I remember an incident that happened in Kerala some years ago. I was travelling from the airport to Thiruvananthapuram city when I saw a dog whose head was stuck in an aluminium pot. The animal was desperately trying to pull out his head. He was in such anguish that he was banging his head and the pot on the ground and running around in circles. A large crowd had gathered to watch the dog and was laughing at the animal’s helplessness. I stopped my taxi and asked if there was a veterinary hospital or clinic nearby, but there was none. The crowd went silent when I tried to help the animal, very unsuccessfully. Nobody offered to help me. Finally, one man came forward with a hammer and knife to break the pot, and the two of us managed to free the dog.
I mention this because I was shocked at the callousness of the people. The brutal culling of dogs in Kerala has shocked the nation, making one question the famous phrase, “a dog is man’s best friend”. Several stray dogs were found dead from poisoning in some areas, following alleged dog bites. A dog accused of attacking people was beaten to death and publicly strung up. More than a dozen stray dogs were found dead from poisoning elsewhere. Last year, a dog was brutally beaten to death at Adimalathura beach in Thiruvananthapuram and hundreds of canines were poisoned to death in Thrikkakara Municipality of Ernakulam. The Kerala High Court had to intervene and issue directions for implementing Animal Birth Control (ABC) measures and vaccination of dogs. But no municipality has taken this seriously.
The Corporation of Madras began killing street dogs in 1860. Each year, the number of dogs killed kept increasing, and so did the reported number of rabies cases. Appalled at the horrible way the dogs were being killed, the Blue Cross of India suggested and started the Animal Birth Control programme in 1964 to show that controlling the dog population was as easy as ABC. Blue Cross persuaded the Corporation of Madras to try ABC as a humane alternative. While 135 street dogs were killed in Chennai daily in 1995, all killing was stopped by 1996 by Corporation Commissioner Abul Hassan, following a successful pilot project in South Madras. This led to The Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules, 2001, which applies to India. The World Health Organisation (WHO) also adopted ABC to manage dog populations and rabies.
Dogs must be caught, sterilised, vaccinated and returned to the same place since they are territorial animals. They are also excellent watchmen.
Chennai has achieved zero human deaths from rabies in the last five years. Jaipur, Kalimpong, Sikkim, Nilgiris district and Goa are examples of other success stories. ABC is hardly being done in Kerala, so death by rabies continues to be a threat.
Governments expect NGOs to carry out ABC. But NGOs have limited resources. As an issue of public health and safety, this is the duty of every government. NGOs cannot cover one city, let alone a state. The Kerala government must have a state-wide programme of ABC to control the population of dogs and the incidence of rabies. Otherwise, we will see more cruelty towards our canine friends. The Supreme Court has also vacated the stay on feeding strays and directed that the ABC rules must be followed.
Dogs are not the only animals suffering. Seventy-five elephants died after the elephant census in 2018, reducing their numbers from 521 to 446 (all male). There are 44 elephants in Guruvayur temple alone. Last year, 56 elephants died: imagine the conditions that killed so many. The cruel treatment of these gentle giants hits the headlines from time to time when one animal rebels and runs amuck, killing his mahout and the crowd. When a male elephant’s musth or mating period ends, the four legs are tied tightly to four poles, and he is beaten viciously, non-stop, for ten days to remind the animal who the master is. Scorching heat, torture with the ankush or goad and bull hooks, long hours of the parade, and unscientific management are taking a toll. Elephants are tethered under trees and, during the rains, have to stand in their dung, urine and rainwater, resulting in tuberculosis and foot infection.
The Supreme Court directive of 2018 against parading injured elephants requires the arrest of the owner under non-bailable charges. Recently, 65 elephants were paraded during the Arattupuzha Pooram, and one animal attacked and injured another. Festivals are conducted in the summer, but elephants cannot survive the heat since they lack sweat glands. Although continuous parading is banned, most elephants seldom get any rest during the festival season, and cases of torture of elephants seldom reach court.
In the 1960s and ’70s, Kerala exported tons of frog legs to Europe. The rear legs of live frogs would be chopped off, and the rest of the body was thrown on the beach to die slowly, sometimes after several days. This was fortunately banned by the Indian government in 1987.
I cannot end without speaking about the bovine family. Cattle are trucked from all over India to Kerala, where they are slaughtered brutally. They are beaten till they cannot stand, after which their throats are slit, and they bleed to death. This, I was told, makes the flesh “tender”. Here is one more instance of cruelty in God’s own country.
The Earth was made for humans, animals and plants. With deforestation, we are destroying the natural environment. We are wiping out entire species of animals, and our cruelty to those animals that help us is unpardonable. Kerala’s human indices are good, but to be God’s own country, it must help all of God’s creations.
Nanditha Krishna
Historian, environmentalist and writer based in Chennai