World Animal Welfare Day: Environmentalists call for preserving biodiversity

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, October 3

A day ahead of the World Animal Welfare Day, environmentalists have demanded care of animal and bird varieties that have suffered due to neglect. They have sought measures to protect species like house sparrows, gharials and even stray dogs in a rapidly changing scenario that is guided by commerce. Incidentally, the theme for the day this year is, ‘Big or small, we love them all’.

Ashok Kumar, an animal lover, flayed the widely visible trend of adopting foreign breeds of dogs by locals. He said adoption of street dogs as pets would not only end the trouble of strays but also help them survive. He said though the World Habitat Day would be observed on Wednesday, it is only the individual efforts that reflect the reality on the ground.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), an animal rights organisation, has initiated a campaign to mobilise opinion among people against buying costly flat-faced dogs (pugs, bull dogs etc) as they have problems because of the rising temperature. Yet they are bought to meet the fashion demand of people. Pug, as it is popularly known, falls among the sturdiest dogs in the toy group. The organisation has installed display boards at popular points in the city to educate people about this.

PS Bhatti, an eminent environmentalist, said people have to understand that certain species of animals, plants and other organisms need a habitat (environmental area) where they can naturally live and survive, have food that fits them, but above all can mate and multiply. In their wanton greed to acquire more, people and even organisations are destroying their natural habitat. Many species have either disappeared or are near depletion causing a wide gap between man and biodiversity. For instance, the present city bred young generation is unaware of the melodious chirpings of house sparrows while it forms part of precious old memories of the elderly, he observed. Despite its name ‘house sparrow’, it is no longer visible in homes in cities, he observed.

Similarly, the gharial, known in Punjabi as Sansaar, became extinct from the three rivers of Punjab some decades back. The department of Forests and Wildlife Preservation, in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF-India) has been making efforts to revive the species in the state. Experts have been releasing gharials into the Beas, the only fresh water river left in the state.