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Circus companies allege harassment

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI Feb.1. After medical scientists, it is now the turn of circus companies to complain of harassment by animal right activists. A delegation of Indian Circus Federation called on the Union Environment Minister, T.R. Baalu, here on Friday and lodged a formal protest against the activists.

The main grouse of the delegation, led by the Federation president, Ashok Shankar, was that they were being subjected to much problem at the time of registration. As per rules, every circus company has to be inspected before registration and the inspection team includes representatives of animal rights groups. The delegation said that instead of ensuring whether the companies were following the rules laid down for the care of the animals or not, the activists raised ``extraneous issues''. They urged that instead of activists, experts such as veterinarians and officials from the wildlife departments be assigned for the pre-registration inspections.

The delegation said that declaration of circus as being equivalent to zoo created problems as they were not in a position to match the norms such as moving space and size of the cage, which were applicable to zoos. It was decided that a high-level meeting of representatives of the Animal Welfare Board, the Central Zoo Authority and the Animal Welfare Division in the Ministry would soon be held to look into the issues.

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