Visit to Katraj Animal Rescue Centre, Pune

As part of the Ornithology course , on Sunday, 12th Feb we were taken to the Katraj Rescue Center in Pune to see how they rescue the wild animals and birds and what efforts are taken to rehabilitate them. It was a very humble experience. The people there are taking so much efforts to take care of the rescued animals and giving them care like they are their own. For me personally, it was a first visit to any such center and I was really moved.

The day’ agenda started with a talk by Mr. Kiran Purandhare, who is a specialist in bird calls and birds as such. He gave a very delightful and enlightening lecture on bird calls. He is an expert in making bird calls. Very difficult ones at that. I liked when he said that a particular bird in particular season at a particular place on a particular tree is there if you want to observe its song. The man of details, I should say. He used simple tools to demonstrate how the voice that is produced is different in different birds and how he is able to reproduce that same sound. He has written lot of interesting books on birds like “Kapshichi Diary” meaning Diary of the Black Shouldered Kite. There are some more , which I have to find about and read.

Next, we were shown around the rescue center by Mr. Shende who is very good with words. His profession demands it too, he is a reporter in a local English daily The Maharashtra Herald and he writes a weekly column on wildlife. He is closely associated with the center. In the rescue center, there were leopards, monkeys, vultures, lion tail monkey, peacocks, Hyena, ducks, Interesting thing is that with most of these rescued animals, there was an interesting story. Let me start with the Toucan. This is a very beautiful bird. It has a long colourful beak and a black body. This bird was brought along with its mate to one ashram near Panvel by an American tourist who would visit that ashram. The birds got very friendly with the ashram people and were living happily there till one day one of them died. The other bird became very depressed and stopped interacting with anybody and also would not eat anything. The people there called the rescue center and asked for help. The rescue center team got the bird to Pune. They also tried for a day to feed it, but it would not work. Then Mr Neelimkumar Khaire, the director of the centre, got a brilliant idea. He realized that this bird is missing the mate and he put a mirror in its enclosure. It was so happy that the first thing it did was to pick the food morsel and went towards the mirror to offer it to its mirror mate. A good insight into bird’ behaviour.

Then there were peacocks. The story of one rescue is very interesting. They were being used as a display item outside a restaurant in Pune to attract people. This was a disturbing site for some people who approached the proprietor of the restaurant. The proprietor not only agreed to release them but offered an enclosure for them which was being displayed in that year’ Constro Exhibition in Pune itself, an annual exhibition of the construction and mechanical industry. And that enclosure is adjudged as the best design for an enclosure for the wild animals as it is very flexible in design.

Then there were vultures. These vultures are normally found in wild as young chicks having fallen from the nest. To rehabilitate them so that they are able to catch their food when they are released into the wild, it is important to teach them the skills. The rescue center deployed a very intelligent idea. They use the remote control car having the parrots mounted on them. The food is kept in the stomach of the parrots. When the car moves, these vultures, thinking them to be real prey, attack them and get the soft meat from their stomach. . The leopards in the centre have become very fat. The males have been sterilised and that has made them to gain more weight. They have been getting their food in their plate and there is no real exercise for them. They were rescued when they
were cubs and treat humans as their parents . They cannot be released in the wild as they do not possess the skills to survive in the wild. Now, the rescue center people are thinking of making some arrangement so that to get the food, they have to do some exercise. Here also, they are planning to implement a very simple idea. Its food is going to be hung at a good height and some mechanics will move the food so that it will have to jump to catch its food. Cool again.

The rescue center has been able to successfully breed peacocks as well as the ducks. All these new additions are released into the wild successfully. Another very interesting story is about a monkey who was separated from its mother in the wild. The baby monkey definitely needed milk to survive but it simply refused to drink milk from the bottle. The rescue team then made a contraption of a monkey which is little difficult to describe with the bottles serving as monkey mother’ nipples. And it would happily take milk from both the nipples in turn . Quite moving. In the afternoon session, Mr. Madhav Gogate gave a talk on laws related to wildlife conservation. It was little technical put he made it very interesting by introducing different situations. Then ,Mr. Neelim Kumar Khaire addressed us. He is very down to earth person. He told us how we can get involved in the efforts starting as volunteers. What should we do if we find an injured bird or animal and such useful information. Mr Neelimkumar Khaire has a Guinness Book of world record for spending maximum amount of time(72 hours) in the company of venomous snakes at the age of only 25 years. He has been very instrumental in saving snakes. He has also setup a snake park in Pune.

Anyone interested in seeing and getting the experience of working with animals can work as volunteers at the rescue centre. I want to do it one of these days.

Recently, I have come to know of one more animal rescue centre, it is in Wagholi, some 45kms from Pune. It is aptly called “Animal Farm”. Their website has the details.  Got this information in a mail from another related mailing list.

Animal Farm runs a 24 hour ambulance service for injured, distressed, abused and seriously ill animals.
For Ambulance Contact:
+ 91 (0) 9822477276
+ 91 (0) 9850031090
+ 91 (0) 9822251742
+ 91 (0) 9822486110
Animal Farm is a Non-Government, Non-profit, animal welfare trust. You can use these numbers
if you find an injured bird/animal in distress.