By IANS,
New Delhi : Concerned about the deaths of elephants due to alleged firings on them near the India-Nepal border, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Nepali counterpart Girija Prasad Koirala for protecting the wild animals.
The letter sent Monday cites several examples where elephants while crossing the border have been fired at to disperse them, resulting in deaths of some of them.
“It is our humble request that both governments should reach a consensus to keep animals out of conflicts and mutually agree to protect wild animals and be considerate towards them,” PETA’s chief functionary Anuradha Sawhney said Tuesday.
The letter has also been addressed to Environment and Forests Minister Namo Narain Meena and minister of state Sevugan Regupathy.
The organisation dedicated to fighting animal abuse said it had been inundated with calls, letters and e-mails from people shocked at recent incidents of deaths of elephants across the India-Nepal border.
Citing an example, she said an elephant calf got electrocuted while crossing the India-Nepal border near Darjeeling last week.
“The calf died on coming in contact with the energized fence when the herd had to retreat following firing from Nepal. Also, other elephants of the herd, which ran amok following the firing, got injured.”
She said PETA received another report Sunday that a 40-year-old female pachyderm succumbed to bullet injuries allegedly inflicted by the Nepal police in the eastern district of Jhapa adjacent to the Siliguri sub-division.
“Asian elephants are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, as well as the Convention of International Trade on Endangered Species,” Sawhney said.
“Animals claim no nationality. They are in perpetual involuntary servitude to all humankind, and although they pose no threat and own no weapons, human beings always win in the undeclared war against them,” she said.
“For animals, there is no Geneva Convention and no peace treaty – just our mercy,” she added.