Illegal experiments on zoo animals in Mumbai

Mumbai: The Plants and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS) Mumbai has accused the authorities at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and Byculla Zoo in the city of permitting illegal experiments and research to be conducted on tigers and deer.

“We have photographic and other evidence that a research paper, ‘Effect of Anaesthesia on Animals’, was carried out by two students of a veterinary college for their postgraduate degrees between 2001-2003,” Sunish Subramanian of PAWS told Gulf News.

Obtaining information through an RTI query, he has alleged that tigers and deer were injected with anaesthesia (xylazine and ketamine) into them to observe its effect on the animals though such studies have never been permitted by the Mumbai Zoo Management.

Having found the irregularities, the NGO headed by Subramanian have written to various wildlife and animal welfare authorities including Prime Minister Narendra Modi on what was happening in the city’s zoo and national park.

Subramanian’s efforts to bring up this issue before the concerned authorities — Central Zoo Authority and the conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden in Maharashtra — proved to be futile and now, he says, his NGO has sent a 60-day notice to them of filing a court complaint against the offenders. “We have 66 pages of evidence to support our claims,” he says.

Meanwhile, one big positive step came with a letter from the Animal Welfare Board of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests, supporting their efforts.

In a letter dated March 25, 2015, the Secretary of this Board had sought an investigation into the matter from the Central Zoo Authority, Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and Principal Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, Nagpur, Maharashtra.

“The Board has received an email letter from the Plants and Animals Welfare Society, Mumbai, stating the illegal study/research/experiments are being conducted on tigers and deer,” kept at the Byculla Zoo and SGNP, states the letter from S. Kaylyanasundaram, Secretary of the Board. He has reminded the authorities that “ the above act is in violation of Section 11 (1) of the Prevention to Cruelty to Animals Act, and Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The Board has earlier brought to your notice on such cruelty inflicted to the animals in the above Zoo in 2011 and 2014.” The Board has asked these authorities to inform it on the appropriate action taken to prevent such cruelties.

According to PAWS both the Zoo and SGNP have not kept records of studies and experiments conducted on animals though “it has been proved that a ‘Sanjay Kumar Tripathi — who is present Deputy Superintendent (Vet) I/C of Mumbai Zoo and a ‘Kamal Kumar’ have conducted studies and experiments on tigers and deers as proved by their thesis and dissertation,” said Subramanian. They also found that a tigress was missing in the inventory records of the Byculla Zoo since a “female tiger present in the closing stock of 2004-2005 does not appear in the opening stock for the year 2005-2006,” Subramaniam says.