Skip to content Skip to navigation

Celebrating Wildlife Week

We are celebrating Wild life week but as we read this hundreds of animals are falling prey to the poacher’s gun, succumbing to the onslaught of floods or becoming senseless victims of man’s cruelty. Destruction of natural habitat is a serious threat to wild life which deprives these wild animals of food shelter and water. Their quest for survival brings them in the proximity of human dwellings which in turn puts them in danger of being pelted with stones, bludgeoned by machetes or simply shot at point blank range. Indians are not abreast with the techniques of handling wild animals which stray into human habitation. Rough handling and terror of being attacked leads people to mortally wound the innocent animals.

The Zoo culture is another inhuman practice that needs to be abolished. Innocent animals caged in tiny cells for public viewing is the cruelest form of cruelty towards animals. These birds and animals do time in these prison like cells when they could race or fly around in the jungles with total freedom. Its time we converted our zoos to national parks and stop the exploitation of innocent animals.

Animal policing is an unheard of activity in our country. But as we share our world with theses creatures they should have equal rights of a better life free of fear and any kind of exploitation. Animal labor in all forms should be abolished or controlled with laws. The sight of old horses pulling heavily loaded carts are a common scene, where the owner hits the beast repeatedly till the horse stumbles and in some cases falls never to get up again. Elephants young and old are seen pulling or carrying logs in our very own city roads. These animals have a right to a free life of its own. Another heart rending scene is the sight of poultry chickens crammed in a small caged on top of one another waiting to be butchered in a butcher’s shop and goats loaded in a small vehicle and transported in a similar fashion. Many of theses animals die due to lack of proper breathing space or due to asphyxia. They are living breathing creatures like us why not spare a thought for them like us they too need a better living condition. Many countries have adopted better arrangements of such farm animals and they are kept in a better place in humane and unhygienic conditions. Let me not go into the animal sacrifice rituals as enough has been said in this regard without any success. At least let’s put a stop to animals being used for inhuman races for mere amusement of humans where the animals are repeatedly whipped till their skin give way to gaping wounds. Amusement at such heinous cost of hapless animals who give you only love and true love is dastardly.

In developed countries like Australia and US there are the animal police at their disposal who keep a constant vigil for their safety. Near forest areas or highways with animal corridors where there are chances of accidents. Moreover there are animal help lines for the public to inform about any stray animals injured in any kind of accidents. Neighbors too can avail of these help lines to bring to boot careless owners of domestic pets. Registered collars are provided to pets for their identification if lost and found and to check for vaccinations etc. All is not dark in the future of pets or animals as steps are slowly been taken by organizations such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) or the People for Animals (PFA).

People’s participation holds the key to wildlife conservation. Compassion towards animals should be inculcated in children from a very early age that will be true wildlife conservation for the future generations need to be enlightened in order to provide safety and protection to our counterparts in the wild.

Comments

jaay's picture

Very sensitive article, but then question still remains: Do we think animals have the right to be what they are? Are we ready to give them space of their own? In the country where people are fighting to build houses and concrete structures, can we come to terms that certain area be regulated for animals? The answer does not lie with us but with the administrators, who, even after 5 decades of self rule, are unable to provide their own people the basic needs. You talk about converting zoos into national park, but I am sure you are aware if the state in which the national parks are. The poaching takes place right under their nose and not only that it is not uncommon that those who are responsible to protect them, are hands-in-glove with the poachers.

Pages

Add new comment

Random Stories

GPC clinic on Nov 19

17 Nov 2016 - 11:59pm | AT News
The city based Wintrobe Hospital will conduct the next ‘Evening with a Doctor’ program at Guwahati Press Club on 19 November 2016. Dr Nitin Gupta (Urology) from the centre for advanced urology &...

No alliance move in between BPF-BJP

9 Jan 2016 - 5:59pm | Hantigiri Narzary
BJP leaders of BTAD region has ruled out pre poll alliance with BPF party ensuing assembly election and expressed their willingness to contest with own candidates. On the other hand,BPF has also...

We need to contribute together for portraying Northeast India

28 Aug 2007 - 5:04am | moushumibhattacharya
The North East: Unknown, remote, exotic and barbaric. Land of the dog-eating, half naked, gun-toting tribal. And the best of all is that, it is a region to be regarded as a museum piece, a subject...

GLF 2014: Focus on historical facts

27 Dec 2014 - 11:23am | AT News
A critical approach on history came up for a livelier discussion when a panel of experts had a brainstorming session as part of the Guwahati Lit Fest on Saturday.Noted expert and former JNU professor...

Other Contents by Author

Strife torn Pakistan witnessed yet another blood bath when a suicide bomber detonated himself inches from Pakistan’s former Prime minister Benazir Bhutto after she was leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi’s Liaqat Bagh Park. A gunman also shot her on the neck and chest ensuring that Bhutto does not escape death for a second time. Bhutto had earlier escaped a bid on her life on October 18 at Karachi in which 140 people died. Leaders in Pakistan it seems are either doomed to have violent deaths or are banished from their native lands. Benazir’s father and former Prime minister Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto was hanged in this garrison town in 1979 after a military coup....
JBF (India), Guwahati Chapter inaugurated an Animal Relief Center for street and stray animals at Chandan Nagar, Survey, Beltola. The aim of the relief center is to provide medical help to the stray and street animals. However it also has a treatment cell where privately owned animals will also be treated and the donations received from owners will be used to run the Animal Relief Center.JBF (India) is an organization promoted by JBF(Scotland), a professionally managed organization working in the field of Animal Welfare since the year 2003. JBF (India) is a member of the Society of World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA). JBF (India) is also a recognized by the Animal Welfare Board...
Star crossed Assam witnessed yet another assault last night when a powerful bomb planted on the tracks ripped off the luggage van of the Rajdhani Express killing five persons and injuring four others. The 2423 A Down Rajdhani Express was proceeding from Dibrugarh to Guwahati between Naojan and Chongajan railway stations in Golaghat district at about 1.06 am on the ill fated night of December 13.Though the police have not yet ascertained the identity of the militants however they claimed that Adivasi National Liberation Army (ANLA) militants were presumed to be behind the blast.A Central team is coming to take stock of the situation in the aftermath of the blast. It is alleged that the Home...
Just as the future of Assam’s handloom dreams had found wings in the form of the GI status of the muga silk a sudden turn of events threatens to clip those wings in the bud as reports of heavy loss in the muga sector starts pouring in.This winter the muga farmers are staring into eyes of a financial crisis with the failure of the Central Silk Board’s (CSB) summer muga crop popularly known as the Bhadiya. Officially the loss is estimated to be of fifteen crores this year however the farmers and dealers claim it to be around fifty crores. The cause of this calamity has been stated as weather related.Assam produces three different varieties of Silk viz, Pat Muga, and Eri or Endi....
The role of the media in today’s society is two fold. It reports the goings on of our society as well as tries to reform its social evils. But there is a certain section of the electronic visual media which also attempts to kick off a controversy by exaggerating their reporting which ultimately leads to a public outcry followed by its repercussions.The recent furor created by the Beltola violence where Adivasi rallyists clashed with locals is a direct result of such a trend. Moreover, it also exposed the gaping ignorance of the national channels regarding the region that is termed the northeast.The media’s attempt to sensationalize the incident of the Beltola clash reached...
Violence has revisited Assam with a vengeance. After a comparatively peaceful period once again Assam bleeds. The unfortunate incident of group clash jolted Assam out of its reverie and has triggered a kind of a chain reaction of bandhs, blasts and increased the probability of ethnic clashes. Ethnic clashes were an alien occurrence in Assam till black Saturday dawned upon the people of Assam on the fateful day of November 24.An allegedly peaceful rally of Adivasi Students’ Association demanding the status of Scheduled Tribes status of the Adivasi community turned into a gory battleground for local residents of Beltola area of Guwahati and the rallyists. Hundreds of vehicles, shops and...
Assam tea has reached new heights with the recent conferring of Geographical Indications label ,GI status to the Orthodox Assam tea. Orthodox tea is the second Assam product to bag the GI label after muga silk. The GI label is exclusive to only a handful of generically identifiable products such as Swiss watches, Czech crystals, champagne, Mysore sandalwood oil and Kancheepuram silk.There are certain requirements that the product has to fulfill before getting the GI status. The products should have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are special to that particular state or place of origin to qualify for the GI status.The GI status is going to be hugely...
“The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values,” a maxim which seems to have lost its true meaning in the rampant commercialization of education in our present day. Value education is an important rung in the ladder of education but sadly our schools and colleges fail to provide the same to our students. Today education has been taken over by the syllabus as education ends with the completion of the syllabus, a trend which in turn has given rise to a number of institutes and universities carrying forward the wheel of education in a mechanical sense.Imparting of knowledge has become a business to certain people who claim to provide various courses for...
Now I know you now I don’t that’s the secret game going on between the former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and his estranged party members. After splits, expulsion, reunions, agreements disagreements the former AGP chief is once again surrounded in controversy as his reputation is once again tarnished by the indictment in the “secret killings” case. Constituted in 2005 the justice (Retd) KN Saikia Commission of Inquiry on Secret Killings carried out between the year 1998 and 2001 after studying 35 cases of the nature of secret killing in four phases, in its report held Mahanta the then chief minister as well as in charge of the home department responsible...
The tourism sector of Assam is a boom waiting to happen. Picturesque landscape, cultural heritage, historical monuments and artifacts all are in abundance here albeit in various stages of neglect. A little effort on the part of the government and people can turn the state into a tourist hub. Many steps are in the pipeline to give the all important push to the fledging tourism industry of the state. One such project jointly funded by the state government and the Centre promises to give a new lease of lie to the neglected Ahom era monuments in Siva sagar district, a project which was initiated by Hemoprava Saikia the chairperson of the Assam Tourism Development Corporation. The budget of...