How tiger conservation is improving the health of rural communities in India

On World Health Day, Born Free examines how its Living with Tigers programme is improving the health of local communities near Pench National Park, in central India

The small school in the centre of Khursapar has been turned into a makeshift doctor’s surgery for the morning. Born Free’s Living with Tigers’ Mobile Health Unit is in town.
 
Khursapar, a rural village in central India, is 15kms from the nearest health facility. Emergency care is 75kms away in the city of Nagpur. The Mobile Health Unit is an initiative by Satpuda Foundation, a partner of Born Free’s Living with Tigers programme, which gives local communities like Khursapar access to vital healthcare. Established in 2004, it serves 48 villages around Pench National Park.
 
The unit is made up of a doctor, driver and community officer, and it’s out on the road three days a week, holding two surgeries a day. It treats minor illnesses, prescribes medication and also holds a special camp for eye surgeries once a year.
 
Some 30 people have come to visit the unit at Khursapar – about 10% of the population of the village. The Mobile Health Unit sees an average of 40 people per surgery but can see as many as 200. Of the patients today, a woman and her child have a persistent cough. Another woman has joint pains.
 
Their ailments are typical of those treated by the unit, although some cases can be much more serious. Three pregnant women have been helped with complications during labour, for example, and one forest guard was rushed to hospital by the unit after he drunk water that had been poisoned by poachers who were trying to catch a tiger.

“Born Free’s Living with Tigers programme supports a network of Indian NGOs to help conserve wild tigers and find solutions to human-wildlife conflict across the Satpuda region of central India. Initiatives like the Mobile Health Unit help wildlife conservation because they instil sympathy and trust with local communities in the work of Living with Tigers, and also act as a way for Living with Tigers to find out if anything new is happening in the community that could adversely affect wildlife. Thanks to the Mobile Health Unit, eight poachers have been caught after patients passed on crucial information,” said Howard Jones, CEO at Born Free.
 
Jones added: “For villages like Khursapar, Born Free’s Mobile Health Unit is a real lifeline for the communities it serves. With your help, we can continue this vital work.”

To support Born Free’s Living with Tigers initiative visit www.bornfree.org.uk/living-with-tigers

About Born Free

Born Free’s mission is to ensure that all wild animals, whether living in captivity or in the wild, are treated with compassion and respect and are able to live their lives according to their needs. Born Free opposes the exploitation of wild animals in captivity and campaigns to keep wildlife in the wild.
 
Born Free promotes Compassionate Conservation to enhance the survival of threatened species in the wild and protect natural habitats while respecting the needs of and safeguarding the welfare of individual animals. Born Free seeks to have a positive impact on animals in the wild and protect their ecosystems in perpetuity, for their own intrinsic value and for the critical roles they play within the natural world. For more information about Born Free please visit: www.bornfree.org.uk