Southern India, in the western ghats working within a cluster of villages in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, one of the world’s most important conservation areas.
Compensations
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Dogs Treated
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In the lush forests of India, majestic tigers face peril from both man and nature. Locals, fearing for their own survival, resort to poisoning as a defense against perceived threats to their livestock. Meanwhile, hunters stalk these magnificent beasts, driven by greed for their coveted skins and lucrative body parts, further endangering the existence of these iconic creatures.
Join a growing international community dedicated to MCT’s cause of wildlife protection, and livestock compensation for community well-being.
Years of relentless drought have exacerbated the plight of those living on the fringes of India’s forests. As tigers, leopards, and other wildlife encroach on human settlements in search of sustenance, they inadvertently wreak havoc on livelihoods, preying on livestock and ravaging crops. For these communities, already grappling with the harsh realities of nature, each encounter becomes a battle for survival. Support our dedicated teams of doctors, veterinarians, educators, and planet-centered design experts who respond to medical emergencies and train local communities in alternate livelihoods.
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TESTIMONIALS
The Mariamma Charitable Trust has done really commendable work in protecting tigers and leopards from retaliatory killing, whilst also addressing the economic losses that the rural people face when their cattle are killed by large carnivores.
The Trust’s work in providing free health care and support for education also greatly helps to improve the lives of the poorest of the poor in the local communities
I am a veterinarian with the Wildlife Trust of India and we work in close collaboration with the Forest Department of Karnataka. I first met Sunita when I was 14 years old.
She is totally dedicated to wildlife and is passionate about her work. My role is to attend to injured and dying animals and to build bridges between the local people who suffer losses and the Forest Department. Things have been so much easier with Sunita’s input. I feel she has made a great deal of change in the perceptions of the local people and has contributed greatly towards reducing human-animal conflict in this belt.
This area in the tiger reserve is a mosaic of communities, agricultural land and forests. Traditionally the villagers have tolerated the wildlife but as the human wildlife conflict has intensified, antagonism is fast replacing this tolerance.
Sunita and the Mariamma Charitable Trust are working hard to maintain the traditional tolerance through a multi-pronged approach that focuses on enhancing healthcare and compensating farmers who lose live-stock to large carnivores from the park. These steps are important precursors to achieving the larger goal – the co-existence of human communities and wildlife with both benefiting from the other; humans from the economic value that living close to wildlife can bring through tourism and for wildlife, the maintenance of their habitat, giving them optimal access to food and water. The local communities are confident in the Trust and the dynamic and committed team – your financial support will only further the cause of conservation in this outstanding environment.
