The incident of people clubbing a Gangetic dolphin to death raises serious questions about our ability for compassion

There are times when it is difficult to love humanity and all that it stands for. When a newborn or an 80-year-old grandmother is raped, one can’t help wondering what we are all about and how did we descend to such depths? The news of a Gangetic dolphin being beaten to death with sticks, rods and axes by a group of men in Uttar Pradesh’s Pratapgarh is one such moment. The heartbreaking incident took place on December 31 as the world was in good cheer and preparing to usher in the New Year. A video of the deadly assault on the Gangetic dolphin, which by the way is a protected species, is doing the rounds on social media and those who have had the heart to watch the extremely disturbing clip are appalled. In a display of extreme cruelty, the men are seen raining blows on the hapless dolphin as blood gushes from its body. Some men can be seen holding down the helpless creature. Someone can be heard saying: “Faaltu mein maar rahe ho, yaar (You are assaulting it for no reason).” However, this half-hearted overture did nothing to stop the men. It reminds one of the disinterest and weak response of the three policemen in Minneapolis, US, as a policeman Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of a supine George Perry Floyd who struggled to breathe and eventually died. If the three officers had put up some resistance, Floyd would have been alive today. Similarly, if the bystanders watching the gruesome hacking to death of the aquatic mammal had been more forceful, the dolphin could have been saved. That this comparison between the death of a human and a dolphin may offend many will not come as a surprise. Because, after all, haven’t humans always considered their lives to be more important than that of the other species we are supposed to share the world with? What else can explain this mindless act of abject cruelty? An official of the forest department, who responded to a call pertaining to the dolphin’s torture, reportedly found it lying lifeless by the side of a canal. His First Information Report states that there was a crowd of villagers surrounding it but nobody was willing to reveal how it died. This bid to protect the perpetrators makes the villagers complicit in the crime. That the three men were arrested after the video went viral on social media is small consolation. They will most probably be out of prison in no time as implementation of laws is half-hearted at best when it comes to animal rights.

So, the question is this: How is it that the perpetrators of such heinous crimes often go unpunished when cruelty against animals is a cognisable offence under Section 428 and Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code and the country has one of the strictest wildlife protection laws in the world? While some countries are now waking up to regulating trade in wildlife, India leads the prohibition on ivory trade. Some of the biggest triumphs for animal welfare in India in the last decade saw the ban of dolphinariums in 2013, prohibition on animal testing for cosmetics in 2014, followed by a ban on the import of cosmetics tested on animals. India also prohibited the export of shark fins for use in soup and the country does not allow wild animals in circuses. Despite all the good work that is being done by the Government in framing such stringent laws, why is it that on a daily basis we are confronted with heart-wrenching stories of depraved human behaviour towards animals? We obviously need to take such cases more seriously and there should be heavier fines, harsher sentences and the rate of convictions must go up. For this to happen, we must sensitise our law-enforcement agencies to the rights of animals to be treated with kindness and dignity and about how grave an offence it is to subject an animal to cruelty. We must make them realise that as animals can’t defend or speak up for themselves, it is the duty of the enforcers to defend them by upholding the laws meant to protect them. The law-enforcement agencies must not always wait for activist judges to lead the way in this regard. Plus we, as a society, must teach our children the basic truth that the world is meant to be shared by all of God’s creations and we must learn to live together with them. They have as much right to live on this planet as we do. In fact, animals form a vital part of the eco-system and biodiversity and each creature has a role to play in the circle of life. If we disrupt that, we will have to bear the consequences. For instance, the recent pandemic is a result of our utter disregard for the laws of nature and biodiversity. We must unequivocally raise our voices against cruelty to animals each and every time such aberrations occur and schools must create awareness about this vital issue. We need to raise a more sensitive and humane society than we are raising now. Else, we just don’t have the right to call ourselves humans anymore.