Jumbo camps: But where are they?

Jumbo camps: But where are they?

They are the most loved animals in India. And ironically, they are the most neglected ones! It is nothing but sheer mockery of faith when the same people and politicians who worship the elephant-faced Lord Ganesha continue to display utter apathy when it comes to the welfare of elephants. Consider this: According to official statistics there are at least 140 elephants housed in 26 different zoos and 16 circuses across India. And there are roughly 3,500 captive elephants either in the many temples across the country and forced to roam around the streets to collect alms or in logging camps transporting timbers.

The jumbo park plan!

In November last year, the Government of India announced that some of these captive elephants in zoos, circuses and temples would be housed in the soon-to-be-created ‘elephant camps’ in the jungles of India while the other young, active and competent ones would help patrol tiger reserves or in the eco-tourism projects.

The animal right activists hailed the move by the Government for this decision for it was a culmination of their long years of campaign to free and provide the captive elephants their natural habitat in forests.

8 months after, no progress yet!

But even after 8 months of announcing the plan except for a handful of elephants in one or two states transferred to jumbo parks a majority of the captive elephants continue to languish in their environments.

According to the Animal Welfare Board of India despite the announcement there have no new parks created and no funds allocated! To add to the problems, the illegal encroachments by man into the vast areas of jungles for mining projects have literally left no place for creation of new parks!

Fatal consequences!

The consequence of the official indifference in implementing the “jumbo parks plan” has meant continued suffering for the elephants. A few years ago in Mumbai an elephant roaming the streets begging was hit by a water tanker and was left unattended to suffer for one full day before it succumbed to the injuries! And in another incident an elephant disturbed by the bursting crackers on the streets went on a rampage smashing many cars before it was controlled by the paramilitary troops! These are just a few in the series of fatal accidents the elephants were exposed to!

The delay in implementing the plan to move captive elephants to jumbo parks has also meant loss of human lives! In 2006 in the state of Kerala, a temple elephant went on a rampage killing many people who had assembled there on a festive day. And last month a drunken man who sneaked into the Byculla Zoo in Mumbai to steal the iron padlock was trampled to death by a captive elephant.

The reason for the unruly behavior by the captive elephants is that they are made to live under high stress in unfriendly captive environments and most of them are chained or made to work for long hours.

A survey on Indian zoos found that the conditions and facilities in a majority of these zoos are sub-standard and literally not fit for keeping animals! Living day in and day out in these appalling conditions obviously negatively impacts the elephants’ mental balances leading to mood swings and increased arrogance. It also shortens their lifespan! The pachyderms are highly social animals when they are in their natural habitat and can live up to 60 or 65 years unlike their captive counterparts who live only for 15 years!

It is high time that the Government of India and the ‘inactive’ state governments to start implementing the plan to free the captive elephants and move them to their natural habitats if not for the sake of elephants but at least for saving human lives. Anyone listening?!

A True Love Story - A Happy Reunion

How you can help your planet!

Whatever decision the countries at the World Climate Meet in Copenhagen decides to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and arrest global warming it would finally depend on how individuals across societies implement it. Remember, if you and I could do something towards reducing global warming, it could go a long way in saving our planet for our future generations and for our animal friends! Animals are an integral part of the ecosystem and it is practically not affordable for us survive without them! So here's a checklist of what you can do to help save this planet. There are many zones where you could implement these practices but let's start with what you could do at your office to reduce global warming. After all, office is where we spend most of the time in a day!!

1. Being online 24x7 is fun but it is more important to stay alive! Turn off your computer, broadband modem, scanner, printer, computer monitor and speakers when you are not using them. Make sure your computer is turned off at night.

2. Screensavers do not save energy; Save power by enabling the power management function on your computer.

3. You can use a large power strip for your computer, broadband modem, scanner, printer, monitor and speakers. This way you can cut 200kwh per year.

4. Insist on using green energy.

5. Laptops are better than desktops for environment as laptops consumes five time less electricity. If you don't want to do away with your desktop try to get get an LCD screen instead of the CRT screen.

6. Do not throw away your old computer. You can recycle office equipment by donating old computers to organizations and institutions such as schools.

7. Cut on unnecessary travel. It is good for your pocket and to the environment. Make most use of phone, e-mail or video conferencing.

8. Organize awareness programs on climate control. The key should be on individual contribution to reduce global warming.

Learn more about saving your planet at: http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/greenliving/at_the_office/

World Climate Meet: Animals that might face extinction

So the World Climate Meet is on at Copenhagen from today. It is the rich countries vs the developing countries. Who should cut more green house gas emissions? Well, the meet is exactly to find that out but there are too many issues to be sorted out! If a deal happens it is good for the world but if the deadlock continues then both we the humans and our animal friends will continue to be forced to become extinct! I am not exaggerating anything here, this is the plain truth!

Already many animal species have faced extinction due to man-made climatic changes! Today you cannot see the famous golden toad and the harlequin frog in Costa Rica. They are extinct, courtesy global warming which obviously didn't happen on its own, we, the humans brought in on!! Global warming due to green house gas emissions continue to negatively impact the ecosystems around the world and the most directly affected by this is the coral reefs!

The cute polar bears in the Hudson Bay in Canada is losing weight, says the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) because of the ice is breaking faster there, two weeks ahead and this means polar bears will not have anything to hunt during these two weeks and they starve! Fish stocks in many zones across the world's oceans are fast moving up north because of global warming!

Rapid changes in seasonal temperatures will not only mean more trouble for us like impact on farm growing season, but for animals too! Shorter winters would mean the birds' feeding system is affected!

Please visit this link to find out what and how you can do to help arrest global warming! http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/greenliving/

Can I make my pet sick?

Hi friends, it's been a while now since I shared some info here about animals. There is more than one reason for this one of them being that I was down with viral fever for almost 10 days! During these 10 days I was suffering too much but to add to my woes my (good?) neighbour never allowed Bittu, his pet cat near me for all those days! Bittu has been visiting my home ever since I moved to this place some 3 years ago! She is a cute little cat and is a delight to watch and play! Whenever my mother went to my neighbour's to bring Bittu to me my neighbour used to protest! He was afraid that Bittu could catch the flu from me!! I was happy that my neighbour has been so caring about his pet cat!! How nice it would be if everyone were like that towards their pets?! But can I make my pet cat sick? I certainly do not know and I decided to find out. My veterinary friend says that there are viruses that are zoonotic which can pass from animals to humans and vice versa but not all flu viruses do that!! Some of these species-specific and very rarely will affect both animals and humans!

Folks, I will be writing more on this in the coming days! Thanks for reading!

Why do you need pet animals?

Why do you have a pet animal? This is probably one common question that is put to me quite often. I am sure I am not alone here. Many people having pets face this question at some point in their lives! Well, on most occasions my simple answer would be, "I love it, that's why!" But more often than not the questioner would repeat the question and during these times I will have to resort to giving more appealing answers. I will say I have pets for two reasons: one, for recreational purposes and two, for psychotherapeutic reasons. This would open up more arguments and would obviously require proofs to support the second reason more than the first one. And I am writing this exactly for this purpose.

I am sure you would agree that pet animals make great friends. It is a friendship that lasts for a life time. Invariably, pet animals give us so much joy, fun and above all physical and mental peace and happiness that we tend to overlook their priceless contribution in our lives. The last part of the above sentence is perhaps debatable. But like everything other belief and concept, there are proven cases to support that animals and pet animals in particular help in fighting diseases.

Let’s start with something very common: Stress. Almost every one of us continues to experience stress at some point in our lives. Some seek the expert guidance of medical practitioners to fight stress and are made to undergo various tests and examinations before a course of anti-stress drugs are prescribed. Some prefer to do yoga some just go out to enjoy nature to beat stress!

All these might be effective but animal behaviorists and veterinarians opine that having a pet at your home can be one of the easiest and best ways to de-stress after a long day’s work. Stress is something that is responsible for production of harmful chemicals in your body like cortisol and norepinephrine that could affect your immune system, and clog up arteries leading to heart attacks says a research at the Research at the University Of Texas School Of Public Health. And playing with a pet dog for example can help your body increase the levels of serotonin and dopamine the nerve transmitters and calm you down. Research also shows that even patients, preferably males with a history of heart attacks can live for longer when they have a pet with them as pets help in lowering the cholesterol and triglyceride levels in these patients.

You can literally feel the love of your pets when you come back home. And 25 years of research endorses this. The research results have shown that pets help in relieving stress, lower blood pressure and steady your heart beat. And contrary to the popular misconception that having pets with fur could cause allergies these pets can actually help build your immunity. Yes! There are numerous studies that conclude that kids growing up in homes with pet animals like dogs and cats develop stronger immunity and are less prone to allergies and respiratory disorders like asthma, eczema and even help treat Alzheimer’s disease.

A study by a school of veterinary medicine at the University of California has revealed that the presence of a dog at the of home of a patient having Alzheimer’s disease could actually lessen the frequent instances of anxious outbursts that is generally associated with the disease. You might have heard about therapy dogs that actually help people with certain health conditions overcome them with their unconditioned love. Cats, on the other hand are equally effective as they require less care than dogs. In fact, there is an insurance company in the U.S that prefers providing insurance cover for old people over the age of 75 who have pet animals with them. The logic here is having a pet at home provides more opportunity for the old people for physical exercises and maintaining healthy mind.

Similarly, studies have shown that pet animals assist people afflicted with the killer disease AIDS in gaining marked improvement in their emotional levels and fight depression. The unconditional love of a cat or a dog or any other pet animal for that matter does a world of good for people. And studies on the impact of pet animals among people involved in jobs and businesses with high degree of stress levels like stockbrokers and event managers for example have shown manageable levels of blood pressure.

All pet animals are great but experts single out dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, fish, parrots and birds, and dolphins (not in this part of the world, though) to be man’s best friends. I certainly agree with the list but I know of some not-so-usual pet animals sharing very good friendship with people. During my college days I remember one of my friends bring his pet squirrel to college! I always admired her for her intelligence and her love for my friend and her friendliness towards strangers! We used to take turns to hold her and place her on our shoulders. She was playful and used to nibble our ears. She jumped all over the desks, delicately took nuts from our hands, roamed over the trees in the college campus and obediently returned to my friend’s hands whenever he called out to her. It was such a pleasant sight to see them sharing a special bond. There was so much of unconditional love in the air when you visit places like that!

George Elliot once wrote: “Animals are such agreeable friends. They ask no questions and they pass no criticism.” How true! Having a pet dog or a cat or any other pet animal for that matter is a sure shot recipe for unlimited fun, joy, unconditional love and not to forget the health benefits. You might disagree with me but I would only suggest this: Help animals. Help yourself.