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Silence of the lamb

Editorial
The Pioneer
Friday, August 1, 2003

Those who believe the cow is a revered animal in India
had better think again. Yet one need not be a cow-
worshipper to understand the unspeakable nature of the
crime that reportedly took place in Laldang, around 130
kilometres from Chandigarh. On July 25, Chandigarh
Municipal Corporation officials, on a cattle clean-up
drive, are said to have brought seven trucks packed with
70 stray cattle rounded up from the streets to this spot
on the Haryana-Himachal Pradesh border. On the way, a
toll tax inspector at the Kalesar barrier had been told
by officials accompanying the trucks that the animals
were being taken to a cattle pound. Subse-quently, many
of the cows were found, dead or dying, in a gorge around
eight kms from Kalesar: They had been driven up a hill
road and forcibly pushed off the cliff-edge. While the
Paonta Sahib police station SHO confirmed the vehicles
belonged to Municipal authorities, a veterinary doctor
who visited the ghastly scene brought the full horror
home. In their fatal plunge, these gentlest of animals
suffered terrible external and internal injuries: 19 dead
cows had broken limbs, ribs and horns; four found alive
could not be saved. The doctor said, "In most cases,
lungs were ruptured. The intestines of some ... were
out." Horrified villagers too did their bit to rescue
several traumatised animals. Though words must surely
fail in adequately condemning this inconceivable outrage,
action must be swift and exemplary to punish the guilty.
It is clear from the lack of cooperation on the part of
Corporation officials that every attempt will be made to
stage a criminal cover-up. They have, in fact, asked for
time to 'look into' the charges against two officials-
slaughterhouse superintendent Dr MS Kamboj and Assistant
Sub-Inspector Om Prakash- named in the FIR lodged by
Paonta Sahib police. This dilatory tactic must on no
account be allowed to succeed.

It has become platitudinous to equate a society's claim
to being civilised with its treatment of animals. The
pitiable condition of the 'venerated' cow everywhere in
the country is one reflection of this social hypocrisy.
The way animals are transported to slaughterhouses,
crammed beyond breathing capacity into vehicles, and the
barbaric ways they are butchered are another. Gratuitous
cruelty is as prevalent in India-which takes false pride
in its traditions of non-violence and respect for all
life-forms-as elsewhere. Only recently, a leopard cub had
its limbs broken, its eyes gouged out and its body set on
fire by villagers in Bulandshahr, UP. Brutal forms of
poaching go on unabated, with institutional collusion;
birds and animals on the verge of extinction are
slaughtered in the very sanctuaries meant to protect
them. Human intrusion into natural habitats is robbing
every non-human life form of its inalienable right to
exist; wild animals are being mutilated when they stray
into human habitations in frenzied search of food and
shelter. In their relentless marginalisation,
objectification and commodification, in their unchosen
exile and forced sacrifice-for profit, for food, for
sport, for scientific research-terror-stricken, mute
creatures are enslaved by man, self-coronated as the
master-species. Yet no society can claim to be human, let
alone civilised, till it can plumb the depths of the pain
contained in the very silence of those who have no voice.

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Panchaang for 3 Shravan 5104, Thursday, July 31, 2003:

Shubhanu Nama Samvatsare Dakshinaya Nartana Ritau
Kark Mase Shukl Pakshe Guru Vasara Yuktayam
Poorvaphalguni Nakshatr Variyan-Parigh Yog
Taitil-Vanij Karan Tritiya-Chaturthi Yam Tithau

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