Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday that the state will always support initiatives for animal care. He was speaking at a ceremony to unveil the foundation stone of an animal care hospital being built in Mumbai, a joint initiative between the Tata Trusts and People for Animals.
The new hospital will have diagnostic capabilities, emergency care, testing and scanning, and advanced specialist centres. In partnership with the veterinary medicine school at Cornell University, New York, the hospital will also offer hands-on practical training for veterinary medical students and ease the workload of veterinary doctors in the city.
Mr. Fadnavis said that there has been a definite transformation in environment and animal conservation awareness.
“Today, MLAs demand that their areas should be notified as forests and reserve forests, which was not the case earlier, when people worried for loss of livelihood.” When human-animal conflict is mitigated, he said, Maharashtra’s forests see marked improvement. He added that farmers who lose their cattle and livestock are more vulnerable to suffering because this link is crucial for their sustenance.
Mr. Tata, speaking at the event, said that the city of Mumbai has very little to offer for animal care. “It is a personal dream of mine that the city should have a state-of-the-art animal health centre, and this dream is a step closer to coming true. This facility will be a resource for everyone who owns animals as pets or comes across distressed animals, and it will save a limb, or a life, and help cure disease.”
Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, and People for Animals co-founder, said that animal and human welfare are interlinked, and that a healthy ecosystem for human life is one that also supports animal care. “I am glad that we have finally been able to realise this project,” Ms. Gandhi said.
