Campaigns admin November 13, 2024 0 Comments

Shadows of wild selves and other forms of animal abuse: guest post by Shubhobroto Ghosh

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This guest blog post was written by Shubhobroto Ghosh, author of ‘Dreaming In Calcutta and Channel Islands’. Shubhobroto is the former coordinator of the Indian Zoo Inquiry project and has attended the Principles and Practice Training course at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Shubhobroto completed his Masters thesis on British zoos at the University of Westminster and has worked at the Wildlife Trust of India, TRAFFIC India and is currently Wildlife Campaign Manager at World Animal Protection.

Shadows of wild selves

On the occasion of World Environment Day, 2024, reading the current discourse on wildlife conservation and environmental protection, makes me realise that captive animals have been given short shrift in most cases. Patronisingly considered in many cases, taken for granted in others, wilfully misrepresented by a great many institutions that keep them and ignored in vast cases, for me, they remain the unsung representatives of creatures who have lost their essential characteristic of wildness. Since I like to treat animals as individuals, some memories that cross my mind right now will illustrate how the plight of one life can reveal many aspects of animal behaviour, human animal relationships and depict ideas on animal welfare and conservation.

*Himadri Junior, white tigress with her cub in Alipore Zoo in Calcutta, India, circumstantially, in 1989. Credit : Amrita Bazar Patrika*

I am sharing the story of is one captive tiger who made a deep impact on me during my childhood days, Himadri Junior, a white tigress in Alipore Zoo in Calcutta. A descendant of the famous original white tigers of Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, Himadri Junior was invariably the first tiger I would encounter in the old white tiger section in Alipore Zoo, a section for which one had to pay extra to see these ethereally beautiful creatures that have captured the imagination of many zoo administrators and visitors alike.

It goes without saying, valid concerns can be raised on the basic objective of breeding white tigers or any big cats in captivity, but as a child, I was not very aware of these issues. I would come across Himadri Junior sitting at one corner of her cage, and her posture and position were so predictable that I became used to this during every zoo visit. She would be the first big cat I would encounter during my zoo visits and although she was a captive creature, she was my first mental image of a big cat anywhere. Her memory is still etched in my mind today.

From out of the darkness

With the passage of time, I read about her offspring in Alipore Zoo and the special occasion when she bore a white cub and I assiduously collected newspaper clippings documenting the occasion. I also later learnt that Himadri Junior had been mated with a wild caught tiger from the Sunderbans. As a child, I had imaginative experiences regarding Himadri Junior. I would imagine her daily routine and think about the restricted area she occupied. I very often deliberated on the idea of giving her more space to exercise. I also dwelt on the fact what she would be doing at night and if she had any nocturnal instincts that would be intact at night and whilst I was asleep, whether she might be pacing the cage in the darkness.

This was also a fancy I developed regarding visiting a zoo at night and observing the behaviour of various creatures by moonlight. However, even as a child, I realized the stark reality of Himadri Junior being a caged animal and that her existence was essentially deprived of the natural patterns of behaviour that were integral to wild tigers. Indeed, all my thoughts regarding Himadri Junior, were juxtaposed in relation to what a wild tiger should be doing.

As I grew, of course, I started looking at zoos with a more critical eye. I began to examine their purpose and their objectives, but I never lost sight of the fact that the individual animals that I saw incarcerated had their own stories to tell. I never fell for the glib and erroneous assertion, so beloved to many conservationists, that species are more important than individuals. For me, my concern for zoo animals has always been deeply embedded in my affection for individual animals of different species, and never in my life, till this day, have I felt that the interests of individuals were in any way at odds with the interests of species.

Seeing the individual

For example, when the first giraffes came to Alipore Zoo in 1986 from Cologne Zoo, I went to see them with a deep seated special interest with my mother, Chandana Ghosh, because I had only read extensively about giraffes till that time and had never seen one in the flesh. Today, after visiting zoos across three continents and having seen scores of giraffes in a variety of facilities, I still recall the image of Sagar and Uttara, the first giraffes I ever saw.

Looking at them, wondering at their physique and subsequently raising questions on their captivity have all been integral to my understanding of zoo animals. In fact, when Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark, took the savage decision to kill their two year old giraffe, named Marius in 2014, I was reminded of my first encounter with Sagar and Uttara in Alipore Zoo and my instant connection to them as individuals who I visited for many years hence.

*Jessie and Tuzo, the chimpanzee couple at Alipore Zoo in Calcutta, after their arrival from Southport Zoo, via Twycross Zoo in England. Credit : Shubhobroto Ghosh*

Other memories also come to mind. Watching Jessie and Tuzo, the chimpanzee couple at Alipore Zoo in their open air enclosure after their arrival from Twycross Zoo in Great Britain. They were originally from Southport Zoo in Northern England, from where they were sent to Twycross Zoo and thence to Kolkata.

I have written about my experience discussing them with the Southport Zoo director, Carole Petrie in December, 1999, during my first trip to England. Incidentally, Southport Zoo was surveyed by stalwart zoo animal welfare specialist, Stefan Ormrod, ex Curator of Mammals at Jersey Zoo and head of the Zoo Task Force of Born Free Foundation and World Society For the Protection of Animals. Thanks to Stefan’s investigation, combined with those of other activists, Southport Zoo was eventually closed in 2004. I was glad to have been part of the campaigning process that led to the closure of this zoo and even today, I can remember the animals I saw there during my December, 1999, visit, particularly, the chimpanzees, a single lioness and two Snow Leopards.

Another notable inhabitant of Alipore Zoo remains etched in my mind, Adwaita, the Aldabra Giant Tortoise who was reputedly Lord Clive’s pet, and is reported to have lived for around two hundred and fifty years before dying in 2006.

*Adwaita, the Aldabra Giant Tortoise in Alipore Zoo in Calcutta, 9 May, 1994. Credit : The Statesman*

I have seen Aldabra Giant Tortoises in other places and Adwaita has now been replaced in Alipore Zoo with two new Aldabra Giant Tortoises named Kotha and Koli, but his memory remains very potent in my mind still.

Disturbing reality

In December, 2023, I was able to visit Assam where I spent two years of my life and had a chance to revisit Guwahati Zoo and Kaziranga National Park, that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As a student in Guwahati, I spent days in Guwahati Zoo and returning after a long time with my wife, Payel Biswas, I was able to recreate the journey undertaken so many years ago.

I remembered seeing Mohan, a lone White Rhino, who had become deranged by his captivity and used to bang his horns against the wall, with the result that they became pitiful stumps as a result of this constant battering.

We were also able to see Pygmy Hogs in Guwahati Zoo, the only zoo in the world to house his animal and subject of a captive breeding programme in Assam that is assisted by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, an institution where I studied wildlife management and zoo animal welfare.

Visiting zoos across the world introduced me to the disturbing reality that many zoos are conduits to the wildlife trade. Irresponsible zoos add to the problem of wildlife farming and the proliferation of captive animals meant for consumptive use and entertainment.

*Bengal Monitor Lizards like this one in Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan need protection from wildlife trade. Credit : Payel Biswas*

Wild animals suffer in inappropriate conditions in captivity and one stark citation of this I deal with on a regular basis are the captive elephants in Jaipur in Amer Fort, giving rides mostly to foreign tourists, who believe riding them gives a taste of India. The elephants of Amer Fort encourage illegal wildlife trade, abet animal cruelty and promote the idea that animals are commodities.

Wildlife farming

Recently , World Animal Protection has produced a report on wildlife farming that shows an estimated 5.5 billion wild animals being kept in cruel conditions on commercial wildlife farms around the world.

moonbear Asia — *Bear bile farms exist to extract the bile of moon bears to be used in traditional Chinese medicine*.

Researchers have found an astonishing lack of transparency and inadequate monitoring across the global multi-billion-dollar industry, where sentient animals are treated as mere components in a cruel production line. Tragically, some captive wildlife populations are now larger than those living free. The whole report can be read here.

Increasingly, influencers are speaking against animal abuse in different situations. Shreya Sen Handley, award winning author of the travel book, ‘Handle With Care,’ says, “It is time to make cruelty free choices in our lifestyle, avoiding the abuse of wildlife in entertainment and opting for fashion products that do not abuse animals or exploit slave labour.” Shreya strives to make these changes herself and hopes others will too, even if it isn’t always easy.

Speaking of individuals, the lives of many sentient beings are destroyed in factory farms where animals are raised for meat. Raising animals for meat in intensive situations destroys the habitat of wild animals and provides room for human wildlife conflict. World Animal Protection has been raising the matter of factory farming as a cruel practice by encouraging plant based diets to tackle animal cruelty and environmental destruction.

I also feel very upset that an entire species of animal, the Silk Moth, Bombyx mori, has been destroyed, devastated and mangled beyond imagination for the luxury product of silk that is used to adorn human beings as an act of vanity. For one pure silk garment at least 25,000 to 30,000 silkworms and silkmoths are crushed to death and boiled in the most barbaric manner.

Silk production exploits child labour in India and it is also an environmentally destructive process. With many alternative products like plant based silks making their presence felt in the market, it is time to become more civilised and recognise the rights and sentience of invertebrate animals like silkworms and silkmoths who are capable of feeling pain and deserve the same level of kindness and concern we accord to vertebrate animals.

Regarding cruelty in pure silk production, I am most profoundly grateful to the efforts of my friend and colleague, Kate Stephenson (Kate on Conservation), author and trustee of the Born Free Foundation, in raising awareness on this form of animal abuse and promoting alternatives.

What could have been, and what still could be

I go back to Himadri Junior, the white tigress, I used to gaze at in Alipore Zoo as a child. I now transmogrify her memory with that of my first sighting of a wild tiger in Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh in India in 2010. My unalloyed joy in seeing this wild tiger made me wonder how Himadri Junior would look like in the wild, like her ancestor, Mohan, a white tiger who was found in the jungles of Rewa in 1951. Indeed, Himadri Junior, Sagar and Uttara remain my lodestars for cherishing the wild counterparts of tigers, giraffes and all animals where they belong, in the wilderness in their natural habitat.

With compassionate individuals (like Kate on Conservation), who go the extra mile by highlighting the plight of all animals around the globe, I am sure that one day, we will develop an understanding of wild creatures when no animal has to suffer in the wild like Himadri Junior, the white tigress did at Alipore Zoo in Calcutta in India, so many years ago.

I also came across a most valuable letter questioning the concept of keeping animals in captivity, written by the ex Chief Minister of West Bengal, in 1975, on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of Alipore Zoo in Calcutta. The text reads as follows :

Chief Minister

West Bengal

Message

“The celebration of the centenary of the Zoological Garden, Alipore is an occasion to consider not how best we can keep birds and animals in captivity but how we can protect them in their natural habitat – in our forests and in national parks. In fact, I have often felt that we should seriously examine whether we need to perpetuate zoological gardens at all. We may beautify them and make them attractive to visitors, but the basic concept seems to me to be wrong. Animals should not be kept confined, however pretty the surroundings. It is a continuous cruelty to them, and the sooner it ends the better. What we really need and should plan for are protected forests and sanctuaries where animals can roam free, and where they are safe. We have some all over the country. Perhaps a day will come when there will be many more, and we will not need to keep animals in captivity merely to satisfy our curiosity.

I congratulate the workers and the Committee of Management of the Alipore Zoological Garden on this occasion, and hope they will continue to care for the animals and birds in the garden with the compassion that they have traditionally shown.”

– Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Chief Minister of Bengal from 20 March 1972 – 30 April 1977 in ‘100 Years of Calcutta Zoo (1875-1975). The Centenary Celebration Committee, Zoological Garden, Alipore, Calcutta(1975)’

Copy of letter written by Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Chief Minister of Bengal from 20 March 1972 – 30 April 1977 in ‘100 Years of Calcutta Zoo (1875-1975). The Centenary Celebration Committee, Zoological Garden, Alipore, Calcutta(1975)’

Written almost fifty years ago, this message was far ahead of its time and has a strong resonance with me in my current work, emphasising as it did and does, that wildlife belongs in the wild.