Victims of humans' tussle

By Our Staff Correspondent

PATNA, JULY 26. Twenty lions, two tigers, a bear and a monkey are silently suffering the tug of war between a circus owner, the State Government and the Central Government that has virtually pushed them to starvation and denial of the bare minimum needed to keep their body and soul together. They have been cramped inside cages for over three weeks without even an opportunity to flex their limbs.

The problem started about a month ago when the Patna zoo authorities issued a directive to the circus to hand over the restricted animals to any one of the rescue centres operating in Chennai, Vishakapatnam and Tirupati in the wake of the ban imposed by the Supreme Court on the marketing of performances of certain categories of animals by the circus units.

The circus management complied with the orders and stopped their shows and moved the entertainment bandwagon to Bokaro, minus these two dozen animals, of course. But at the same time it has sought to question the legality of the order on various grounds, refusing to give up its title over them.

It approached the Patna High Court claiming a compensation of Rs.50 lakhs for these animals which command a high market value in case it was asked to surrender them to the rescue centres. It has also sought permission to run a private zoo at Rajgir in Nalanda district for which it has petitioned the State Government to allocate about 50 acres of land.

It argued that the rescue centers did not have space to accommodate such (about 1400) `restricted' species of animals. In its assessment these centres could only house about 400 of these free roaming animals.

Its other argument is that the life span of these animals happened to be longer under the care of circus units unlike in the forests or in the government-run parks. It maintains that the big cats enjoyed an average life span of 22 years in the circus, whereas in the forests it was said to be 15 years and in the zoos only 14 years.

Notwithstanding its claims, th circus company is none too keen on spending money on the forsaken animals while being not sure of retaining their ownership. They have simply been left to the care of a few handlers who just seem to guard the cages in public interest rather than take care of the pitiable beasts.

The court has directed the management to take proper care of the animals pending affidavits by the Central Government an the State Government in the matter which it intends to dispose of by next Wednesday.

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