‘Bholu’ is a male dog of about seven years of age who had met with a serious accident when he came under the wheels of a Nagpur Municipal Corporation car (and which was probably deliberate according to the eye witnesses) in Nov 2018 near then under construction metro railway station of Rajendra Nagar, Hingna road, Nagpur when the trust president Ashish V Pradhan happened to pass from that road in the last week of the same month and year and his eyes fell on Bholu then lying on a plastic sheet kept under a tin shed with not many hopes of survival.
But that was probably the turning point for Bholu then fighting for life and with his responsibility as an animal welfare trainer Shri Ashish arranged for his regular treatment, food and personally cleaned his sleeping rags every day as Bholu was unable to get up for his daily chores. We also received valuable cooperation in this effort to make him stand again from nearby watchmen and we are happy to inform you that today Bholu is now in satisfactory condition and is cared for well even after more than two and a half years after finding him.
Somewhat similar is the case of Raju a male dog who was found on a street in east Nagpur in August, 2014 and was about three years old then. Raju was infected with lice, had been hit by a recklessly driven vehicle and was lying at the roadside under a tree for three consecutive rainy days in a neglected state as per the information given by an eyewitness.
When trust president Ashish V Pradhan happened to pass from that road in middle of August that year he provided necessary emergency medical aid to Raju and subsequently made arrangements for his rehabilitation at the premises of a then friendly animal welfare organisation. Afterwards Raju was placed in the custody of an acquaintance and is well cared for since then and the expenses are borne by our trust.
And The Work Continues...
Even before the establishment of trust we had rehabilitated about 15 horses from Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Corporation Ltd, Pune, Maharashtra state, used in the production of Anti Snake Venom Serum (ASVS) and Tetanus Toxoiid (TT).
Matters relating to prevention of cruelty to animals, animal welfare, reducing their sufferings and also regarding implementation of the Sterilisation cum Immunisation (against rabies disease) Programme (SIP) for Stray and Community dogs as per the provisions of Animal Birth Control Rules (Dogs) 2001 under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 (in India) are brought to the notice of concerned authorities in the country and overseas for their quick redressal through letters, emails, tweets etc. And the help provided by the Right to Information Act of 2005 in this respect is immense.
It is pertinent to note that in the year 2010 a letter was written to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin requesting him to look into and apprehend the culprits committing unlawful killings of brown bears on Russia-China border. Similarly on 22nd July 2010 a letter was written on behalf of our trust to the authorities in Baghdad, Iraq for immediately putting an end to the practice of killing stray and community dogs in Baghdad and Iraq and instead implement the SIP there which has been found to be universally very effective.
In recent times the authorities in Kerala state were requested to stop inhuman cruelties on dogs and continue with the SIP which always brings good results in the long run and is completely humane. In the year 2019 Buldhana dist (Maharashtra state) police authorities were contacted and requested to book the culprits in the unlawful and saddening killings of over eighty to eighty five stray and community dogs by unknown persons who were later identified as employees of Bhokardan municipality in Jalna dist of Maharashtra state and dumping them in the adjoining jungles of Buldhana dist. Some fifteen dogs were rescued by staffers of forest department by removing strings tied to their mouth. It is indeed a matter of serious concern for Maharashtra state that even after banning of inhuman and lawless killing of dogs on 26th January 1994 to be replaced by SIP, the very employees of that municipality who were supposed to care of the animals and implement the SIP were involved in the brutal killings of animals and it is equally surprising that nobody who were witnesses to the unlawful capture and tying etc did not take any notice or inform the police authorities.
It is worth mentioning here that Buldhana Rural Police acted promptly and efficiently in the matter and booked the culprits under the sections of PCA Act, 1960. Such cases of unlawful killings of stray and community dogs reported from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state were also brought to the notice of authorities there for appropriate action.
Also we feel that it was a completely wrong action on the part of State govt to Kill sister Avani a full grown beautiful tigress in Pandharkawda tehsil of Yawatmal dist of Maharashtra state instead of tranquilising her and sending her to a rehabilitation centre near Nagpur for which we had requested the forest authorities. But instead, a certain notorius animal hunter cum killer was requisitioned from Hyderabad, A.P. for killing her.
Earlier another beautiful tigress was reportedly made to run hungry for days together by forest department employees under the leadership of the same notorious animal hunter cum killer but she died unfortunately and sadly by electrocution because of unlawful passage of current through a farm fencing in Wardha dist, Maharashtra. Incidentally because of a wrong directive from the forest dept she was earlier released from the said rescue centre only to meet this devastating tragedy. The most important point to be noted here is that that due to uncontrolled urbanisation taking place in Maharashtra state and elsewhere the wildlife habitats are shrinking rapidly and wild animals are unable to move freely in large tracts of forests unhindered as they used to do previously because now there is always human interference in the territory which is supposed to be that of their own.
Many times forest land is encroached upon illegally for farming and because of this humans bring themselves in direct confrontation with tigers/tigresses/leopards residing in the area, wanton free venturing in the forests against warnings is another violation of law regularly committed by people but these facts are deliberately overlooked by reporting media which often does a disservice to the wild animals, and in turn environment by unnecessarily helping pressurise the forest dept to kill the wild animal/s. An alarming decrease in prey base because of ever shrinking forest land, decrease in grasslands due to erratic nature of Monsoon makes them turn to cows and buffaloes belonging to farmers. And when this attempt to kill bovines for satisfying hunger as a last resort is repulsed by humans there is a natural reaction from the wild cats against humans themselves, killing them which we quite wrongfully and unforgivably term as ‘man-eaters many times without proposing how these wild beasts should survive and that was what probably happened with sister Avani also.
And though a previous request to the state govt to grant us a suitable piece of land at village Waranga, near Nagpur which was already being used as grazing land by local cattle for many years for the purpose of mainly Fodder Development Programme (FDP) for cattle of the surrounding villages and an animal hospital didn’t materialise through as the same land was deemed fit for building a certain law college by the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court in the year 2016.
But because of this there was unnecessarily considerable loss of time in the land allotment process we had been following right from the year 02/2009 with high hopes of allotment in our favour and resultant absence of a dedicated FDP site to serve the needy cattle besides facility to treat seriously ill animals especially those suffering from serious diseases like cancer which we had planned for the above site. But now we are again looking for another place for establishing our rehabilitation home and an animal hospital with special facilities for completely free treatment of cancer affected animals.
It is also important to mention here that the corona virus pandemic has shown us that if this cruelty and neglect of animals, their thoughtless slaughter, unabashed destruction of trees, plants, forests, wildlife habitats, grazing lands, rampant pollution of rivers and dumping of plastics and other pollutant in oceans continue, nature will pay back humanity in the same coin in the form of such pandemics. Therefore we must strive for betterment of animals and conservation of nature. Planting maximum possible number of trees every year in every possible region of world and subsequently taking their care for the next three four years period will help human beings and animals get fresh natural oxygen so vital for the sustenance of life on Earth and help reduce global temperature rise.
In this context we quote ever important words of Mahatma Gandhi who said, ‘Mother Earth Has Sufficient to Provide for Everybody’s Need But Not Greed’ which we must remember always. We also mention with satisfaction here that elder sisters Mrs Meenakshi , (resident of New Jersey, United States of America) Mrs Rohini (Retd Chief Manager, Bank of India, Panaji branch, Goa) and Dr. Sakshi (PhD in Botany) and nephew Master Akhilesh also take interest in the activities of our trust on regular basis.