Bear v/s Mob

December 18, 2006 | Filed Under Point of View 

Today morning on a news channel, I saw a bear being beaten to death. His fur was also set on fire. The incident occurred in a village in Kashmir. The bear had come to eat walnuts from a tree and apparently had also attacked a few villagers. The villagers to protect their kin and the walnuts, killed the bear mercilessly.

India’s most well known animal activist, Maneka Gandhi, was contacted by the TV channel. She has been more infamous than famous and people like me have mocked her at times. But today I realized, how she served a major function in society.

Maneka was very fair to the mob and attributed their ruthless killing to a sense of fear and possibly to loss of income. She also said that the bears too had nowhere to go, since the timber trees are extensively cut in the region. She pointed out that authorities are totally useless in such circumstances using very strong words against them. It was only when such killings are shown on the TV, does the world take notice. She knows for sure that at least 5 such incidences have happened in the recent past. She also said that the pictures shown on TV, were actually from a Nov 19 incident. It just struck me, how well informed she was.

It’s not that she cares for animals more than human beings, but she serves an important function as an animal activist. Social activism is actually one big forum. Leaders of different causes should come together and form a forum. They should all join hands and become one big function of the society. People who are dedicated to a cause should strive towards it, while people and youngsters can work for different causes, more than one if need be… in a kind of resource allocation way. This forum that comes together should be the permanent opposition party of our country. This power will give their movements a voice and will be more relevant in making the country a socially progressive nation.

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