Tsunami update - Jan 5 - 1500 hrs

[Guest guest]

TSUNAMI UPDATE AS AT 1740 HRS ON JAN 5, 2005

 

Clementien Pauws of Karuna, with whom we are working together on the relief

efforts, left with three volunteers and a driver in a hired truck from

Puttaparthi on Saturday Jan 1 and reached Cuddalore via Chennai on Sunday Jan

2nd.

 

On Monday, Jan 3, she began to visit the smaller villages and hamlets, one by

one attending to individual animals - food, medical assistance, water. Figures

received seem to indicate that there was too much for her to handle alone since

each vilage/hamlet took time.

 

On Monday night, I spoke to the Additional Director of Animal Husnbandry, Dr.

Raghavan, at Cuddalore with whom Clementien was at that time. He indicated his

happiness at our help and requested that what was urgently required was five

tonnes of cattle feed concentrate for which the Department had no provision. I

promised to get five tonnes for Cuddalore and a further five tonnes for

Nagapattinam asap.

 

In the meantime, reports from Karthik of SOS who was in that area with his team

gave a list of villages that they had not yet visited.

 

On Tuesday, due to the high cost of hired vehicles, two Blue Cross large animal

ambulances left Chennai at 05.30 am. These were fitted out with large 2000L PVC

tanks for water and carried fresh grass for cattle and sheep, food for the dogs,

feeding bowls, graspers, cages and had two staff members in one vehicle and

three in the other.

 

The first vehicle in Cuddalore contacted Karthik and visited three of the

villages by early afternoon feeding the animals and giving them water. The

second vehicle went to two other villages.

 

I spoke to the District Collector of Cuddalore District, Mr. Bedi, on Tuesday

and he expressed his appreciation for our help and promised his full

co-operation.

 

In the meantime, Clementien Paws had heard that a large number of animals were

trapped on an island off Chidambaram. She went there with three Vets from the

Animal Husbandry Department (AHD) in a boat. There were about 45 cattle and a

larger number of goats which had been abandoned there. There was a bore well on

the island from which good water was available. However, no fodder or grazing

areas were there.

 

Since the ambulances were still busy at Cuddalore - 70 kilometers away - a lorry

was hired to get fresh fodder from the AHD centre (free of charge) at Pinnathur

(20 kms away).

 

On Tuesday night, Clementien called from the Nagapattinam Collector's office.

There was a meeting of all NGOs involved in relief work. The Collector, on

seeing the Blue Cross/Karuna representatives, wanted the dogs in the area to be

destroyed because there were reports that a dog had been seen eating a human

corpse. It was also made clear that only NGOs cleared and authorised by the

Clooector would be permitted to work in the area. She left the meeting to ask me

what to do and I asked to refuse point blank and to tell the Collector that we

were in the area to help and that killing the dogs was against the law.

 

Even though it was quite late at night, I immediately called Dr.

Balasubramanian, Secretary of the Animal Welfare Board of India, and he

immediately spoke to the authorities in Nagapattinam. The necessary permission

to work was then given to us.

 

This morning (5th), Clementien called at about 10 am to say that she had heard

that the Collector had issued orders to have the dogs destroyed. Our volunteer,

Mrs. Radha Rajan, called the Additional Director General of Police who assured

her that he would talk to the Collector. I also spoke to Dr. Balasubramanian who

called the Collector.

 

A report received at 1550 hrs from Clementien seems to indicate that better

sense had prevailed and that no dogs were being killed.

 

However, she reported that things were very bad - and that with the roads

blocked and officials all over, movement of our vehicles (even though two of

them are ambulances) was very slow and only a few villages were covered. She has

indicated that there are a lot of goats, cattle, horses and dogs in need of

help. She seemed extremely frustrated at the slow progress. She felt that at

least 20 people were needed in that area alone.

 

She needed a place where the injured animals could be kept. I asked her to go

ahead and rent a farm house or area for a few weeks. Please remember that from

Sunday, Clementien has been sleeping in one of the vehicles with the attenders

and drivers. Since she does not speak Tamil (and her other volunteers also speak

only Telegu and a little English), she had to use one of the Blue Cross staff

for much of her communicating with the locals.

 

What is urgently required is a number of Tamil-speaking volunteers to go down

there. Money is running out faster than we expected because of more vehicles

having been sent down there and more animals than seemed to be needing help as

per our first impressions. Lack of water and food has taken it toll on the

animals.

 

All I could tell her was to hang in there and just do her best. Lynne D'Souza

from the Goa SPCA has offered to send down a vet and an assistant (hope she does

not change her mind after reading this) as have several vets and friends from

Australia through Catherine Schuetze of VetCharity Australia (please read this

and re-confirm).

 

S. Chinny Krishna

Blue Cross of India