Few people are aware that Visakhapatnam is host to one of the eight animal rescue centres set up in Andhra Pradesh as part of the central government's initiative to provide protection to old and infirm animals
rescued from various circuses and zoos round the country. Of these, two
are for big cats. Visakhapatnam is lucky to host one such (centre) in
the sprawling grounds adjacent to the Kambalakonda forest reserve.
Driving on NH-5 to Kolkata, one is sure to miss the innocuous looking board tucked away behind the overgrown trees that announces the location of the centre. Once inside, one is treated to the pleasing spectacle of sprawling grounds thick with trees. The two circular structures that house the big cats, 19 lions and 11 tigers, are barely discernible to begin with. Once the eye gets used to the play of sun and shade, one begins to notice the large enclosures fenced with high wire meshes. The air is thick with the smell of antiseptics, spirit, phenol, bleaching powder and the like. All is quiet, other than the chirping of the birds. And then suddenly the air is rent by a distant roar, a grunt or a loud yawn, depending on the time of day; that is how the animals announce their presence.
Look carefully to the left and one very likely gets to see a tiger lazing in the warm sun, or cooling itself in a puddle of water, depending on the time of the year. If disturbed, the animal will give you a bored look and ignore you. If he/she finds your presence too irritating, it will yawn, swat a couple of flies with its tail, stand up, shake itself and amble away into the shelter with a great deal of dignity and poise. If it is a male, he will spray the nearest tree with urine on its way to the shelter to mark his territory.
The 11 tigers in the enclosure are, by and large, a quiet lot. They appear to be well settled; tigers adapt to new surroundings better than the lions, we are told. While other tigers take the visitors in their stride and look back with disinterest, a 27-year-old blind male is highly disturbed by visitors and knocks around his cage, his unseeing eyes glassy and bulging. The stench of the animals is, however, overpowering. Tigers are naturally smelly, they can be detected from a great distance even in the wild.
The lions' enclosure is a different world altogether. The majestic lions have been reduced to skin and bones by years of neglect and abuse; the male lions' manes look scruffy and mangy. Since they 'superannuated,' from 'service' of entertaining a decade or so ago, they have become unused to human association and have become feral. They growl, look away and sit with their backs to you.
"Don't look them in the eye," one is warned. "They don't like it. They feel challenged." However, some of them are not averse to getting a friendly massage from their caregivers, with whom they appear to be on friendly terms. When their backs are rubbed through the iron grills, they visibly relax and purr with delight.
The caregivers might be popular with the animals but the veterinary doctor is certainly not. His arrival sets off a full-throated chorus of protests, and the animals withdraw into the farthest corners possible in their cages. The animals are regularly examined, de-wormed, de-ticked and medicated for their sundry ailments. The doctor prods, pricks and examines where it hurts them most, apart from administering distasteful medicines.
But the worst part of it all is that during that humiliating period of examination the animals are pressed tight into an iron frame, so that they do not attack the good doctor or his assistants and rip off chunks of their body parts. The animal's blood and stool samples are sent to the same poly-clinic that you and I visit. So next time you go looking for your blood report, if you come across a report that reads, "name: Kunal, Age: 20, sex: Male, sample: blood-tiger", don't be shocked!
The animals get one meal a day. Mondays are fast days when they get no food at all. By Tuesday they are starving; the canny creatures are so smart that they can recognize the sound of the auto rickshaw in which their food arrives. They alert one another with impatient growls till the food is placed before them. While their everyday meals consist of chunks of beef, the senior citizens get an extra packet of milk, stirred with raw eggs and easy to digest chicken for breakfast. Their cells are regularly hosed down with water, the entrances to the cells cleaned with phenol, and the pools in which they lounge painstakingly scrubbed with bleaching powder.
A tiger or a lion can live up to its 15th or 16th year in the wild. However, in a shelter, with all the care and attention they get, the animals generally live longer. Most of the animals in the centre are old and in the last lap of their lives. Rehabilitating ex-performing cats is a major challenge. Most of them suffer from chronic physical problems as result of poor diet, absence of medical attention, lack of adequate exercise and untreated old injuries. Most of them carry scars picked up as performing animals; they carry visible injuries on their bodies due to repeated electro-shocking while in training.
Even more distressing is their emotional trauma. They are nervous of spending time in open enclosures and wait patiently at the entrances of their cages to be let in, since that was all they were used to as circus animals. Most animals pace within imaginary confines of their enclosures as they were used to in the circus cages, even though their present enclosures are larger. They are either extremely timid or unnecessarily aggressive as a result of years of abuse.
It is heartening to see those traumatized and ill-treated animals getting a second chance to a decent life. India is justifiably proud of being the first country in the world to set up a whole ministry for animal welfare. It is worth remembering what Mark Twain said of cruelty to animals -- "Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it." India has, hopefully, reduced such cruelty, part of it at least; our law bans the use of certain animals for entertainment. That is just a beginning.
(The writer is a heritage and environmental activist)
Driving on NH-5 to Kolkata, one is sure to miss the innocuous looking board tucked away behind the overgrown trees that announces the location of the centre. Once inside, one is treated to the pleasing spectacle of sprawling grounds thick with trees. The two circular structures that house the big cats, 19 lions and 11 tigers, are barely discernible to begin with. Once the eye gets used to the play of sun and shade, one begins to notice the large enclosures fenced with high wire meshes. The air is thick with the smell of antiseptics, spirit, phenol, bleaching powder and the like. All is quiet, other than the chirping of the birds. And then suddenly the air is rent by a distant roar, a grunt or a loud yawn, depending on the time of day; that is how the animals announce their presence.
Look carefully to the left and one very likely gets to see a tiger lazing in the warm sun, or cooling itself in a puddle of water, depending on the time of the year. If disturbed, the animal will give you a bored look and ignore you. If he/she finds your presence too irritating, it will yawn, swat a couple of flies with its tail, stand up, shake itself and amble away into the shelter with a great deal of dignity and poise. If it is a male, he will spray the nearest tree with urine on its way to the shelter to mark his territory.
The 11 tigers in the enclosure are, by and large, a quiet lot. They appear to be well settled; tigers adapt to new surroundings better than the lions, we are told. While other tigers take the visitors in their stride and look back with disinterest, a 27-year-old blind male is highly disturbed by visitors and knocks around his cage, his unseeing eyes glassy and bulging. The stench of the animals is, however, overpowering. Tigers are naturally smelly, they can be detected from a great distance even in the wild.
The lions' enclosure is a different world altogether. The majestic lions have been reduced to skin and bones by years of neglect and abuse; the male lions' manes look scruffy and mangy. Since they 'superannuated,' from 'service' of entertaining a decade or so ago, they have become unused to human association and have become feral. They growl, look away and sit with their backs to you.
"Don't look them in the eye," one is warned. "They don't like it. They feel challenged." However, some of them are not averse to getting a friendly massage from their caregivers, with whom they appear to be on friendly terms. When their backs are rubbed through the iron grills, they visibly relax and purr with delight.
The caregivers might be popular with the animals but the veterinary doctor is certainly not. His arrival sets off a full-throated chorus of protests, and the animals withdraw into the farthest corners possible in their cages. The animals are regularly examined, de-wormed, de-ticked and medicated for their sundry ailments. The doctor prods, pricks and examines where it hurts them most, apart from administering distasteful medicines.
But the worst part of it all is that during that humiliating period of examination the animals are pressed tight into an iron frame, so that they do not attack the good doctor or his assistants and rip off chunks of their body parts. The animal's blood and stool samples are sent to the same poly-clinic that you and I visit. So next time you go looking for your blood report, if you come across a report that reads, "name: Kunal, Age: 20, sex: Male, sample: blood-tiger", don't be shocked!
The animals get one meal a day. Mondays are fast days when they get no food at all. By Tuesday they are starving; the canny creatures are so smart that they can recognize the sound of the auto rickshaw in which their food arrives. They alert one another with impatient growls till the food is placed before them. While their everyday meals consist of chunks of beef, the senior citizens get an extra packet of milk, stirred with raw eggs and easy to digest chicken for breakfast. Their cells are regularly hosed down with water, the entrances to the cells cleaned with phenol, and the pools in which they lounge painstakingly scrubbed with bleaching powder.
A tiger or a lion can live up to its 15th or 16th year in the wild. However, in a shelter, with all the care and attention they get, the animals generally live longer. Most of the animals in the centre are old and in the last lap of their lives. Rehabilitating ex-performing cats is a major challenge. Most of them suffer from chronic physical problems as result of poor diet, absence of medical attention, lack of adequate exercise and untreated old injuries. Most of them carry scars picked up as performing animals; they carry visible injuries on their bodies due to repeated electro-shocking while in training.
Even more distressing is their emotional trauma. They are nervous of spending time in open enclosures and wait patiently at the entrances of their cages to be let in, since that was all they were used to as circus animals. Most animals pace within imaginary confines of their enclosures as they were used to in the circus cages, even though their present enclosures are larger. They are either extremely timid or unnecessarily aggressive as a result of years of abuse.
It is heartening to see those traumatized and ill-treated animals getting a second chance to a decent life. India is justifiably proud of being the first country in the world to set up a whole ministry for animal welfare. It is worth remembering what Mark Twain said of cruelty to animals -- "Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it." India has, hopefully, reduced such cruelty, part of it at least; our law bans the use of certain animals for entertainment. That is just a beginning.
(The writer is a heritage and environmental activist)
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