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Om Ganeshaye Namah

Barring the PMK, no one sees Kuse Munisamy Veerappa Gounder as anything more than a rascal and a crook who deserves to be whipped and hung from the nearest tree. There is not a good bone in his entire body and this Robin Hood image that he has recently created by bribing the local cops and a bunch of pliant, vainglorious journalists is just another one of his con games.

The truth is that Veerappan is a dirty, 58 year old thug, murderer, thief and vandal and not all the war paint in the world can make him look like the Tamil ultra-nationalist he pretends to be. He has brutally killed 150 forest guards and policemen. He has murdered 2,500 elephants, plundered 15,000 tonnes of sandalwood from the forests. What is worse, the money he makes from his crimes buys him more guns, more immunity.

No one has the slightest doubt that the rascal has bought himself huge political support. This is what keeps him out of jail. The support, naturally, does not come free and so he must keep on killing more people, more elephants to pay off his debts. He must sell more ivory, cut down more sandalwood trees to fund his benefactors at election time. It is a sick, dastardly game but that is all he knows and I will not be surprised if one of these days I find him sitting next to me in Parliament, tugging at his unholy moustache. After all, if Phoolan Devi and DP Yadav can be there, why not Veerappan? In today's crass political scenario, he can easily claim immunity on the basis of his caste or sect, or simply pretend that he was waging war against the State to enshrine Tamil sovereignty. Or social justice, for that matter.

Luckily, Veerappan is a known and obvious menace. It does not require much judicial wisdom to see him for what he is. A brigand who feeds off dead bodies. People, forests, helpless wild life. They are all grist to his mill. But there are many Veerappans we do not see. They lurk in the shadows, playing out their cruel and wicked games. They feed on our naïve belief that crimes against the environment and wildlife are not serious enough to warrant public debate. The argument is as usual: Why worry about such luxuries when we cannot feed, clothe and provide shelter to human beings?

That is how these rascals get away. That is why our rivers are dying, our wildlife is vanishing, our forests and water resources are depleting, our air and food are so poisoned that we will soon be one of the sickest nations in the world. Caste conflicts, religious fundamentalism, crime and corruption, nothing is more dangerous than this despoiling of India's natural heritage.

Luckily, we are now recognising this. That is why the courts have become pro-active. Vandals are being punished. Environmental crimes are inviting tough sentences. Private zoos are banned. So are animals in circuses. That is why the death of tigers and deer at Nandankanan created such a furore. That is why you can no longer make movies with wild animals unless, as in London and Hollywood, you have inspectors from the SPCA or the Animal Welfare Board present on the sets to ensure that no harm befalls these hapless creatures who are terrorised into performing before the camera so that you and I can be entertained.

It is, of course, sad that some of us still find it funny watching a tortured bear ride a cycle or a frightened baby elephant sit on a chair. We refuse to believe that only hunger or the threat of severe pain can force an animal to do what does not come naturally to it, despite that fact that there are hundreds of videos that show how recalcitrant circus owners and heartless film producers inflict mindless savagery and unbearable pain on these animals.

Beauty Without Cruelty has produced an exhaustive report on it. The Kerala high court has given a landmark judgment banning all performances by bears, monkeys, tigers, lions and elephants. Yet next month we are about to see the release of a film that flagrantly defies the ban. Where a baby elephant, barely a year old, has been forced to do the most unthinkable things. There was no inspector present during the filming. No one knows who stole this animal from its mother and gave it on hire. The elephant is now missing. Some say it died because of the torture inflicted upon it.

How can the censors allow such a blood smeared film to get past them? After all, the Wildlife Protection Act 1962 makes it a crime to use wild animals in films. Asha Parekh harasses Shekhar Kapur over a "quinny" but she refuses to intervene in real issues. The Bombay high court went one step further. It ruled that a film is not a circus and, therefore, the Kerala judgment does not apply. How do the honourable judges know what went on behind the scenes, how the baby elephant was trained and what tortures it went through when it was forced to sit on a chair, drink whiskey and sweep the floor?

On one hand, we worship Lord Ganesha. On the other, we steal a hapless baby elephant from its mother and force it to drink whiskey to amuse ourselves. Is this funny? Is this entertainment? Is this what you want your children to watch? The Mahatma once said that a nation is known by the way it treats its animals. It is time we realised how we make a mockery of our non-violence when we allow such films to be made and shown.

Since the courts and censors have refused to intervene, we the public should stay away from the halls in protest.

Pritish Nandy

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