I despise zoological parks. Zoos are considered as a place for entertainment in India by presenting the wildlife enclosed in tiny enclosures to the visitors who tease and mock them.
Today, on 25th July, 2019, my friends and I volunteered for World Wildlife Fund’s Global Tiger Day program held at National Zoological Park, Delhi, India.
Initially, we thought that our job was to take presentations for school children but it turned out to be a painting, story-writing and poster making competition for school and college students for which we had to volunteer.
The event was very clumsy as the organizers themselves were clueless on what to do. Moreover, they were over-staffed with faculty and our presence was nullified.
Instead of organizing this kind of competition, they could have made the students send letters to Project Tiger or RTIs as these would have created impacts. Making posters will not be beneficial at all and in the end, the paintings are just dumped off.
What cranked my day from the start was how the faculties and organizers made the students hold out banners and made them shout slogans such as “ Save The Tiger, Wealth Of The Nation” inside a zoo!!
I reported this to the organizers and they just turned up their hands.
Later on, after the event was over, my friends and I explored the zoo.
Now, when I was young, the zoo was my favorite place to visit because I loved to look at animals. But now, every time I visit a zoo, I turn into a depressed soul. The megafauna like the big cats, the social monkeys, the civets and the cunning jackals are all in their tiny enclosures. The elephants were tied with chains on both their front limbs. The birds were in glass cages unable to spread their wings.
Imagine the repressed state of these wild animals when the government itself wants the wildlife to not be in enclosures. The laws in India allow for zoos as an educational institute, but the zoos are only presented as an entertainment hub for the nation.
It is sadistically twisted where we humans watch and enjoy the caged and depressed plight of these wild animals.
Moreover, what got into my nerves was when people try to provoke the animals so that they can see them react! What do they think of wild animals? As their pet dog?! Would you like it if a stranger tries to provoke you by throwing sticks, stones and water just so you’ll look at them, bare your teeth and try to put up a show?!
Well, this is the reality of wildlife in zoos and how people perceive wild animals to be.
There were a group of people who were trying to provoke a leopard in a cage by rattling its cage. I got very angry, walked right upto them and said that I will sue them for violating Section 51 of The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 which states that those who violate Section 38(j)- “teasing, mocking and making noise which disturbs the wild animals is punishable by law” and have them imprisoned for 2 years. They were feared this and apologized.
If humans can’t even start with treating animals with respect, then humanity towards other humans will continue to perish.
