Injured calf gets new name and shelter

PFA criticises NFYD for playing ‘calf’ politics
By PRABEER SIKDAR
DEHRADUN, 7 Apr 2009:
In an interesting development in the injured calf case (reported in Garhwal Post, yesterday), whose left fore leg broke into two after being hit by a vehicle on GMS Road, the People for Animals (PFA) has blamed its rescuer –Jitendra Chauhan – for playing ‘calf’ politics.

“He is a politician. Hence, he is trying to get political mileage out of it,” said Manvi Bhatt, PFA Secretary, who shifted the two-year-old white male calf to PFA’s Animal Shelter in a van this afternoon.

“He already knew that PFA has got its own Shelter Home at Nalapani, so why wasn’t the calf shifted there in the first place,” she remarked, adding that the Old Veterinary Hospital, after getting shifted to the new place, had no facilities to treat injured animals.

When told about the existence of an NGO called Gokul Seva Samiti, which looks after destitute cattle, she said that ‘it only looks after them and does not specialise in providing treatment to injured animals’.

When contacted, Jitendra Chauhan, President of Nehru Foundation for Youth Development (NYFD), which is spearheading a protest against the government’s decision to shift the Veterinary Hospital from Dispensary Road, said, “I never mix politics with social work.

”In his defence, Chauhan, who is an ex-NSUI District President, further said that he had participated in a 36-hour non-stop dharna at the Old Veterinary Hospital on 20-21 March to protest the government’s insensitivity towards animal care. “Had I wanted, I could have invited a top Congress leader to my non-stop dharna while ending my fast, but I chose not to as I did not want to give the protest a political colour,” he said.

When told about the calf being adopted by PFA, he said ‘it was a good move’.
New name
Interestingly, PFA people have given a new name to the injured calf. “We have named it ‘Govardhan’,” said Gauri Maulekhi, a PFA member, adding that all animals at the PFA’s Animal Shelter had a name.
In the evening, PFA also called in a government Vet from Rajpur for its treatment. “Its radius ulna has fractured. So, a steel rod would be inserted, which would enable it to stand on all four feet after three months,” said the doctor after attending to the injured calf.

When asked about the fate of other unfortunate animals that remain out of reach of PFA, Bhatt suggested that ‘all existing government veterinary hospitals in the District should also be converted into animal shelters for destitute cattle’.

She also blamed economic reasons for owners dumping their cattle on the roads. “Unlike humans, dairy owners in the city prefer female calves to male ones,” she said, adding that ‘old milch cows were also abandoned after they passed their prime’.

When asked to suggest a solution to the present impasse on the Old Veterinary Hospital, which has been temporarily shifted to Kanwali Road, she said that the administration could allot at least 2 bighas for it to continue from its former location. “This is needed because all the existing five Veterinary Hospitals in Doon are too far away from the city centre,” she said, while blaming politics for the shifting of the Old Veterinary Hospital on Dispensary Road.

“Mahant Lakshanmandas, who donated the land for the Hospital is no more, but the value of the 13 bighas of land, which has been encroached upon considerably, has risen to crores of rupees now,” she said.
http://www.garhwalpost.com/index.php?mod=article&cat=Dehradun&article=217