Author: Rashme Sehgal
Publication: Deccan Chronicle
Date: January 27, 2007
NGOs, including People For Animals (PFA) and
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) India, are up in arms against
the police and the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) for
failing to stop the large-scale smuggling of animals into the capital for
purposes of slaughter. Activists from Peta and PFA believe several thousand
animals are being crammed into lorries and being brought into the capital
every night. Most of these animals are taken to illegal abattoirs where they
are often cut open with dirty, blunt knives in full view of one another. Some
animals are being skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious,
these NGOs claim.
Entry points into the city have been identified
as Badarpur, Nangloi, Punjabi Bagh and Rajokri, with much of the illegal slaughtering
taking place around Kasatpura, in the heart of the city. Activists Gaurav
Gupta and Saurabh Gupta of the PFA, who have been involved in trying to stop
these trucks from entering the city for the last three years, point out, "We
believe that over 300 trucks are entering Delhi every night We try and stop
these trucks with the help of the police but what we are doing is really the
tip of the iceberg. Animals are crammed in these trucks and many are severely
injured by the time they are taken out."
Delhi's joint commissioner of police P.R.
Meena admits that large-scale smuggling of animals is taking place from the
neighbouring states of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan but claims helplessness
in addressing this problem. "Delhi has only one licensed abattoir, the
100-year-old Idgah. This is licensed to kill just 2,500 animals per day. But
the city's population has crossed 1.5 crore. With requirement having outstripped
production, thousands of illegal slaughter houses are now functioning across
the city, some of them in the most unhygienic manner possible."
Mr Meena adds: "Last year, we booked
114 cases in the northern district of Delhi." But ACP Nikhil Kumar, also
from the northern range, believes most of this slaughtering is not being done
for domestic consumption. "Our information is that most of this illegal
slaughtering is being done for the purposes of export," he says. The
reason why exporters prefer to use the facilities of the Idgah is because
it costs Re 1 to cut, wash and clean an animal. "All this is done at
the government's expense. No wonder the Idgah is showing a loss of around
Rs 10 crores per annum," a PFA activist pointed out.
A PIL filed in the Supreme Court by respondent
M.T. Siddiqui to improve the conditions under which animals are being slaughtered
had the court order the Delhi MCD file a site plan to indicate the different
entry points from which animals were being smuggled. It also demanded a list
of licensed butchers.
The Supreme Court also appointed a special
judge, C.K. Chaturvedi, to prepare a report on this entire matter. Justice
Chaturvedi's report highlighted the existence of 11,000 illegal slaughter
houses operating in the city. It also highlighted how "both the MCD and
police department are under statutory obligation to prevent illegal slaughter".
Mr Meena pointed out that the MCD had promised to complete building of a new
slaughter house at Gazipur by 2006, but had failed to do so.
The Delhi chapter of the SPCA also pleads
complete helplessness in curbing this illegal smuggling. SPCA chairman Khajuria
says: "The courts are currently imposing a fine of Rs 50 per animal from
the truck drivers of the impounded vehicles. During the last three years,
we have collected fines of Rs 3 crores. But it is for the government to impose
tough measures against this widespread abuse of animals."
Sirajuddin Quereshi, a meat exporter and Hind
Agro Industries chairman, believes the lack of modern slaughtering houses
has compounded the problem. "We have been insisting that the MCD build
three separate enclosures with separate entrances for the Gazipur slaughter
house. One building would be for the animals, the second for the brokers and
the third would be the place where the slaughtering took place. Each of these
must have their separate enclosures. The MCD has refused to heed our request.
They have already spent Rs 25 crores but have come up with a completely inadequate
structure." Mr Quereshi bemoans the government's complete indifference
to this industry.
"Meat exports fetch Rs 3,000 crores per
annum but we remain an unlicensed industry. We need to be given industry status
before things will improve on the ground," he says. Ninety per cent of
meat is exported by sea in refrigerated containers with the remaining 10 per
cent being sent by air.
Purnima Kapil, wife of minister of state for
science and technology Kapil Sibal, is also a major meat exporter. "I
am no longer exporting meat directly but am selling to exporters who are exporting
on my behalf," she pointed out.
But she does not believe that exporters are
slaughtering animals under barbarous conditions. She insists, "Most of
the big exporters have set up their own integrated plants where they do their
slaughtering." Peta India had also petitioned the Supreme Court to ban
cruelty to animals under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.