Caging miseries in confinements The deplorable condition of the
State zoo is a matter of glorious pride for the residents of Shillong.
Lady Hydari Park and mini zoo truly have the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ appearance to it.
While flower beds and carefully cropped hedges adorn the park, stench and ‘desert like’ conditions welcome the zoo visitors, mostly outsiders as the residents are well aware that the zoo has nothing to offer.
The caged animals that are meant to serve the visual needs of being entertained are living the life of slum dwellers with the only difference that none would ever become a ‘millionaire’.
They surely have no idea that the Government of Meghalaya is already having a tough time keeping up pace with incomplete developments in the State and that the zoo is last in their list of ‘failed priorities’. The zoo is in a state to welcome even a rupee from the CM fund for its facelift.
It is pretty obvious that grievances of 29.64 lakh people (as per census 2011) in the state of Meghalaya have not been addressed. Animals are no wonder ‘caged issues’ best left aside.
The animals at the zoo are unable to complain.
They, as ‘tenants,’ have had their rights violated. We have taken them out of their natural environments and caged them for our enjoyment. We have entrusted their care to zoo authorities who should have alerted for a situation when these slovenly conditions started to appear and should never have let them continue.
When man first started keeping animals in captivity, his concerns were probably restricted to how the animals could be prevented from escaping and how they could be kept alive and healthy.
Later, we started to be concerned about production and how we could get our farm animals to produce more milk and eggs, grow faster and have more offspring or, in the case of our sport and companion animals, run faster and look more beautiful.
All of a sudden when we started caging animals for entertainment, good health no longer becomes synonymous to good welfare.
Countless animals have no food or water. Many live in concrete and iron cages that do not have any enrichment or even a blade of grass. Some cages are so small that the animals can barely move.
Many animals exhibit neurotic and abnormal behaviour, including pacing, head-bobbing and extreme agitation which is the characteristic behavioural depiction of the caged Himalayan bears who suffer the additional idiotic “Hey Hey! Tss tss!” from their crazy human relatives.
This ‘ignored’ zoo has already suffered the wrath of ‘People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) when it featured in their list of ‘India’s zoos: A grim report’.
PETA had earlier asked the Central Zoo Authority to close down the Zoo as provisions for its recognition are not complied with by the Lady Hydari Park. Changes took place after this slap but reviving the bad state followed.
The wonderful observations made recently have striking similarity with PETA’s pointers.
1. There was no monitoring of human ‘activities’ in the park. Characteristic animal behaviour was depicted by human couples more than wilder couples caged inside. No wonder the human population surpasses the animal.
2. No clean water could be seen in the enclosures while clean drinking water was made available freely for visitors!
3. Many enclosures had beautiful broken floors and a wonderful aroma of 1000 year old mould laden porridge surrounding the vicinity of the cage.
4. Almost every visitor was so happy meeting their caged relatives that they couldn’t stop teasing and calling out to them. This surely agitated the entrapped cousins.
5. The bears seemed to have been put in a crash diet with loose skin hanging and showed signs of agitation that comes with being locked up for too long in confinement.
The excuse of the Government might well be that a new zoo is being set up at Mawlein Mawkhan in Ri-Bhoi district but that surely does not justify the current state of affairs.
People can handle pets with more efficiency than the way the concerned authorities are handling a bundle in a zoo.
Hasn’t there been enough waste of funds and mockery of scheme implementation that we have to anxiously wait for another?
With regards to the new ‘mega’ zoo, the State Forest Department has already received Rs 12 crore from 12th Finance Commission for the Rs 19 crore project. The remaining Rs 7 crore would be made available under the 13th Finance Commission.
Even a meagre amount of 1 lakh from this huge sanction will bring a smile on the whisker covered faces of the fateful animals.
Looking at how well these animals are managed, I suppose the policy of ‘adoption’ can surely be followed in the Shillong zoo and scores of Animal lovers would love to be a part of this. Animal adoption implies bearing the expenditure only for feeding and healthcare of any animal of the zoo.
We know PWDs success in patching up broken roads and surely some other ‘broken’ authority can take the responsibility to temporarily ensure a decent cage with fewer cracks, cleaner spaces and a simulated habitation nearing the wilderness if not in toto.
What could be the possible reason that we have to pay an entry fee to smell filth, see animals that are frail and diseased weak?
The situation is far more pathetic than can be imagined.
The population has not increased but infact declined. Some of the cages are empty and we surely won’t be interested to see ducks in the bird cage which can surely be bought from Iewduh.
Enough been said, it is time to sharpen our swords and rip through barriers seeking answers. The zoo being a tourist destination is managed more pathetically than a public lavatory. The park however has just managed to escape this scanner!