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Repair by day at Bangalore. Vet Dr. Abdulsalam and zoo superintendent K. Harikumar at work.
People entrusted with the protection of animals could at times be obstacles to animal conservation. The officials of the Thiruvananthapuram zoo who accompanied the giraffe, Raja, from Mysore to Thiruvananthapuram, learnt this lesson at the checkpoint of the Forest Department of Tamil Nadu at Zizuvadi in Hosur. Dr Abdulsalam, the vet, and K. Harikumar, the superintendent of the Thiruvananthapuram zoo, were reportedly castigated and threatened at around 2 p.m. on May 16 by a partially-clad person who claimed to be a forester at the checkpoint.
Reason? They had stopped the 15-tonne truck carrying the animal 50 yards ahead of the office. The giraffe, because of its anatomical peculiarities, has to be treated with kid gloves in transit. Any stoppage of the vehicle has to be very slow and gradual.
After reportedly ordering the vet out of the office, the `forester' spoke extensively of his `powers' to the superintendent. He not only accused the official of trying to smuggle in the animal but also decreed that the vet was not qualified to talk about the giraffe's health.
"In exercise of his `powers', he forced the vehicle, almost 50 feet long, to reverse to the doorstep of the check-post office. He also threatened to release the giraffe into the open and make it walk for an hour to ascertain its state of health. The place where he threatened to make the giraffe walk was strewn with plastic litter, a health hazard for any animal," officials who accompanied the giraffe said.
"Meanwhile, it was realised that the checkpoint of the Karnataka Government at Athibele, half a km away, had been missed among the minefield of checkpoints at Hosur. The vet rushed there and explained matters. The sensible forest officer at Athibele came to the vehicle parked at the Tamil Nadu check-post, examined the animal and accorded sanction, all in a matter of minutes," the officials added.
Perhaps shamed by the behaviour of this officer of the Karnataka's Forest Department, the papers were stamped and the giraffe was allowed to be taken after a delay of more than an hour. Both the zoo officials and the giraffe were stressed out.
P.K.U.
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