Alipore Zoological Gardens dying! (E)

Life or Something Like it : Innocence Trapped and Tormented at Alipore Zoo : Take a Step to Help

The four previous posts on Alipore Zoological Gardens have shown the darker forms of life to me. Starting from the food they were served to the hazardous conditions under which they spent every moment of their life have brought a bitter feeling in me for the people responsible. It seems like everyone has forgotten that the creatures housed there, who have as much sensibility and sensitivity as we or even more, are still ALIVE; as if they were toys to play with, born only to be sources of excitement and entertainment.

It is tough to ponder that now when I sit here to write about them, they still live a life with their freedoms shackled, housed in enclosures of sizes not even comparable to their natural habitats and surroundings that are totally strange to them.

Hunger, thirst, loneliness, humiliation and the fear of unseen trouble that might appear the next minute are being fought with in their minds every moment, their minds, which are capable of comprehending everything.

Why do their cries go unheard? Why are they ignored and the sources of their pain never questioned? Why are they living their lives in closed enclosures? Why can they not taste freedom, the right they were born with? Who are we to decide about the lives of those creatures who are equally important to nature as we? I wonder if they ever had the choice of belonging to species which were not at the verge of being wiped out. If it is us who have wiped out their species for our own gains over the centuries, then why are they paying for it?

Anyway, we always witness injustice prevaling around us everywhere but it being so blatantly and shamelessly displayed raises a few more questions. Why is there no one to question those who are supposed to earn their living by taking care of them? Is it because they have no fear of being penalized for their deeds and no one fears God anyways? Are humanity and compassion seen no where for those living in the zoo?

If answering these questions goes out of our scope and if nothing else then can we take exactly 10-15 minutes of our lives to help them? If you have any feelings or respect for speechless, innocent yet intelligent but helpless, as alive as you but never being treated so, then this is the least you can do for them.

Given below is a link to a general letter which is addressed to the Central Zoo Authority. Along with this, I request you to also send copy of the letter to the Director of Alipore Zoo as mentioned at the end.

http://save-animal-rights.googlegroups.com/web/kolkata+zoo+sample+complaint.doc?gda=VmeOY1YAAAACapnPnJLJF6odcNPrLpiKBTTFQCPd7vNZ_IENS3CXNxVJVT3hrgKrn_IySc8la3J4_mmF-zOA80RPIgjKRmFgaPjU_PkqOxzHetsVw5yY81fNObY7gDHqMrizh1e6PRE

Do not forget to edit the letter before printing by adding the date and your name and address.

The addresses of the authorities are as follows:

1. Member Secretary

Central Zoo Authority

Annexe-VI, Bikaner House

Shahjahan Road

New Delhi-110011

Fax # 91-011-23386012
Email : cza@nic.in

2. Dr. S.K. Chaudhuri

Director

Alipore Zoo

Alipore

Kolkata - 700027

Fax # 91-033-24791150

You can also choose to email CZA or fax them and the Director of the zoo.

I have already written to them and a few more but no results.

I feel, as of now, we have just one option to choose if we wish to help bring a change and that is to tool Mass Mailing. Encourage your friends and family to participate in strengthening this campaign of writing letters to the authorities. The more you post letters the better can the conditions of the zoo inmates be. So please do not delay. It is very easy for you, if you ever respected animals. Just take a print out of the letter below, sign it and send to authorities mentioned above. PLEASE is all I can say.

Thank you.

Alipore Zoological Gardens dying! (D)

Life or Something Like it : Innocence Trapped and Tormented at Alipore Zoo : Environment, General Cleanliness and Zoo visitors

..... Feeding zoo animals with substances foreign to their systems can be damaging to them. Each animal needs a different type of food. They should feed only on what they would in the wild. If they are fed with biscuits, wafers, etc. by the visitors, animals lose their appetite for the type of food they are meant to eat. Animals may also get infected with human diseases when visitors give them food. This can make animals sick and even lead to deaths.

Outside the zoo, despite a sign board instructing visitors not to feed the zoo inmates, there were hawkers selling junk food. They were encouraging the visitors entering the zoo to purchase what they called “food for the monkeys and birds”. In the presence of all the guards near the gates, this business was being run smoothly.

Photo Desc # A visitor feeds a deer.
Is there anyone at all responsibe for this animal's well-being to stop this nonsense? For which duty of the guards does the government hire and disburse them? #

Photo Desc # The enclosure of the white fallow deer has no stand off barrier.
Zoo Rules 1992 states,” Stand of barriers and adequate warning signs shall be provided for keeping the visitors at a safe distance from the animals.”
This and a lot of other animals are totally reachable to the visitors for feeding and teasing. #

Photo Desc # Visitors beating the net of the enclosure of this bird.
Zoo Rules 1992 states,” Every care shall be taken to avoid discomfort, behavioral stress or physical harm to any animal.”
Wildlife Protection Act 1972 states, “No person shall tease, injure or feed any animal or cause disturbance to the animals by noise or otherwise, or litter the grounds in a zoo.” #

The offence to disturb or tease zoo animals according to the Recognition of Zoo Rules under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 going unobserved was the last one the list of breaking rules. The Central Zoo Authority guidelines clearly mention that plastic is prohibited from entering zoo premises. Plastic bags, empty as well as with leftover snacks, were dumped on the lawns and even inside animal enclosures which could be swallowed by the animals.

Photo Desc # Plastic packets are lying inside the enclosure of an animal.
If swallowed, it could entangle the intestines (or even something worse) of the animal. #

The restaurants, ice-cream corners and even local vendors openly sold plastic-bagged food items despite having warning boards calling for a prohibition on the same.

Photo Desc # Plastic bags lying on the ground. Plastic bottles and glasses are seen displayed outside the restaurant.
The Central Zoo Authority guidelines clearly mention that plastic is prohibited from entering zoo premises. Plastic bags, empty, as well as with leftover snacks, which are dumped on the lawns or inside animal enclosures, may be swallowed by the animals. Polythene bags are non-biodegradable and cannot be digested. They can clog the digestive tract, and suffocate the animals to death.

This restaurant selling water in plastic bottles and glasses is located at the beginning of the zoo. Contradicting is the fact that outside the zoo gate, there is a huge board on display that mentions the entry of plastic bottles as prohibited. Are the board instructions exhibited by the zoo authorities not being violated openly by the restaurant, whose permission to remain inside the zoo, presumably has been granted by the same authorities? #

Photo Desc # This lady is selling eatables wrapped in plastic bags openly.
These eatables encourage visitors to throw them around the zoo premises. Most importantly, visitors feed these things to animals. Feeding animals with such junk food is extremely harmful to their health and system. How unnatural would it for us to be fed with raw meat and grass? #

Photo Desc # Another person in the open inside the zoo premises with plastic wrappings. #

Polythene bags are non-biodegradable and cannot be digested. They can clog the digestive tract, and suffocate the animals to death.

Photo Desc # Garbage consisting of plastic bags is kept accumulated right outside the enclosure of an animal.
How easy is it for a plastic packet to fly and reach the enclosure and finally the intestines of the animal living there? #

The plight of the animals living inside the zoo could be realized to be worse than at stake as there were visitors carrying lit cigarettes inside the premises without any intervention from the guards “on duty”.

Photo Desc # A visitor has a cigarette lit inside the zoo premises as he walks in close proximity of an enclosure.
Wherever safety is vital, smoking has been considered hazardous. Are the zoo inmates not important enough for anyone? Where are the guards on duty? #

Getting back to the reasons for a zoo to remain functional, how many amongst the visitors are even aware of the concept that it is a place to acquire knowledge from? If we go beyond optimism to assume that one day Alipore zoo is going to reach its ideal standards, even then, is the whole concept not slightly incongruous. Can we really expect to imbue people with respect for other species by pulling the animals from their native habitats and imprisoning them behind bars? By looking at animals living in such unhealthy cages, would they not be ill-informed about the actual behavior, habitat and lives of wild animals?

In a judgment passed on October 9, 2006, the Supreme Court has imposed a ban upon breeding of animals in zoos keeping the turmoil they go through in captivity in view. In that case, how is conservation of these precious elements of nature progressing?

Except for using wild animals in captivity as sources of entertainment, there is no other purpose that is being served by Alipore Zoological Gardens. This by itself loses the grounds on which a zoo should be operating. In that case, should we not make an effort to relieve the zoo inmates of the pain of living in prisons for no crime but only to be born as non-humans?

A single peep into the lives of few of the animals showed the darkest forms of life and it goes without saying that they have been experiencing everything mentioned and otherwise every moment for years with no salvation and no one raising a voice for them.

Alipore Zoological Gardens dying! (C)

Life or Something Like it : Innocence Trapped and Tormented at Alipore Zoo : Wildcats

From the monkeys and birds, when came the section of the wildcats, the encounter was unbearable and extremely heart-breaking.

One of the enclosures had the inmate’s excreta lying in it.

Photo Desc # The wastes of a wildcat present inside his enclosure.

Zoo Rules 1992 states, “Every Zoo shall provide for a proper waste disposal system for treating both the solid and liquid wastes generated in the zoos. All left over food items, animal excreta and rubbish shall be removed from each enclosure regularly and disposed of in a manner congenial to the general cleanliness of the zoo.”

Imagine being locked with your excreta lying around you and you have no place to escape! #

According to Central Zoo Authority, "Shouting, hissing, making faces, throwing things, running in front of the cage, waving sticks - such activities disturb and irritate animals." It also states, "Teasing is a major cause of suffering for zoo animals. Teasing causes mental stress. Even seemingly "harmless" teasing such as snapping fingers at the animals, calling, hissing, or running in front of the cage, may be irritating to the animals."

Apart from that, teasing animals housed in a zoo is prohibited according to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Zoo Rules 1992 states, “The zoo operators shall take adequate safeguards to avoid the animals being unnaturally provoked for the benefit of viewing by public”.

But a huge crowd of visitors were whistling and producing provocative noises at the wildcats to gain their attention who were either asleep or almost motionless in their retiring cubicles. There was no guard vigilant to check this disturbance caused to the animals.

Photo Desc # This is the enclosure of the white tiger.

Recognition of Zoo Rules, 1992, mentions, “The zoo operators shall endeavor to simulate the conditions of the natural habitat of the animal in the enclosures as closely as possible.”

The concrete and lack of vegetation does not resemble the white tiger’s natural home in any sense. This dungeon cannot be meant for any innocent living creature. #

Photo Desc # This enclosure houses an African lion.

Such a concrete and non-conducive environment cannot be possibly comfortable for any living creature.The entire area covering the enclosures of the wild cats had the foulest of odors. #

Alipore Zoological Gardens dying! (B)

Life or Something Like it : Innocence Trapped and Tormented at Alipore Zoo : Birds

How do the birds pay for the "conservation" of their own species at the Alipore Zoo?

Starting with the water they drink:

Photo Desc #This water is kept in one of the birds’ enclosures for drinking. #

The quality of drinking water provided as seen above in few of the birds enclosure (for example, the grey parrot) was way below any standard of cleanliness. It was so dirty and old that it had developed whitish growths in it. The health of the bird who had to consume that water every day could be comprehended with much ease. Water is the most basic necessity for any creature to remain alive. Incidentally it is the easiest one to be provided too. It was not tough to grasp how other facilities which might need a little more effort from the authorities would be in the zoo.

The water in the moat around the swan enclosure was not even visible.

Photo Desc # Are the zoo authorities blind? Or is it that they do not care at all for these animals? #

It was totally covered with greenish growths in it. The poor birds had no option but to use the water for drinking and swimming.

The water was not just filthy for the kind of growth floating over it, it was also a dumping ground. (The harards of the presence of plastic in the zoo will be covered in one of the upcoming posts.)

Photo Desc # There is a plastic bottle visibly floating in the water that is being used by a bird. (The hazards of plastic in the lives of the zoo inmates will be covered in one of the upcoming posts.) #

If cleaning the moat was a problem then at least removing the bottle shouldn’t be.

Photo Desc # Dirty water being accessed by a bird.

Poor bird! #

Photo Desc # The enclosure of a bird with nil enrichment.

Recognition of Zoo Rules, 1992, mentions, “The zoo operators shall endeavor to simulate the conditions of the natural habitat of the animal in the enclosures as closely as possible.” #

So, why do they suffer to the extent of not even being fortunate enough to get adequately clean water to drink? Is there any other answer than the fact that they do not speak the language of the self-acclaimed most dominent species of nature? Their cries, pain and suffering go unheard and unseen because those who are responsible can never be questioned by them.

Coming up Soon : Alipore Zoological Gardens dying! "Wildcats". Take a look at how the rage of the wild is jailed.

Alipore Zoological Gardens dying! (A)

Life or Something like it:
Innocence Trapped and Tormented at Alipore Zoo : Monkeys

After independence, there was an important pronouncement about zoos in India. It was lawfully decided that there could be just two reasons for the existence and operation of any zoo viz. conservation and education. Theoretically, conservation of animals belonging to endangered species and spreading awareness about wildlife amongst people brings positive feelings towards nature management.

A survey on Alipore Zoological Gardens, however, revealed that the very rudimentary needs for any living creature to stay alive were not provided to the inmates there. The situation was a gruesome sight and a clear contradiction to the mentioned functions of a zoo. It undeniably affronted life itself and zoos to be sources of education seemed a mere hypothesis.

The most agonizing picture was witnessed amongst the monkeys. The cages were dark, dingy, dirty and smelling awfully. The floors were wet and looked slippery, as if had not been cleaned since long.

Photo Desc # Three monkeys kept in a dingy and dirty enclosure (part of the third monkey is seen in the extreme left). The darkness in this picture and the rest of them shows the lack of sunlight in the cages of these creatures.

Recognition of Zoo Rules, 1992, mentions, “The zoo operators shall endeavor to simulate the conditions of the natural habitat of the animal in the enclosures as closely as possible.”

Where does the similarity of the natural habitat of these animals lie with where they are being forced to live? #

Photo Desc # Another view of the floor of the confinement of the same enclosure of the three monkeys.

The floor of the enclosure is wet and looked slippery. It was awfully dirty and stinky. It was tough to even stand there for the time it takes for a proper click. #

Due to constant captivity and unnatural surroundings around them, one of them had developed zoochosis, a psychological disorder. Some of them just looked lugubriously out over the crowd.

Photo Desc # This monkey is showing symptoms of zoochosis.
The walls of the enclosure reflect the level of hygiene inside.#

Zoochosis: Many animals, especially the large carnivores, become deeply depressed, even psychotic, as the result of captivity. Symptoms of zoochosis include nervous pacing, head rocking, and self-mutilation. Some of these ‘stereotyped’ behaviours displayed by bored and frustrated animals have their basis in activities that occur naturally in the wild. But in the impoverished confines of captivity, these behaviours can become compulsive and unnatural.

Surprisingly, there were enclosures not open for public viewing yet holding monkeys in them.



Photo Desc # Another enclosure in which two monkeys are kept.
There are adjacent cages behind this one that are not open to public viewing yet they are holding monkeys in them. #



Photo Desc # A row of enclosures holding monkeys in them and not open for public viewing because of this gate.
What purpose are these monkeys serving by leading a life in prisons? #



Coming up soon : Alipore Zoological Gardens dying! "Birds". The state of the birds in the zoo is worse than the monkeys in many ways.