Maneka is outraged, wants Minister to go

Maneka is outraged, wants Minister to go
KOTA NEELIMA

NEW DELHI, JULY 17: Empowerment minister Maneka Gandhi has demanded the resignation of Environment Minister T R Baalu holding him responsible for the death of 12 tigers in Bhubaneshwar's Nandankanan zoo.

``The Minister should be blamed for the incident. He should take moral responsibility and resign. Why is that only when there is a train accident that the minister concerned resigns? These deaths are also equally disastrous,'' she told The Indian Express.

On the reason why no one has been held responsible for the tragedy at the zoo, she said, ``No action is taken because there is no empathy towards wildlife.'' She felt that there would be more accountability if an economic value is added to all wild animals in captivity.

``The death of each animal in the zoo should be seen as a loss to the exchequer. Each tiger costs about Rs 10 lakh and each lion costs about Rs 20 lakh,'' she says. ``That means if 15 tigers die then the loss to the exchequer is Rs 1.5 crore. When such economic value is added to the animals then they will be taken care of properly.''

On the deaths at Nandankanan, she felt that the official version was not entirely true. ``The authorities say the tigers died of trypanosoma. In fact, they died of only a form of the diseases which is caused due to bad meat,'' she said.

``A group called the People for Animals has done a survey on the financial state of the zoo and the report clearly says there is financial misappropriation. The report has been sent to the Chief Minister long back but no action has been taken on that,'' she says.

According to her at least one animal has been dying in Nandankanan every day for the last five years. ``The zoo authorities have been blaming the weather for the deaths, saying it has been too hot or too cold or it is a cyclone. Till now, therefore, they have been given the benefit of a doubt,'' Gandhi says.

She said that in 1998, she had proposed the setting up of a zoo cadre of officials. ``Presently, there are no trained staff to manage zoos in this country. The Forest Officers feel that they are in a punishment posting if they are posted in zoos because there are no avenues for promotion,'' she said.

The zoo cadre proposes a director-general of zoos, 200 heads of various zoos, veterinarians, architects, magagers, feeders, kitchen staff etc.

Gandhi also feels that medical assistance to wild animals is almost absent in zoos. ``The central problem is that there are no veterinary courses in the country for wild animals, except for a short course in Madras. At present, we just have about 10 to 15 qualified veterinarians from London.''

She also finds the present policy being followed for choosing animals in the zoos wrong. ``First, about 50 percent of all zoo animals are nocturnal, which is absolutely pointless as no zoo is open at night. Secondly, there should be a list of animals that can be kept and cannot be kept in each zoo of this country,'' she says.