By S Paul
Love of canines seems to be a natural progression in the advancement of a society, often becoming a status symbol for the elite. Germany, at the peak of its affluence, produced many indigenous breeds. Japan developed and flaunted its own breeds post-nuclear holocaust, as it rose to become a world economic power. The Chinese too have begun developing their own hybrid breeds. Bharat seems to be following this trend of affluence as a status symbol. However, there is a difference: other countries do not allow mongrels and strays to roam freely in human habitats. Strays are captured and placed in dog pounds, where they are cared for and protected against diseases. If someone wants to adopt a dog, they can select one and receive proper documentation with instructions to prevent them from becoming vagabonds again. Defaulters are punished, and strays left in the pound are retained for a certain period, after which they are either culled or handed over to a zoo. Can we adopt the same practice?
Our fashionable animal lovers may object strongly to this suggestion. However, the expenses incurred in rounding up, splaying or neutering strays, and releasing them back to the same location might be better spent showing mercy in the way other nations do. One wonders how dog catchers mark strays to identify where they were picked up. Will this lawfully blessed method of ‘mercy’ actually reduce or prevent incidents of stray dogs becoming feral and attacking humans again?
What about other domesticable animals—the feline, bovine, simian, porcine, and others, including birds as pets? Domesticating and feeding them out of kindness, in the name of ‘Punya’, may actually be committing more sin after reducing their habitats and invading their natural food sources. These acts of kindness weaken them and make them dependent on our largesse. Naturally, they begin to include human habitats as part of their feeding grounds and see humans as interference, resulting in animal-human conflict.
The solution lies in expanding forest cover and halting encroachments. Celebrating ‘Harelas’ should be more than planting decorative trees near our homes; it should involve thickening forest cover in denuded areas and interspersing fruit and edible flowering trees. Also, indiscreet aquifer consumption has dried up their natural water sources, lowering subsoil water levels and draining spring-fed pools. Global factors caused by humans dry up rain-fed ponds as well.
There is also a scientific reason to consider in the animal-human conflict. Have we noticed that intelligent species like elephants have started reacting to human noise? The attack on a loudly music-playing Kanwad group at Lachhiwala is an example. Loud noises near a honey beehive can provoke an attack by these bees. Beyond audible noise, humans have filled the atmosphere with radio waves for communication and other wireless uses. These wide-spectrum frequencies agitate our atmosphere, which, although inaudible to us, may affect biological cell arrangements. Could this agitated environment be a cause of skin cancer among all living beings, including trees and plants? It may also cause mental stress in intelligent life—humans, animals, and birds. Neglecting this aspect of our environment may adversely affect our physical and mental health. Animals, too, may become vicious due to this irritable disturbance. Incidentally, could this also be the reason that people are becoming so short fused in their tempers what with road rage, killing for just out of anger or revenge for a petty quarrel. This is happening almost all over the world but more in our country.
This calls for immediate research and the introduction of measures to protect all life on Earth.
