Dear All, Please read the feelings of Mr. Jonny Krause, Trustee of JBF(Scotland) after visiting the Shattar Gaon forest village at Assam-Meghalaya Border in India that displayed a wonderful gesture of compassion and kindness selflessly by attending to the cries of a cow elephant seriously injured on 28th February 2010 in a train accident. Your comments will be greatly appreciated and will be passed to Jonny. Regards, Dr. Sashanka S. Dutta Chief Functionary - JBF(Just Be Friendly) Co-opted Member - Animal Welfare Board of India (Ministry of Environment & Forests) www.jbfcharity.org JBF VISIT TO SHATTARGAON FOREST VILLAGE On Monday 05th April 2010 we visited a Forest Village, the inhabitants of which had earlier made a compassionate attempt to save the life of a mother elephant that had been hit by a train. The visit was very pleasant and the people we met were friendly and generous in their hospitality. In conversation with the villagers, it became obvious that they feel ignored by the authorities and left out of the development being experienced by the urban areas nearby, such as Guwahati. JBF will be trying to visit the village periodically, to implement a programme of animal husbandry improvements. We are also interested in helping with the education of the children in the village, to enable them to see the options open to them in the wider world. However, we do not wish to only encourage them to leave the forest and then to do labouring jobs in towns and cities, so we will have to carry out the education to a level where they can leave the village (if they wish) and gain employment in jobs that properly use their skills. However, a severe shortage of funds within JBF prevents us from achieving such an aim at the moment, so we are exploring the options within our capabilities. There is a negative side to this story that leaves a very bad feeling with all those that know of it. The mother elephant was injured beyond saving and should have been helped to her end in a humane manner by euthanasia on the spot. Unfortunately, a lengthy process of committee consultation caused the unacceptable suffering of this helpless mother over a long period. While I understand the religious and environmental issues surrounding the euthanasia of wild animals, I firmly believe that the process of deciding upon that course of action must be speeded up from now on. A simple way to implement this would be to empower the Forest Rangers with the decision on this matter. It would be essential for there to be a qualified veterinary practitioner present, not only to assess the animal and give the prognosis for recovery, but also to administer the medicines for euthanasia if that is found to be the most humane course of action. My reasoning is, that if the Forest Rangers can be trusted to look after the forest and all the flora and fauna within that forest, then they are also capable of making a decision, in conjunction with the vet, on an important issue such as this. A repeat of the elongated debates and to and fro of political manoeuvrings within the animal welfare community is not acceptable. The allocation of responsibility should be given to those in the field without any further delay. To do otherwise is against the interests of the animals and will therefore cause unnecessary suffering – a state of affairs that we are all trying to avoid, I’m sure. Of course, without the train, this accident would not have happened. A mother and baby would by now be roaming throughout the forest area, adding to the richness and diversity. Nobody expects the trains to stop running, but there has to be some way to stop this tragedy from repeating itself. It is important that we all try and think of a way that will keep the trains and animals separate. Perhaps an experimental train can be fitted with an animal guard, similar to those used in America for their cattle and Australia for their kangaroos. In conjunction with this, a system of ensuring the trains adhere to the 20kph speed limit is essential. An idea from UK would be to have ‘average speed monitors’ where a post is set into the ground at the entrance and exit of the speed limit, and fitted with a registering device that activates a module in the cab. That module is switched on by the trigger on the entrance post and off by the trigger on the exit post. As the posts are at a pre-measured distance, the time taken to switch the module on and then off again will give the average speed it took to travel between the 2 posts. If the allowed average speed is exceeded, the driver will face a fine for speeding, just as we are in our motor cars. Please take notice of the lessons that we can learn from this unhappy tragedy. I ask you to act now before a repeat of this situation arises. Regards, Jonny Krause. Trustee JBF(Scotland) www.jbfscotland.org
