THE ANIMAL ARK
G'day folks,
The Animal
Ark is a special wild animal sanctuary, in Maharashtra, India, that takes
in orphaned animals whose parents get hunted by villagers for food. It was
set up by a local doctor who understood the necessity of hunting, but couldn’t allow
the young animals starve to death.
One day,
during the early 70s, Dr. Prakash Amte and his wife were taking a
walk in the Dandarayana forest of Gadchiroli, when they encountered a
group of tribal people carrying a dead monkey that they had hunted. They
noticed that there was a baby monkey clinging to its dead mother’s body
and trying to suckle her breast. It was heartbreaking sight, and Dr. Prakash
decided he couldn’t let the hunters kill the baby as well. He asked them what
they intended to do with it, and they said they were going to eat it, just like
its mother. He knew the tribe killed out of necessity, not for sport, so he
offered them rice and clothing in exchange for the baby monkey. They
reluctantly accepted, and the small animal became the first member of their big
animal family.
Prakash Amte named
the small red-faced monkey Babli, after the tribal god worshiped by
the Madia peoples, and raised it in the safety of his home, in the village
of Hemalkasa. Babli seemed to love it there, and soon became friends with
the household dog. She would cling to its back and play with it, not knowing
that it was the very animal that the Madias commonly used to hunt its kind. But
seeing the monkey and his dog so happy together, gave the doctor an idea.
Amte knew that the local tribes relied on hunting wild
animals to survive. It was one of their only sources of sustenance, but he
decided to make a deal with them that could save the lives of orphaned animals.
He convinced the Madia tribes that also killing the young offspring of the
animals they hunted wasn’t worth it, because they didn’t put much food on their
tables. Instead, he asked them to bring the orphans to him, in exchange for
grains, clothing and medical supplies. They agreed, and the doctor’s home soon
became the Animal Ark sanctuary.
Over the last four decades, Animal Ark has been a refuge
for a variety of wild animals, from giant squirrels and palm chivets, to
macaques and sleuths, and even dangerous species that most people wouldn’t dare
touch, let alone live with in their home. Jackals, leopards, Indian pythons and
crocodiles, all were welcome in Dr. Prakash’s home.
At one point, the Animal Ark sanctuary hosted 300 wild
animals, from various species, all uncaged and living in close contact with
humans. This made some of the locals nervous, and after several complaints to
the local government about the breeding of wild animals in the village, Prakash
was forced to either build cages for them or risk having his sanctuary shut
down. He built the enclosure required by regulations, but the place still feels
more like an “asylum for animals” then a zoo.
Dr. Prakash’s son, Aniket Amte, grew up surrounded by
all sorts of animals, and recently told The Better India that he preferred things the way
they were before the cages. “I remember how we, the children of the village,
and the animals would walk together to the river for a bath,” he recalled. “We
grew up with no fear of animals.”
Today, Animal Ark is home to around 90 animals, and that
number is estimated to go down in the next few years, because the Madia tribes
hunt less than they used to. But everyone who knows the Amte family, or has
heard their story, know that they have helped save hundreds if not thousands of
orphaned animals since the 1970s. They also know of their struggles to keep
Animal Ark open over the last four decades.
Clancy's comment: A good story, eh?
I'm ...
