The subject of slaughterhouses is a gruesome one. But the horrors being perpetrated at the Idgah slaughterhouse are difficult even to imagine.

The 80-year-old slaughterhouse, which was originally built to cope with only 1,500 to 2,000 animals a day at the maximum now caters to not only the 10,000 goats and sheep but another 3,000 buffaloes as well each day.

Four-and-a-half years ago KARE had presented a detailed memorandum highlighting the cruelties and the illegal activities being practised in the Idgah abattoir, along with photographs, to the then Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. Now after many years of legal battles, the High Court has set up a committee to look into its workings.

The court is giving a lot of importance to the pollution this place is causing – and justifiably so – but the cruelties perpetrated on these voiceless creatures ought not to be overlooked in the process.

The pre-slaughter cruelties are so enormous that it is difficult to describe them. The animals are made to travel for miles on foot, and brought in trucks and other vehicles from the neighbouring states of U.P. , Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, without rest, food or water. They are provided with no shelter from the natural elements. If they slow down they are beaten mercilessly, chilli powder being added to their eyes in order to make them walk faster.

During transportation, double than the recommended number of animals are ‘stuffed’ into the vehicles, which results in broken bones, crushed ribs gouged out eyes (because of each others horns), ruptured stomachs with the intestines hanging out.

When they arrive at the slaughterhouse, their final destination, the smaller animals are bodily lifted and thrown on the roads and the buffaloes are pushed off the vehicles with the help of ramps does not arise.

The stench of blood and gore foretells their future and fear is writ large on their faces. They are given no rest period as required by law (24 hours), nor are they fed, watered, or attended to by veterinarians. To add salt to their wounds they are again beaten, kicked, dragged by their legs and ears (goats and sheep), into the slaughterhouse. Buffaloes who can’t stand up or walk are dumped on large wheel-barrows and tied with ropes and taken inside to be butchered. Legs are broken to prevent them from running for their lives.

The butcher does not wait. He drags the pitifully bleating animal – by whatever part of the body he can lay his hand on, nails it to the ground, slitting its throat half way (the spinal cord is left intact in halal and that’s the meat that is most in demand), and the animal is left bleeding to death, fully conscious of its pain, and its own life and blood draining away! Many are also skinned alive, their eyes gouged out, their hooves cut while conscious, the horrifying list is endless. The butchers are always in a great hurry, because the number of animals to be slaughtered is fare more than the capacity of this slaughterhouse.

The buffaloes face the same fate, only their pain and suffering is magnified because of their size.

the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has no control over the butchers, though the slaughterhouse is run by it (it is mandatory for the MCD to run a slaughterhouse under section 42K of the MCD Act). Anyone can walk in and pay a fee of between Rs. 2/- and Rs. 4/- and slaughter a sheep and goat and buffalo. The butchers are not the employees o the MCD, nor as they licensed, and neither do they have upper or lower age limits, nor are they issued ID cards.

The solution will not rest with the shifting of the slaughterhouse because no residents of any area will allow it to be set up in the vicinity of their homes.

Ironically the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, which covers so many cruelties to animals and awards punishments to the offenders, does not cover slaughterhouse atrocities in its ambit. Interestingly, all the cruelties mentioned under Section 11 of this Act, are indulged in by the butchers and the other parties to the slaughterhouse, every single a day.

Even the so-called modernisation of slaughterhouse is not going to solve the problem of the cruel treatment meted out to animals. Humane slaughter does not exist, as has been proved by western countries who have tried and tested the system for years.

(Camellia Satija
is a founder-member of the NGO
Kindness to Animals and Respect for Environment)

WETLANDS UNDER THREAT
Government & World Bank Collusion

As members of the Dahanu Taluka Environment Welfare Association, we have been interacting and lobbying endlessly with our government, against the Bombay Suburban Electricity Supply Co. (BSES), which is funded by the World Bank, because it will destroy Dahanu taluka in Thane district of Maharashtra.

The need to save Dahanu cannot be denied. It is the last green frontier along the Konkan coast. It is one of the most densely forested areas in Maharashtra, with a forest cover of 49 percent i.e. 1,36,000 hectares in the Dahanu division are under reserved and protected forests. It is a rich productive agrarian area, giving full employment to all, including the tribals who work in the vegetable and chickoo farms. Dahanu is the last resource rich food producing belt in Maharashtra and should be left agriculturally intact and untouched.

It has the last unpolluted stretch of coastal waters. In the year 1985/86, 89,319 tonnes of fish was caught from the Dahanu/Satpathy coastal region. 7000 fishermen are engaged directly or indirectly, in fishing here.

The setting up of a 500/2000 MW coal-based thermal power plant (TPP) by the BSES by the BSES, will cause irreversible damage to the economy of this area based mainly on agricultural and fisheries.

The Government of India declared the whole of Dahanu taluka to be an Ecologically Fragile Area – this through the notification dated June 20, 1991. However, this will amount to nothing once the TPP has been set up, as there will be a change in the ‘land use pattern’, due to an appreciable change in the climatic conditions as also environmental pollution. This change will make the whole region unfeasible for horticulture, fishing activities and the forests will be wholly destroyed.

Hereunder we give the major developments regarding BSES:

l	November 14, 1987: The (Maharashtra) State Appraisal Committee visited Dahanu. Though acknowledging Dahanu to be an ecologically fragile restricted industrial area, it gave clearance to the BSES project.
l	July 21, 1988: Formal clearance was granted by the state government to the BSES project and a set of conditions laid down, which they well knew at the onset, were impossible to be compiled with.
l	December 29, 1988: The S.K. Roy Committee comprising experts in every field after visiting the area, rejected the siting of the BSES TPP at Dahanu on nine different grounds. However, despite this committee’s objections, the MEF cleared the BSES TPP and suppressed the S.K. Roy committee report.
l	March 29, 1989: Clearance granted by the MEF, Government of India. Certain conditions were laid down, they know could never be compiled with.
l	May 1990: A writ petition was filed in the Bombay High Court by the Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Group (DTEPG) and the Bombay Environment Action Group (BEAG). An interim stay was granted, only landfill was allowed. The BSES violated court orders. A contempt petition was filled by the DTEPG which was summarily dismissed.
l	May3, 1990: Meeting with Maneka. The BSESS’s Environment Impact Study is shown to be full of discrepancies and anomalies.
l	March 21, 1991: When the Supreme Court case came up for hearing, the MEF refused to take responsibility to inform the court of the enactment of the notification on the Coastal Regulation Zone which already was a law.
l	May 21, 1991: Dr. Maudgal’s report was suppressed due to persistent objections raised by the environmental groups with regard to the BSES’ violations, Dr. Maudgal, Advisor and Director to the MEF, was sent to Dahany to examine the violations. His report is a clear indictment of the BSES as also its lack of integrity. It enumerates too the violations of the conditions laid down.

For further details contact

Nergis Irani/Katy Rustom
Dahanu Taluka Environment Welfare Association
Gulmarg, Vaki, ambarpada
Dahanu Road – 401 502,
Maharashtra