Former England batsman and animal activist Kevin Pietersen has been closely associated with wildlife conservation in South Africa and India, as well as, spending a good amount of time towards conservation of the rhinos apart from doing commentary in cricket since retiring from the game in 2014.
The former destructive batsman has set up his own charity named SORAI – Save Our Rhino's in Africa and India to rescue and rehabilitate abandoned or injured rhinos.
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And now, on the occasion of World Environment Day (June 5), the English man has revealed that he is planning to re-launch his charity SORAI in India on September 22 while hailing India for their incredible job of protecting the animals, especially rhinos in the country.
Pietersen told Sportstar: “Rhino horn is the most expensive commodity in the black market. It fetches between 65 to 85 thousand US dollars. In May, there has been a rhino that has been killed in the Kaziranga National Park. But actually, in India, they have the most wonderful and probably it's their best conservation project ever in the numbers of rhinos that they are now, where they are having to transport and relocate rhinos out of Kaziranga National Park because of how brilliantly they have protected the animals.”
He further added, “So, India is certainly the world leader in the protection of rhino and they have done the most fantastic job and shooting the National Geographic documentary in March opened my eyes and made me so proud of my association with India.”
On other plans along with launching SORAI in India, Pietersen said: “We will have a range of clothing, which we will be selling in India, in the UK, and around the world. 20 percent of the profit will be going to the CWS in India for all the merchandise that’s sold in India, which protects the animal, human-wildlife conflict in India, protects the Indian rhinos, the elephants and make sure that the animals in India live a better life and we are completely committed and dedicated to making sure that endangered species don’t go extinct. We are incredibly excited about the range of clothing that’s coming out.”
On being asked about his association with Rohit Sharma in this endeavor, Pietersen signed off by saying, “Rohit Sharma puts my rhino on his bat. He is brilliantly dedicated to saving the endangered species. He is a wonderful man of conservation and is somebody who is right at the forefront of that conservation space in India. He is a great guy.”
(With Sportstar Inputs)
