“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
-Mahatma Gandhi
New Delhi: Indeed, our real progress lies in walking in harmony with Nature, where humans and animals share space, respect and care for one another.
When we nurture the environment, we nurture life itself. Without the indigenous animals that the Indian subcontinent is blessed with, the modern society will be just concrete walls and buildings apart from people. The stray dogs of India mostly comprising of the breed known as Indian Pariah dog are one of the most ancient dog breeds and they have a long-standing history of companionship and solidarity with the Indian people, with archaeological evidence showing that the dog was present in Indian villages as early as 4,500 years ago.
In fact, the relationship between these dogs and the inhabitants of Indian subcontinent dates back to the epic era of Mahabharata, when Yudhisthira was on his final journey to the Heaven along with his brothers and wife Draupadi and a dog started accompanying them along the way. When Yudhisthira’s whole family perished by the time he reached the gates of heaven, Indra challenged Yudhisthira's desire to bring the dog to heaven, but Yudhisthira stood firm and refused to abandon his loyal companion. And that is when the dog transformed into Lord Yama revealing that it was a test.
Indra, impressed by Yudhisthira’s unwavering commitment to dharma, reveals that the dog is actually Dharma, the god of righteousness and justice, who had taken the form of a dog to test Yudhisthira’s virtue.
Yama praised Yudhisthira for his unwavering compassion and loyalty, even to a dog. Because of this, Yudhisthira was allowed to enter heaven in his mortal form, making him the only one in his family to have that honour. Every creature, big or small, plays an equally important role in the environment and calling for the erasure of one kind of animals invites the invasion of another.
It is the duty of the Government to ensure not just the safety and welfare of its human citizens but also that of the animals that form the biodiversity of our country. After all, we strive to be a compassionate and civilized society that is built on the ancient values of “Ahimsa” which translates to Non-violence and “Dharma” which encompasses ethical conduct, moral principles, and the inherent nature of things, guiding individuals and the universe towards balance and harmony and the world recognizes us for these principles.
Clean streets, fresh air, and compassion can create a world where both human beings and animals co-exist and thrive side by side, not as rivals of space but as companions in the journey of life. The orders issued by the Supreme Court to capture lakhs of stray dogs and putting them in “shelters” that was never even built by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, hoping that it would prevent dog bites is a short-sighted and knee-jerk decision, which could have adverse consequences to long-term public safety and health. It is an undeniable fact that lone women, children and local residents depend on these stray dogs for protection. This would trigger a spike in theft and crimes especially against women in an already crime infested city.
A woman returning from work late at night in Delhi NCR is more likely to get assaulted by a man than get bitten by a dog. Authorities should focus on cleaning up the city, ensuring proper waste management and building the necessary infrastructure to sterilise and vaccinate stray dogs. But the funds that are allocated for these purposes are siphoned off and the blame is put on the voiceless animals that cannot even defend themselves.
MCD has already been picking up hundreds of dogs all across Delhi. These dogs are being picked up in the middle of the night, tortured, harassed and there have been reports of their murder on the streets as well, all without any official orders issued to the MCD. And despite ABC rules and laws protecting community animals remaining intact, several dog feeders are being harassed post the Supreme Court Order and there are no whereabouts of the dogs that have already been picked up or what happened to them.
This secret culling of these voiceless beings under the guise of relocating them to shelters or pounds which is either already happening or about to happen, goes against everything that our freedom fighters fought for. It is a sad state of affairs all this is happening just before the 79th Independence Day of our Country.
The Respected Lordships unfortunately lost sight of the fact that if dogs have to be taken off the streets, then safe and spacious no-kill shelters, adoption assistance, vaccinations, sterilisations and food have to be provided which are presently not provided by any Government authorities. But the root cause for dog bites is the unsanitary environment, filthy roads, overflowing garbage, clogged drains and the harassment of dog feeders by local authorities and individuals. If feeders are discouraged and prevented from feeding, then stray dogs have no choice but to rely on the wet wastes from households and wherever these wastes get accumulated, dogs fight there with each other and attack humans who go there to throw their household wastes and consequently children playing nearby also get attacked.
Dogs fighting for their own survival is the root cause of dog bites. Stray dogs should not have to fight for their survival, as a compassionate society we should ensure that the animals that are already existing are not neglected, abused or killed while also ensuring that they are not reproducing indiscriminately in such a way that harms both animals and humans. So, there is an urgent need to pull up municipalities and corporations, health and sanitary departments and officials to look into cleanliness, public hygiene, cleaning of sewers and the effective practice Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
The only ethical and practical way to tackle dog bites is by conducting timely vaccination and sterilization drives, encouraging stray dog adoption and providing assistance for the same, protecting the rights of dog feeders, maintaining a clean environment and spreading awareness to people of all age groups on how to live in harmony with the community dogs. These dogs are as much part of our society as we are, they are the victims no one talks about, they live without any shelter, many die under speeding wheels or at the hands of cruelty by people, they are neglected and left to live on their own despite the fact that they are genetically wired to depend on human beings for their survival and companionship.
They are living, breathing individuals that dream of being loved and cared for but they live each day of their lives scavenging for food to survive, the least we can do is not label them as the worst criminals on earth and use that as an excuse to annihilate them.
This article has been authored by Ms. Mahalakshmi Pavani, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India.
The author acknowledges the assistance rendered by Ms.Prabisha Pradeep, Advocate, Supreme Court.
[Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here in are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of LawStreet Journal].
