KEEP YOUR Distance!

The young author discusses the need for us to respect and allocate, as we do for each other, 'personal space' for the wildlife we love and enjoy.

Imagine you get on a bus to go to your office. Suddenly, a person comes and stands beside you. As the bus is crowded, the person stands too close to you. Don’t you feel uncomfortable?

This need for distance is very important to humans, who are instinctively uncomfortable with people invading and entering what is referred to as ‘personal space’. But when it comes to wild animals, such an idea remains unappreciated. Just like humans, wild animals also have a feeling of personal space. When we face a wild animal, we forget our limits and come too close to the animal for a better look or for a picture. Viral videos of a tiger showing angry gestures to tourists in the Corbett National Park and a rhino chasing down safari vehicles in Kaziranga Tiger Reserve are testimonials to human encroachments on wild spaces.

In such a situation, we endanger ourselves and the wild animals’ lives. Animals only get aggressive or agitated when we forget our limits and get too near, as if to threaten the animal. We refuse to follow our principles of ‘personal spaces’ and ‘private air bubbles’ while venturing into wild havens, which often ends in the death or injury of one or both parties. This indicates our overall unfamiliarity with the abilities of wild animals and our know-how about how to act near them. This idea of animals having their individual personal spaces is either absent or at its best rudimentary in our minds.