New Delhi: A boat full of around 10 bedraggled dogs pulled up on the banks of a swollen Yamuna at Mayur Vihar Phase-1 on Friday. Scared and hungry, the animals had been stranded on an island in the river for nearly three days until volunteers from animal welfare organisations like Friendicoes and Ojaswini Foundation rescued them with the help of a National Disaster Response Force boat.
For three days, NGOs, animal shelters and volunteers have been working round the clock to save not just dogs, but cows, buffaloes, camels and horses along the floodplains of the Yamuna. With the help of donations, massive operations have been launched to rescue animals from various affected areas of the National Capital Region, including Akshardham, Mayur Vihar, Yamuna Bank and Sector-135 Noida.
The minute the boat reached land, the dogs and puppies ran for the food. Traumatised by the floods, a few whimpered and yelped, but many greeted the waiting volunteers, who dried them with towels and gave them belly rubs. Some dogs, scared of the people around them, jumped back into the river.
But not all rescue efforts have been successful. Tiny tragedies have been unfolding quietly across a city overwhelmed by the sheer scale of displaced humans. As shelters started flooding, many animals could not be rescued in time.
“I found three puppies on a log, but one of them was unfortunately already dead. Their mother is nowhere to be found,” says Shubhankar, director of the Ojaswini Foundation. In three days, he has rescued around 90 dogs and buffaloes near the Akshardham area. He and his team have been swimming in snake-ridden waters to get to puppies clinging onto logs or entangled in thorny shrubs.
Animals remain stuck
With shelters flooded, rehoming rescued animals, even temporarily, is the priority. “We don’t have animal shelters to put them in right now. All places are packed,” he adds.
Volunteers are now reaching out to trusted families and their network of friends to identify people who can foster the dogs. The two puppies Shubhankar rescued are now warm, well-fed and in the care of an eight-year-old girl and her family.
She’s named them Preeti and Pinky.
“I don’t care if they’re male. They just look like Preeti and Pinky to me,” says the little girl.
According to Shubhankar and animal rights activist Puneeta, who runs the foundation with them, there are more than 150 dogs near the Akshardham area that they have been feeding. “Dogs get stranded [when it floods] every year, but this year, the situation is much worse,” Puneeta says.
In Noida Sector-135, where water levels have still to abate, the situation remains tense. Anupam Mehta, a marketing professional and an animal rights activist, said that over 200 cows and buffaloes remain stuck in the floods.
“There are many gaushalas [cowsheds] inside the jungles here, and they are yet to be rescued. There are also countless dead [animal] bodies in the river,” says, Anupam adding that nearly 40 distressed animals have been rescued in his area so far.
It’s not easy to rescue scared animals who already feel threatened and are alarmed by the situation. A few of them can become hostile. “We’ve put some relatively aggressive and scared dogs on an island in the river and go and feed them twice a day,” Shubhankar says.
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Bribes for boatmen
With all resources being diverted to human rescue, volunteers have to make do with limited supplies. Demand for boats has skyrocketed. For now, organisations and volunteers ThePrint reached out to say they have access to only one boat from the NDRF in each affected area, and that too for a couple of hours a day.
Many volunteers allege that boatmen have to be bribed to take on animal rescue missions, while others say they have to be offered money as impetus.
“We offer the boatman money as an incentive so they can help us, even though it has been lent to us by NDRF,” Shubhankar says.
NDRF, however, doesn’t agree. “What you’re saying is wrong. We haven’t heard any such thing,” an NDRF representative said when asked about the corruption.
Delhi Congress President Anil Chaudhary also visited the river near Mayur Vihar and boarded a boat to assess the situation. He returned with rescued strays, pets, and belongings of displaced families.
“The Kejriwal government claims 100 per cent rescues have happened. That is not true. A lot of cattle, stray animals, [and] even people continue to be stuck inside the flooded areas,” he says.
Displaced residents also allege that they have to pay bribes to get their livestock to safety.
“I paid Rs 500 per goat to the boatman to rescue my animals,” says Rajvee, a displaced female farmer. “I don’t even have money to buy salt for food right now. And they made me pay Rs 2,000 per buffalo, even in the face of this tragedy,” another woman told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
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Cattle loss
Rescuing cows and buffaloes is nothing short of an uphill task. Putting them on a boat is near impossible, so volunteers must help them swim to the shore. Moreover, calves often soil the rescue vessel, further irritating uncooperative boatmen.
When displaced families pleaded with activists and NDRF personnel to rescue their cattle and belongings, they were told that help was reserved for ‘living beings.’
“In the mandi on the island, a lot of cattle are stranded. It’s the livelihood of these residents, and they are helpless and have been unable to save them so far. Government’s immediate intervention is required,” says Chaudhary.
Friendicoes volunteers at the site were seen pleading with NDRF boatmen to accompany them to the flooded area near the Delhi-Noida Direct Flyway, where many animals, including horses, were reportedly stranded. But humans came first.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)