Diary of Poornima Harish. Aftermath of Sudarshan Committee Report_May 25, 2007

[Guest guest]

Dear Merritt

 

Would you be kind enough to forward the same to

AAPN. It is bouncing back from my ID.

 

Poornima

 

Diary of Poornima Harish. Aftermath of Sudarshan Committee Report_May 25, 2007

 

 

 

Jan 2007. Bangalore saw death of one child by dog

bite. All hell broke loose (we have not been able

to recover from that). After a few days, BMP

Commissioner Mr Jairaj announced the setting up

of a Performance Audit Committee under the

chairmanship of Dr Sudarshan of KIMS. We knew him

to be against the ABC Programme since eight years.

 

 

 

In his capacity as president of APCRI, being then

a staunch supporter of anti-dog group, he had

written in his editorial that:

 

 

 

“The Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme for

street dogs seems to be an aristocratic animal

welfare activists’ tyranny on the ignorant urban

poor people, particularly the children.”

 

 

 

In the same editorial he calls the ABC programme

“unleashing of terror by the authorities”.

 

 

 

On Jan 20, 2007, we protested to BMP because we

knew that ABC programme would not get a fair

chance with him. He was openly anti-ABC. Other

NGOs thought otherwise.

 

 

 

Dr Abdul Rehman who was to have been in the

committee, quit when he was bulldozed by Mr Manu

Baligar, DC Health, BMP.

 

 

 

If Dr Sudarshan was going to make us miserable, I

did not want to be a willing party to it. We made

all the noise we wanted to. As usual I and Dilip

were the lone dissenting voices. In the first

audit panel meeting I expressed my fears to Dr

Sudarshan about not getting a fair trial given

his editorial comment. I told Dr Sudarshan that

he should get the idea of Animal Tyranny out of

his mind. I told him that ABC is not an AW

programme at all. It helps humans more. Besides,

we catch and operate dogs without their

permission. He told me don't believe in hearsay !

I don't know how he could call his editorial

hearsay, but he did.

 

 

 

Feb 28, 2007 saw the death of another child. The

slow upward march we had started from the well

was over. We slipped further down.

 

 

 

March 2007 saw the 30 van dog catching drive,

etc. Dogs and AWOs were under fire. There was

mayhem. The entire atmosphere was vitiated. We

had dogs brought by BMP in our place when Dr

Sudarshan came to inspect ARF. Later he visited

CUPA and Karuna.

 

 

 

He tabled his report on May 15, 2007. Bad report.

Very bad report. Slams everybody – dogs, ABC

programme, AWOs and BBMP. Spares none.

 

 

 

Commissioner BBMP is fed up with the issue. He is

only looking at respite from politicians and

media harassment. He is dreading a third bite.

 

 

 

We had a meeting with the Chief Secretary, Govt of Karnataka, on May 18, 2007.

 

 

 

Dr Sudarshan made his powerpoint presentation.

Members present from NGOs included me, Dilip,

Sheela Rao from CUPA, Dr B C Ramakrishna and

Sudhir Kumar from Karuna.

 

 

 

From BBMP: Commissioner, Special Commissioner,

Joint Commissioner, DD (AH), Asst Director (AHD),

Mr Baig.

 

 

 

Commissioner, AHD and a few other officials I did not recognize.

 

 

 

Two doctors from KIMS.

 

 

 

About 20 people who were either silent or against

animals. Only me and Dilip were vocal animal, ABC

supporters.

 

 

 

Chief Secretary Mr Mahishi and Mrs Laxmi Venkatachalam were the govt juries.

 

 

 

Dr Sudarshan had some extremely harsh notings

about what he calls “indiscriminate” release of

dogs back on the streets. This even after we had

explained to him in painstaking detail of how ARF

field officers accompany dog vans, how they make

notes, our colour-coded slips (6 colours for each

working day), etc.

 

 

 

The main points of arguments in the meeting related to:

 

 

 

1. KIMS: 20,000 people die of rabies in India annually.

 

 

 

ARF: Bangalore has ZERO human rabies deaths.

 

 

 

2. KIMS: US, UK, etc don’t have dogs on streets.

 

 

 

ARF: Why compare India only in one sphere. Let’s

compare everything. Human population, etc. It is

good that having done it so many times, we have

almost byhearted WHO report that dogs don’t raise

successful litters if given no aid by man,

carrying capacity of the environment, etc. It is

in our subconscious.

 

 

 

3. Commissioner: All theoretical aspects fine,

but what about pressure from media.

 

 

 

ARF: If media is the issue, handle the media. Why handle dogs?

 

 

 

4. Commissioner: All theoretical aspects fine,

but what about pressure from politicians.

 

 

 

ARF: Ask the same politicians that in Ramanagaram

a child died, there was no ABC, no animal

activists. Most important it is the Chief

Minister’s constituency. Who do they blame now?

Media was whipped up by politicians. They don’t

make an issue when it is not of any use to them.

They do when they want. Why is it a bigger crime

for a Bangalore child to be killed than a

Ramanagaram child? That too a muslim child, whose

death in Bangalore would have evoked more

passions were any AWO been there. However, it is

quickly forgotten in Ramanagaram.

 

 

 

5. Commissioner: Poornima, it is easy for you to

sit in the comforts of this room and talk. What

do you tell the people when another child falls

victim?

 

 

 

ARF: Tell everybody that Animal people can only

MINIMISE man-animal conflicts. We don’t have a

magic wand. We cannot perform miracles. In our

absence Bangalore would see more deaths. You have

to learn to give the same replies that you will

have to give when we are not there in the picture

and rabies returns. What you have to reply then,

you have to reply the same now.

 

 

 

Also I reminded him that children are dying

because of so many other reasons. What about all

those? Why is one dog related death so much more

horrible? Commissioner said I cannot tell anybody

like that. It is a mandatory duty of the

corporation to protect citizens. Dilip asked him

that corporation has a mandatory duty to do so

many other things also. Why none of the other

things happen? Commissioner reminded Dilip to

stick to his arena.

 

 

 

Next time I should remember and tell him that

things have come to such a pass because he has

encouraged a culture where his juniors are not

able to tell him, “With due respect, sir, killing

does not solve any problem”. We were the only

ones protesting and who told all our points

succinctly and he had to listen.

 

 

 

6. KIMS: Our report is scientific.

 

 

 

ARF: No. It is not. Besides we all don’t live in

a laboratory. Solutions have to take the

socio-cultural situation into account, which your

report completely overlooks.

 

 

 

It was Dilip and me all the way. 2 animal people

against 20 high level government officials and

scientific community. Fighting on each absurd

query thrown at animals. All of our replies were

objective and clear.

 

 

 

Even after this entire debate, the Commissioner

told the Chief Secretary to have the state govt

recommend to the High Court, amendment to ABC

rules.

 

 

 

Our efforts seemed to have made some difference.

Mercifully the Chief Secretary, after hearing the

detailed arguments, said “Amendment of ABC rules

not required. Intensify ABC”.

 

 

 

I forgot to notice Dr Sudarshan’s reaction. I should have seen.

 

 

 

ABCs in the new BBMP areas

 

 

 

In the meantime BBMP has floated tender

applications for ABC in BBMP (outskirts) areas.

As a precautionary measure, ARF picked up

applications in all 5 BBMP areas to avoid

unscrupulous non-animal people from coming in.

CUPA picked up application in 2 BBMP areas.

 

 

 

BBMP tender application seeks catching of 700

dogs per month per BBMP area, out of which the

applicants have to agree to operate 75% (525

dogs) and euthanize 25% (175 dogs). This means

killing 875 dogs per month for all 5 areas

combined. Clearly our personal and ARF’s

organizational beliefs don’t agree to this. For

this reason we are refusing to do the ABC work

with such terms of reference. We have decided to

tell that all euthanization decisions will be

taken by us alone without a target for it.

 

 

 

We at ARF held meetings with our supporters and

staff. They are with us in our belief in our

principles. Accepting euthanasia is equivalent to

accepting that ABC does not work. Compromising

animals is ruled out. We want to work by

invitation only and on better terms for animals

and us. The harassment that we have faced is not

a joke. Eight years of our most productive and

intelligent lives does not deserve this.

 

 

 

Government is a very big entity. Refusing the

government’s terms is a big thing and we are

risking it. We have been a key ABC element in

Bangalore for the last 8 years. We could get

pushed into oblivion by refusing municipality

project on their terms. What if we are not there

in the picture? They may want to do ABCs

themselves, by getting Animal Husbandry Dept

involved. If they do the ABCs well, it is OK.

Otherwise, what will happen to dogs and the

rabies-free status?

 

 

 

The municipality cannot kill dogs. The animal

consciousness that has been raised in Bangalore

will ensure that. What next in Bangalore?

 

 

 

Regards

 

 

 

Poornima Harish

 

Animal Rights Fund

 

Cell: + 91 98801 94757

 

Visit www.arfindia.org

 

 

 

 

 

Catch all the cricketing action right here.

<http://g.msn.com/8HMBENIN/2755??PS=47575>Live

score, match reports, photos et al.

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent

newspaper providing original investigative

coverage of animal protection worldwide, founded

in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes

the decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal

protection organizations. We have no alignment

or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]