Central Zoo Authority 's doublespeak on circus elephant to fore

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Central-Zoo-Authority-s-doublespeak-on-circus-elephant-to-fore/articleshow/16375678.cms

NAGPUR: It's a classic case of how the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), a statutory body monitoring zoos and circuses in India, functions. First, the CZA issued orders to seize the Amar Circus elephant as it was not legally owned. But before any action could be taken, it itself legalized ownership with the circus owner.

The fact came to light when owner of Amar Circus Chandrakant Gadge sought to know under the RTI Act about list of circuses in India and record of elephants with these circuses, including their identification (microchip number).

Interestingly, acting on a complaint by animal rights leader Maneka Gandhi, a CZA team did spot inspection of the circus on June 25 at Nagpur and had submitted a report on July 25. The CZA report, copy of which is with TOI, states that the female elephant Padma is ill-treated. The team found fault on 13 counts, including the animal's upkeep.

The report said Padma was in illegal possession of the circus owner violating Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The eight-member committee recommended the state's chief wildlife warden to seize the elephant immediately and send it to the rehabilitation centre where the animal would receive better care and get natural environment.

Besides, the circus owner was also asked to be booked by the chief wildlife warden and Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI). The AWBI was even told to cancel registration of Amar Circus. The CZA had also threatened to initiate legal action against the circus owner for concealing information about three elephants that had eventually died earlier.

In between, Gadge made several trips to the CZA, Delhi, to comply with conditions put forth by the committee in its report. On July 23, Gadge filed an RTI application seeking information on circuses and elephants housed in these circuses.

On August 13, in its reply, the CZA said there are 24 circuses operating in the country housing 84 elephants. Padma of Amar Circus also figured in the list, indicating the CZA had legalized its possession with Gadge. It seems the paper work was done between July 5 and 23. On one hand the CZA recommended action but on the other hand legalized the elephant ownership.

The RTI also revealed that some circuses like Jumbo, Moonlight, Gemini, Empire and Famous had more than five elephants. Sources said not all elephants were well kept. Yet, no action has been taken against these owners but Amar Circus was threatened with legal action.

Naresh Kadyan of People for Animals (PFA), Haryana, says elephant is a Schedule I animal under the Wildlife Act and its ownership cannot be exchanged for winning bread and butter and performances. The CZA has no answers to it.

"The decision must have been taken by the member-secretary," said B K Gupta, monitoring and evaluation officer with CZA.

Amar Circus violates zoo authority guidelines

 

NAGPUR: The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) inspection and evaluation committee has recommended seizure of Padma, a female elephant with Amar Circus, for illegal ownership and violating CZA guidelines for housing and care of elephants. It has also directed to stop performance of semi-blind hippopotamus Amar.

The committee has urged chief wildlife warden to seize the elephant immediately and send it to a rehabilitation centre as advised by CZA where the animal can receive extensive veterinary treatment and is housed in a natural and free-ranging environment with other female elephants and have scope for exhibiting natural behaviours.

"A case may be booked against the circus owner by both, the chief wildlife warden and Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), for illegal possession of elephant under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act respectively," says the report.

Chief wildlife warden, SWH Naqvi, said he is yet to receive the report but if CZA has recommended then action will be taken. "We will seize the elephant and send it to a rescue centre," he told TOI.

On a complaint by BJP MP and animal rights activist, Maneka Gandhi, and PFA leader, Naresh Kadyan, an eight-member CZA committee had inspected and evaluated the Amar Circus in the city on June 25. The panel submitted its report on July 5.

The report says the circus owner does not possess any specific ownership certificate or legal procurement certificate for the elephant as per the claims.

"The circus owner has produced old document referring to three elephants which does not endorse or confirm legal ownership of Padma," the report says. The owner did not intimate the CZA about the death of two elephants, which died at Muzaffarpur in 2008 and Chhindwara in 2011, violating law.

The CZA has also recommended AWBI to recall and cancel any licences issued to circuses that use animals. It has urged AWBI to ban Amar Circus from any performance, holding, procuring, owning, possessing, exhibiting, displaying, breeding any exotic and domestic animals.

The committee urged the AWBI, Chennai, to issue necessary instructions to immediately stop performance of blind hippopotamus at the circus. It has recommended to send the hippo to lifetime care in consultation with CZA to a recognized zoo or rescue centre, immediately. However, currently, there are no rescue centres for hippos in India.

The committee members observed that there is not any legal document for none of the animals or birds to prove their acquisition or source or ownership or legal procurement.

The AWBI and CZA has been requested to take action against circus owner to shift all animals out and to other suitable facilities immediately, where appropriate housing facility can be provided to each bird and animal.

"Amar Circus does not have necessary infrastructure to maintain such animals and in their greed to use these animals and exploit them for commercial reasons, they are inflicting unnecessary cruelty upon these animals," the committee has submitted.

Hence, the committee has also recommended that all animals that are not covered by the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and CZA guidelines, such as horses, camels, dogs, ducks and birds be immediately removed from the circus by the AWBI.

The committee consisted of deputy conservator, P K Mahajan, Kartick Satyanarayan, Suparna Baksi Ganguly, Dr A B Shrivastav, Ashish Goswami, B K Gupta, S N Kapoor and SDO Prakash Patil.

The step ahead
* Female elephant, Padma, with Amar circus may be sent to rehabilitation centre
* Circus face ban on any performance, holding, procuring, owning, possessing, exhibiting, displaying, breeding any exotic and domestic animals
* CZA recommends recall and cancellation of licences of circuses that use animals
* Lifetime care recommended for semi-blind hippopotamus at a recognized zoo or rescue centre

AWBI orders inspection of Amar Circus

NAGPUR: The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), a statutory body constituted under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, on Wednesday ordered inspection of upkeep of animals in Amar Circus camped at Kasturchand Park in the city.

The probe has been ordered on a complaint filed by Naresh Kadyan, chairman of People For Animals (PFA), Haryana, on May 25. S Vinod Kumaar, assistant secretary of AWBI, under the ministry of environment & forest (MoEF), has asked district collector to constitute a committee with SN Kapoor, who is co-opted member of the AWBI, along with one officer each from the forest and animal husbandry department.

Kapoor said he is in touch with the officials concerned and actual inspection will start after the constitution of the committee. District collector Saurabh Rao was busy with the guardian minister and hence was not available for comments.

The AWBI was constituted for the promotion of animal welfare generally and for the purpose of protecting animals from being subjected to unnecessary pain or suffering, in particular.

The AWBI has been registering performing animals in films, serials, circus under Performing Animals (Registration) Rules 2001. On May 13, 2004, Amar Circus was issued registration by AWBI for 4 elephants, 6 horses, 12 dogs, 1 hippo, 10 parrots, 4 camels and 1 bull.

The collector has been asked to carry out inspection as per Rule 14 of the Performing Animals (Registration) Rules and submit a report for each of the performing and sheltered animals in the Amar Circus.

The committee has been asked to look into animals' health, vaccination and veterinary treatment registers, proper feeding and watering, ownership certificate of animals, number of animals with species, condition of cages whether exhibiting in circus, whether special permission taken for breeding in cage, sufficient exercises undertaken or not and cruelty meted to animals if any.

Kadyan says, "In 2005 when Amar Circus was in Ludhiana in Punjab, we found that hippo was having opacity of eyes and he was not able to see. We got inspection done and performance of hippo was stopped. Making blind animals perform is cruelty. The circus virtually ran away from Ludhiana to Gurgaon. The same circus is now performing in Maharashtra."

On the contrary, Karishma Galani, animal welfare officer and in charge of PFA, Nagpur, says the PFA will oppose any move to rehabilitate the hippo. "We did an inspection of Amar Circus animals and found that animals were fed well," she said.

Another reason not to rehabilitate the animals is that there is no infrastructure with either the forest or the animal husbandry departments. "The animals are at least fed in the circus. They will be left to die if shifted elsewhere," Galani said.

Why Circus Hippos Are Blind?
The hippos are very large and ferocious animals. Its eyes are purportedly damaged so that control becomes easy, or may be due to dirty dingy water and atmosphere its eyes get infected leading to corneal opacity (cataract).

How To Check Hippo Vision?
Don't make noise or allow the circus people speak. Go silently towards its enclosure and show the animal food. If it opens mouth it's OK. If he doesn't it means something is wrong.

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