The pandemic second wave havoc | |
Dear ardent lover of animals and well-wisher of VSPCA
As you are already witnessing in the world news and information channels, India is currently facing the worst phase of the COVID-19 pandemic through its second wave. The positive cases every day have been skyrocketing and the crematoriums are not able to handle the death counts. There has been a shortage of vaccines, oxygen, critical equipment, and medical infrastructure. In these uncertain times where human life is so fragile, animals are completely neglected and are being abandoned. We are seeing a lot of abandoned animals on the streets including pedigree dogs, cows, buffaloes, and many more. Even in this pandemic situation our dedicated staff and volunteers are working round the clock to respond to as many emergency calls as possible and help as many animals as possible. The pandemic has put enormous pressure on VSPCA's infrastructure and resources. Currently, our shelters are at full capacity (a bit overcrowded) and we are not intaking more animals unless it is an exceptional case keeping in mind the health and safety of the existing animals.
To compensate for this we have started the programme Mobile Ambulance Camp to bring our services to the streets of Visakhapatnam. The main aim of this programme is to interact with the public, increase awareness and perform on-spot treatments for as many animals as possible.
We have already held four such successful camps and the public received them well. Every next camp we received more attendees than the previous one and performed more treatments and interacted with the public of all age groups. |
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Few pictures from the camps | |
Know more about Mobile Ambulance SOS Program
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(1) We are happy to share with you all that Mr. Pradeep Kumar Nath received the Shining World Compassion Award by the Supreme Master Chang Hai in November 2020.
The award was presented to him for nurturing a society that protects and lovingly cares for farm, domestic and wild animals. Since the mid-1990s Mr. Pradeep has been prolific in saving animals through the legal system, establishing sanctuaries, promoting veganism, and advocating for empathy through education.
He has established VSPCA in 1996 as a vehicle to foster change and establish the rights of voiceless animals. A court victory in 1998 began his mission of mercy, since then, more than 100,000 dogs have been neutered and vaccinated. Next came a sanctuary called the Eden of Love and Compassion that is home to hundreds of large and small rescued animals including cows, bulls, water buffaloes, with specialized areas for birds, cats, cows, dogs, mongooses, monkeys, and star tortoises.
Supreme Master Chang Hai:
"Joyfully present the Shining World Compassion Award to Pradeep Kumar Nath, with a humble contribution of US$10,000 to support the Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals, with love, praises and best wishes. May God always bless you and all involved abundantly." |
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Want to Know more about the Shining World Compassion Award
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You can have a look at the video here |
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(2) Our Founder/President Mr. Pradeep Kumar Nath has been nominated for the prestigious Padma Shree Award, the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India. He has been nominated for this distinguished contribution in the field of animal welfare, animal rights protection, environmental protection, and biodiversity regeneration in Vishakapatnam and sharing his knowledge and experience across India.
(3) Mr. Pradeep Kumar Nath has also been nominated for the Prani Mitra Award which is awarded by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), the apex body in the country for the welfare and protection of animals. It is awarded to individuals, organizations, and corporates for their outstanding performance in the field of animal welfare. |
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Scorching heat and rising temperatures in India | |
As the temperatures are rising in Visakhapatnam, it is hard to beat the heat without properly hydrating ourselves with water. All the urban animals including dogs need water throughout the day to quench their thirst. It is important that safe drinking water is available to them at all times else they search for it at unsuitable/dangerous places and hurt themselves like getting their head stuck in plastic cans or bottles. We have been receiving a lot of such distress calls lately.
Placing water in areas accessible to the animals in and around the streets of the city is important to avoid or reduce such unfortunate incidents. It is with this idea we started our new programme with the residents of Visakhapatnam, "Project Kittu - Small Water Bowls" to provide all street animals with the basic need - drinking water.
The project was kicked off on August 10, 2020, with the residents and students of Visakhapatnam. Street animals are a part of the urban fabric. Humans have bred and brought these animals into our civilized lives. We owe it to all street animals to provide with the basic need of drinking water. As climate change is heating up the planet, water sources are drying up everywhere. The project emphasizes the importance of providing drinking water regularly to street animals, including birds. Small bowls which are affordable are distributed and placed at street corners all over Visakhapatnam by the students of IIAM (Integrated Institute of Advanced Management). Since the project has begun, the students have continued filling up and cleaning these bowls of water everywhere in their communities. |
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Want to Know more about our new progamme Project Kittu
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It is important to increase the number of water bowls across the city to help street animals and birds get through the unbearable heat, temperatures, and humidity of Indian summer. Residents of the city can also take part in helping the street animals and birds quench their thirst by leaving a bowl of water in their surroundings or hanging in their balconies. Community involvement can be a key in such programme.
We are trying to increase the number of water bowls across the city while taking care of cleaning, refilling and maintaining the existing water bowls. Your support could help us increase the number to a greater extent which will help us to cover more areas in the city and thus more animals can get their drinking water safely. If you are interested in this initiative do consider donating to us. |
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Our successful migratory birds project | |
The migratory bird's project is one of our many success stories and we are very happy to see the result of our hard work. We are extremely satisfied that the migratory birds and Indian birds during the winter season are continued to be protected from where we left them in the hands of the community and Andhra Pradesh Forest Department a few years ago. We fought hard to stop the hunting of these birds by investigations, patrolling, awareness building among the nearby villages, and notifying the respective departments.
We began in 2000 and successfully implemented our mission to stop hunting and help the baby birds in distress.
Located in Tekkali of Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, India, the place is on two villages and a feeding spot is spread over 500 acres. The place is also open to the beach where endangered sea turtles come for nestings.
We continue to maintain a vigil and help the birds in distress through our monitoring staff Mr. Balu and are ready to step in when so required.
Meanwhile, our strategy remains that we do the awareness and plant relevant tress while monitoring the bird's safe passage with their children to their native place. |
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Few pictures from our latest visit | |
Want to Know more about our Migratory birds Project
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A unique Dog Park in our Kindness Farm | |
We are happy to announce that we began the construction of a very unique dog park in our Kindness Farm.
In this planned dog park, every dog has its own house surrounding by a very large flexible fence. This fence can be left open for their free movement all around which can help some dogs which do not mingle with other dogs to have their own space. In the common area, a large pool along with a lot of mini pools are planned. The funding for the cost of full fencing has to secured gradually and donors like yourself can help us speed up the process.
During the daytime, the fence will be left open for the dogs to enjoy and play with their dog buddies around the common area and the night it can be closed for their safety. A special area for puppies will be constructed later in the project phase. We have already planted over 47 big growing trees like berries, chilies, mangoes, mulberries, Ashoka trees, and bougainvilleas at the boundaries. We are sure that this place will be a wonderful home for the abandoned dogs and we can't wait for it to get ready. |
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Few pictures of the ongoing construction | |
Rain Water Harvest Management in the Kindness Farm | |
Our animals, plants, and staff alone need a minimum of 40,000 liters of water every day for drinking, cleaning, watering, and food and medicinal preparation. We have an organic nursery growing at the Farm. We grow our own rice, vegetables, and fruit for the animals to the extent possible, aiming for self-sufficiency around organic produce. The jungle that has come up around Kindness Farm bringing in native animals, birds, and insects does not need watering. However, the plantations and saplings require regular watering.
The Dog Park of this Farm is a new project compelled due to the chaotic aftermath of the Pandemic, which led to the abandonment of many pet animals in Vizag city. To ensure we implement the optimal Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) and Dog Park plans for the future, we require biding time until the coming monsoons to observe the storm intensities and water flows.
Ahimsa Foundation provided a grant of $25,000 to VSPCA in 2020 for our Rain Water Harvesting Project. The grant request intended to cover the rainwater harvesting needs of all of Kindness Farm – which takes care of a radius of 20 km. covering over 100 acres, housing over 800 permanent animals, staff of VSPCA, support of local farmers via water harvesting and plant management eco-literacy, and all the animals outside of the Farm’s immediate boundary. Today, Kindness Farm is a standing demonstration of an oasis/emerging (re)forest in the region of Kuruvada, serving as an animal sanctuary. This project will guarantee water for the animals in the region suffering from years of severe drought and inundating flooding.
With the funds received, we have just begun the construction of our plans. The foundation work is going in full swing as the weather is allowing for it. Ahimsa Foundation’s funds cover approximately 25% of Kindness Farm’s needs for Rain Water Harvesting.
- 12 rainwater harvesting (RWH) pits - biggest at 7’ diameter and 20’ depth. Minimum is 3’ diameter and 15’ in depth. Covered with gravel, loose sand, charcoal, mini gravel, and mesh – meeting government requirements of RWH. The RWH pits are minimum 10’ away from the wells and the borewells of this project. The RWH pits will provide filtered water to the wells and borewell, not wasting any natural rainwater that falls/floods this area.
- 6 borewells – those that have produced water are to depths of 130’ to 220’ below ground.
- 6 wells - biggest at 15’ diameter and 60’ depth. Smaller wells at 4’ diameter and 20’ depth.
- 3 overhead water tanks with a capacity of 10,000 liters each. We will manage pumping water into these tanks via the current motorized pump we have at the Farm, using the electricity produced by our biogas facility at the Farm. We lack pumps for all the tanks. We are building the project to be flexible and scalable bearing economies of scale in mind.
- 3 catchment areas that will receive any excess flows of water through the drainage system that is the network connecting all these Farm assets. The catchments require de-siltation so, we are using tarpaulins to line them for easier movement of these, based on the unpredictive monsoons and wind direction.
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Few pictures of the ongoing construction | |
Our first Scientific Journal Article Publication | |
We are happy to share with you our first scientific journal article publication. One of our successful projects VSPCA's Sea Turtle Conservation Programme has been published in the Biophilic Cities Journal Volume 4, No. 1. VSPCA's programme has been published as a partner city feature representing Vishakapatnam.
The article is a brief overview of our work with the fishing communities on sea turtles and their habitat, along the Bay of Bengal. We thank our digital team and the wonderful team at Biophilic Cities Network for helping us getting our first scientific journal article published. |
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To read our scientific article on Sea Turtle Conservation Progamme
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Special mention of our volunteer network | |
With the pandemic hitting us very hard it has put enormous pressure on our infrastructure, resources, and manpower to attend the distress calls. The pandemic has restricted and created a lot of hurdles to rescue animals and also affected our own staff preventing 100% staff attendance. Our dedicated volunteer team led by Mr. Vivek has been very resourceful, compassionate, and efficient in responding to distress calls, rescuing, and performing on-spot treatments.
One of our goals for 2021 is to build a strong volunteer network where we have a representative for each street of the city that looks after the animals. We are working on it and are happy to see people on board with us slowly that are affectionate and have a passion for animal welfare and protection. Below you can find some of the rescues and treatments performed by our volunteer team. |
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26-15-200, Main Road, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India, 530-001
Copyright © 2020 - Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals - All rights reserved.
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