Wayanad disaster exposes lack of disaster preparedness for animals
Two Naval officers offering first aid to a cat rescued from the disaster zone at Chooralmala.
| Photo Credit: LATHEEF NAHA
The Wayanad disaster of July 30 has exposed the lack of disaster preparedness from the standpoint of animal welfare. The number of animals missing in the disaster is uncertain. According to the Dairy Development department, out of the 112 livestock, only 48 survived the disaster. But the estimate did not include dogs, cats, and fowls.
Although animal support groups could not intervene in the initial hours after the disaster, they have since rescued more than 200 animals, including cattle, dogs, cats and fowls from the disaster zone.
A 10-member team of Humane Society International (HSI)-India has been working at Chooralmala and Mundakkai since July 31. “A disaster is never a disaster unless there is a loss,” said Praveen Suresh, HSI-India manager for disaster risk reduction and response, pointing out the importance of disaster preparedness among vulnerable communities. “It is time that we focused on disaster risk reduction by educating communities about the importance of evacuating animals in times of disasters,” said Mr. Suresh.
If people could not rescue animals, they should at least leave the animals unchained, said Mr. Suresh. His team reached out to dozens of animals with food in the wake of the tragedy. Among them were 13 dogs that survived without any food for five days. “Five of them were puppies. Though they survived with their mother’s breast milk, their mother named Ammu was extremely weak when we reached out to them with food,” he said.
Mr. Suresh said relocating animals from the disaster zone during the search and rescue operation was wrong. “Relocating them will increase their stress level. They too are traumatised like human beings. We should treat them at the site. When we relocate them, we are ignoring their comfort,” he said.
The HSI-India team searched nine days for a missing Persian cat named Pluto, but in vain. They tried different methods, including playing the voice of its owners. “Playing audio of the parents or owners was a method we successfully adopted in Turkey when an earthquake struck that country. We had 100-odd successful cases in Turkey,” said Mr. Suresh.
Sruthi, the survivor who lost Pluto, chose to adopt a dog rescued by HSI-India. “We had several such heartwarming incidents from Wayanad. But, we badly need enhanced coordination between the government and NGOs involved in animal welfare,” he said.
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