The solely feminine wildlife rescuer in Jammu and Kashmir Aaliya Mir is a outstanding identify in the present day within the area, identified for her work in rescuing and rehabilitating wild animals for over 17 years. Aaliya not too long ago acquired a Wildlife Conservation Award from the Jammu and Kashmir authorities for her distinctive efforts within the area. She is the primary girl within the area to obtain this award. Â
Aaliya grew to become the discuss of the city within the Kashmir area after her movies of rescuing wild animals went viral just a few years in the past. She is Kashmir Valley’s first feminine wildlife rescuer and is the programme head with Wildlife SOS Jammu and Kashmir. Aaliya has been rescuing snakes, bears, birds, leopards, and different animals.Â
Becoming a wildlife rescuer
At the start of her profession, Aaliya confronted a variety of challenges as she was getting into a occupation dominated by males. Many folks questioned her skills based mostly on her gender till they noticed her rescue the animal.
But Aaliya’s workforce at Wildlife SOS Jammu and Kashmir by no means doubted her and all the time inspired her at work. “There are difficulties everywhere, but it also depends on the team you are working with. I can’t be thankful enough to the almighty, that I have the best teammates and the working atmosphere was encouraging. The team did not make me feel that I am the only woman in the field. I feel blessed to have such a work environment,” Mir stated.
Aaliya is married to a veterinarian and this, she stated, helped her discover the sphere of wildlife rescuing higher.Â
“Every parent in the valley wanted their girl child to either become a doctor or go into teaching, it is considered nice for girls to go into these two professions and my family wanted the same for me. But fortunately, I got married to a veterinarian and through him, I got a chance to explore this field. I started to volunteer, and it seemed that I was destined to do wildlife rescue,” stated Mir whereas speaking about how she obtained into the occupation.
Human-animal conflicts in Kashmir
Human-animal conflicts in Kashmir have been on the rise because of speedy urbanisation and waste administration actions. Aaliya recommended that as a substitute of speedy growth and elevated tourism, sustainable growth and eco-tourism needs to be adopted.Â
“The brown bear was a dream to see in the valley, but now you put out some waste outside and you will see a brown bear, why is this happening? Waste management is a failure as all wild animals get attracted to the waste. Leopards come as they see a lot of dogs near the waste dumps. That’s why leopards are roaming in cities and not jungles. We are doing multi-cropping in the paddy fields and that’s why wild animals like bears come to these areas,” she defined.