Pursuing a pet passion

SHE HAS compassion for creatures great and small. For, animals that are shelterless, sick, hurt, hungry or abandoned... She is Krishna Venkatesan of Shastri Nagar, Adyar.

It is 6.30 a.m. Time for Krishna to start her daily routine. She cooks a mixture of rice and sugar and calls out to the crows. Very soon there are at least 60 crows enjoying the feast in Krishna's backyard. Her maidservant, in the meanwhile, prepares a mixture of corn, rice, cereals and pulses. She pours in some milk to moisten the mixture and then gets ready to feed the rows of ants that scurry up and down the compound wall.

Her next job is to prepare yet another meal of fish and rice, specially for the cats at the Animal Hospital, that Krishna runs, in Palavakkam.

The hot and humid afternoons in Chennai do not daunt Krishna. She sets forth at mid-day with baskets of food, carefully packed in used milk sachets in a cyclerickshaw through the streets of Shastri Nagar, Padmanabha Nagar, Vannanthurai and part of Besant Nagar. Even as the rickshaw, which is incidentally driven by a woman, approaches, it is greeted by packs of stray dogs, barking excitedly. The food is placed on separate pieces of paper. The dogs seem to know the routine, for, there is no quarrel. They quickly eat their meal, lick the paper clean, and run away. As many as 60 mongrels are thus fed everyday.

Charity begins at home, they say, and so it is with Krishna too. She has built two cement tubs just near the compound wall of her house in Shastri Nagar. One of the tubs is filled with fodder and leafy vegetables such as cabbage and greens. The other is filled with water. Cart-drivers usually stop for a brief respite here. They unyoke their bullocks and allow them to have their fill of fodder and slake their thirst as well. Stray cattle and animals too find their way here as there is always enough to eat and drink.

Enter Krishna's house... Just a glance at the laminated pictures of animals on the walls, would make one realise that its occupants are animal-lovers.

What made Krishna take up such service? "I have always been fond of birds and animals, right from early childhood. I would delight in feeding them tidbits. My parents too encouraged me to have compassion for animals," she reminisces.

After her marriage to A. Venkatesan, a civil servant, she lived in Coimbatore. But though she even bought a house hoping to settle there, once her husband retired from service, this dream ended with his passing away in 1972.

It was while she was returning to Madras, following a visit to Mahabalipuram in 1991, that life for Krishna took a different turn. She happened to see a bullock, injured in a road accident, fighting for life. Had there been an animal hospital nearby , its life could have been saved, feels Krishna. The sight of the animal bleeding to death so moved her that she sold her house in Coimbatore and built a hospital for animals at Palavakkam, near Adyar. It was inaugurated by the chairman of the Animal Welfare Board, Mr. A. K. Chatterjee, recalls Krishna.

Today, the hospital (Phone: 4927250) cares for 50 cats and 25 dogs. Besides sheltering and looking after animals, the other major activity that it is engaged in is the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme.

A vet from the Madras Veterinary College, assists the vet at the hospital in this project. The service is rendered free of cost.

Pets whose owners are away on a holiday are also sheltered here. The animals are cared for according to the instructions of their owners, for a nominal fee.

The hospital receives Rs. 25,000 per annum from the Animal Welfare Board, which goes towards the cost of medicines. All other expenses are met by Krishna, with her own funds. But for the encouragement and support from my husband and children, I could never have continued this service, she says.

She was a member of the Wildlife Advisory Board for three years, and sitting member of the Social Welfare Board for five years. The Rotary Club conferred its "Distinguished Service Award" on her in 1995. In retrospect, seventy-five-year-old Krishna feels that nothing could have given her greater satisfaction in life than serving the voiceless.

N. V. R. SWAMY

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