"A lot of wildlife trade is going on in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secundarabad.Small animals like hares,monitor lizards and quails are poached from outskirts and sold here in various parts of the city.The wildlife conservation department does not seem to be taking any action,"claims Vasanthi Vadi, Secretary of People For Animals(PFA).
According to this enthusiastic lady who has been into animal welfare since the last 10 yrs,"The reason for this kind of violation by the people is mostly ignorance and superstitions.For some it is a deliacy and for others it is medicinal.People are ignorant of the wildlife act according to which the culprit would either be asked to pay a fine of 5000 rupees to 50,0000 and serve a jail term of 1-7 years. Saving wildlife is a must for a proper balance of ecology. We in India are not cruel but may be unaware of what an animal goes through before it ends on our own dinner tables."
Vasanthi and her husband Krishna,helped by 2 fulltime inspectors and many volunteers work on specific complaints or through information. She opines that "there is a lot of poaching around Hyderabad. Because there are small jungles or woods which are a habitat of the hares,monitor lizards, snakes,wild boars, and many birds. Labourers who are basically from villages working in industries relish the meat of boars,hares,monitor lizards etc. Hares are chopped , skinned and sold. The traps for these hares are so horrible that most of their skin gets caught in the trap. Usually these little animals die of shock if not trauma. Their throats are first slit and they are allowed to bleed to death and later skinned to be sold."
According to her, monitor lizards are caught for their meat and oil. She explains the gory details of the death of these legendary lizards that were to have helped Shivaji climb a fortwall. "These lizards are very fast so poachers trap them and break their backbone or legs to stop them from escaping. If given a chance to escape, these lizards have chances of surviving. It is superstition that the oil extract of these lizards cures body ache, so these poor reptiles are boiled in hot oil."
The couple who are also founder members of Blue cross and members of the SPCA decided to start this organisation because "my husband and I have been in animal welfare since the last 10 years, but have started this organisation only 3 months ago. We plan to prevent all kinds of wildlife trade in the cities apart from protection and prevention and to work on laboratory animal rights and implementation of the prevention of cruelty to animals act. The basic idea is .... no violation of any animals rights. I feel no end justifies extradition of animals."
The animal lover points out, "Bears that usually live from 25 to 30 years in the wild live only for 5 years in captivity. Bears lap up their food like dogs but these people bind up the mouth totally and leave a small hole from which these unfortunate animals have to suck gruel made of maida or cornflour. Out of the 14 bears we seized from tamashawallahs, atleast 10 of them had tuberculosis because of malnutrition, bad diet and a lot of work. A bear is a heavy animal which loves to eat and sleep. They are not used to walking and these tamashawallahs make them walk for long distances, made to beg for food and whenever some one asks for a thaveez(talisman) , a clump of its hair is plucked thoughtlessly n made into a talisman. If the animal is very spirited n large, these tamashawallahs put a stick through its nose and use it as a lever to manouvre the bear. Adult bears cannot be captured easily because they would rather die than surrender so these men catch the cubs and in the process kill the mother because mother bears are very posessive and will not part from their cubs. So for every bear which is picked up, there is a mother who is killed. All in the name of entertainment."
"I feel one should be made aware of the pain the animals suffer in the name of religion and entertainment. Snakes are fed milk during the Nagpanchami festival in the name of religion. People should realise that the digestive system of snakes is not made to digest milk. The snakes are starved for days before they carry them around, so these unfortunate snakes just dip into whatever is offered and invariably die soon. Earlier we had experts who defanged snakes temporarily and the snakes would not secrete poison for some time. Cobras require poison to digest food and the moment you remove the gland, it dies within 40 days. Snake charmers catch it in the name of religion and finally kill them. Poachers skin a cobra alive with a knife n throw the writhing white body away nto the bushes to sell the skin for a paltry 100 rupees. If they chop the head n kill it, then the skin would be of no use, so they skin it alive. This skinless cobra has a slow, agonising and painful death by ants or otherwise. Ironically they first do puja to it all day long. even while shooting a feature film on a snake, atleast 100 of them die. These snakes cannot bear the heat of the light, they are manhandled, pulled and pushed till the shot is finalised. Their mouths are stitched because no hero or heroine will dare to work unless they are sure that the snake does not bite. Otherwise they are defanged and the end result is once again death within 40 days. All for a 3 hour entertainment film."
