Citizen files PIL against Municipal Corporation of Gurugram for animal cruelty; court to hear case on Jan 12

The Punjab and Haryana High Court will hear a petition against the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) for cruelty towards animals on January 12. The petition focused on cruelty towards monkeys and unchecked capture of pigs for slaughter, leaving citizens vulnerable to zoonotic diseases, such as swine flu and tape worms, that can lead to pandemics.

The public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by Amit Chaudhery, president of People for Animals, Gurgaon. He is also an honorary animal welfare officer of the Animal Welfare Board of India—a statutory body under the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change.

The state of Haryana, especially the MCG, has not only failed, but also acted unlawfully in inflicting extreme physical, mental and emotional cruelty, including death to innocent animals, the petition stated.

“I have found that the MCG staff captures pigs with brutality. The civic body sells them to slaughterhouses without checking if the swine has an infection, or not; this is against the laws. These pigs are killed for their meat. People can contract several diseases if the meat of an infected pig is consumed. I have submitted all the evidence,” Chaudhery told the Hindustan Times.

“Similarly, monkeys are fed bananas laced with drugs to capture them; this is illegal. These monkeys are handled very cruelly. The young and infant monkeys are sold to street performers, are killed or released in different locations splitting their families; monkeys are extremely attached to their tribe,” he said.

The petition, while urging the court to act to protect animals, has pleaded that monkeys in the city are protected as drugging them is illegal as per the Prevention of Cruelty Act to Animals, 1960, and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The petition stated that the MCG has no blueprint or a sustainable plan to address animal-related issues in the city.

It added that the municipal agency does not have a credible record, no monitoring mechanism and no transparency for the way monkeys are captured, transported and released.

The municipal corporation, however, has denied all allegations and said it would produce all relevant documents before the court.

MCG sanitation inspector Sudhir Kumar said, “Over the years, cases of monkey bites have increased in the city and we have tried to protect residents. The allegations of animal cruelty are not correct.”

In 2015, of the 7,372 cases of rabies recorded at city’s Civil Hospital, 387 were of monkey bites. In 2016, cases of rabies increased to 9,356, out of which 1,051 were associated with monkeys. Till December 23 this year, 9,267 rabies cases were registered with the government hospital in Gurgaon.

On an average, the hospital receives 32-35 cases of monkey bite in a month, translates to an incident a day.