In India the stray animals are struggling for their survival. Many are starving to death and many are being killed in the name of COVID 19. In this hour of crisis their only saviours are the caregivers, feeders and the animal welfare NGOs. Of course in some states the respective Governments have come forward and with the help of their corporations are feeding the starving animals.
Along with stray animals the pet animals especially dogs and cats have also suffered and are suffering still. They have been abandoned by their owners after the rumours spread that they spread the virus to humans.. For a detailed report kindly read an article by Niharika Sharma:
All this while one wonders what is the Environment Ministry which is responsible for animals in India doing?
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is headed by the Cabinet Minister Prakash Javadekar along with Babul Suprio who is the Minister of State.
The ministry is responsible for planning, promoting, coordinating, and overseeing the implementation of environmental and forestry programmes in the country. The main activities undertaken by the ministry include conservation and survey of the flora of India and fauna of India, forests and other wilderness areas; prevention and control of pollution; afforestation, and land degradation mitigation. It is responsible for the administration of the national parks of India.
As the ministry is responsible for the conservation of its fauna, hence it should be doing everything possible to protect and preserve it especially during this pandemic.
Incidentally the cabinet minister Prakash Javadekar is also the Information and Broadcasting Minister of India. Doordarshan (DD National) which was airing misleading information about animals spreading COVID 19 comes under the ministry.
Having two such powerful ministries the Minister could have easily used the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to bust the myths related with animals spreading the virus .So many pets could have been saved from being abandoned and so many stray dogs and cats been saved from being killed. But they failed them.
Just fail to understand why is the Environment Ministry failing the animals of India.
What stops them from making an appeal to the public not to abandon their pets or not to harass the caregivers and the dog feeders while they feed the animals.
Kindly go on the following link to see what animal feeders are thinking about the govt and how frustrated they are with the whole system.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1547537258757756&id=100005044899742
They are talking about the Animal welfare Board of India (AWBI). It is a very important body which not only makes guidelines but also advises the government on animal issues. Just few years back there was only one board which directly came under the Ministry of Environment but now there are two AWBIs. How it happened and why, one just fails to understand. There are two websites of AWBI. Kindly go on the two websites and taste the confusion yourself.
http://www.awbi.org/about.php (Chairman SP Gupta) it comes under the Ministry of Environment
http://www.awbi.in/meetings.html (Chairman OP Chowdhary) it comes under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. This is s new ministry which came into existence last year in 2019.
The chairman OP Chowdhary is the same chairman who issued the life saving letter for stray animals which made feeding animals as an essential service during the lockdown. This was the same chairman who had sent letters to all the state secretaries urging them to tell the people of their states that dogs and cats do not spread COVID 19 to humans.
The two letters are not on the website of both the AWBI website.
One thing is for sure that things are not good within the board and the ministry. There is complete lack of coordination.
What is going on within the ministry and the board is there problem but their apathetic and irresponsible attitude towards the animals and the caregivers is just unpardonable. It's really very sad that people at top are more busy in their personal rifts than animal welfare. That too at this time when the animals and the animal lovers need them the most.
It seems the ministry is only for name sake. So it's best to get rid of such a ministry.
The ministry has certainly failed the animals of India and by not openly clarifying that dogs and cats do not spread COVID- 19 the ministry is actually giving its approval to the myth being true.
Also why hasn't the ministry coordinated with all the state Govts in providing food to the stray animals? Where is their action plan for the stray animals of India? Do they have any plan?
On 25th April an old tigress Kalpana died in a Delhi Zoo. This news did not make headlines because she was found COVID 19 negative. Although the zoo authority say that she died of old age but the animal right activists say otherwise. Kindly go on the two links to read about her.
This is what the Zoo authority say about Kalpana's death:
This is what the animal right activist Gauri Maulekhi has to say about her death
As common citizen of India we don't know who is right and what actually led to the death of the tigress but one thing is for sure that the environment ministry has definitely failed thousands of animals whose life man has made miserable in India.
Wake up Environment Ministry and save the animals of India. They are your responsibility.