POLICE INSPECTOR, SUGAR FACTORY NAB AWARDS FOR HELPING BULLOCKS
31 December 2019, Satara – For helping to bring about revolutionary changes in Maharashtra’s sugar industry, Animal Rahat has honoured Assistant Police Inspector Uttam S Bhapkar with its Hero to Animals Award and Green Power Sugars Limited with its Compassionate Business Award.
In response to a request from Animal Rahat earlier this year, the SpecialInspector General of Police, Kolhapur Range, issued an order directing the Kolhapur, Pune Rural, Sangli, Satara, and Solapur Rural Superintendents of Police to organise a much-needed Working Animal Cruelty Awareness Week. Police informed bullock owners of animal protection laws and took action against violations of them, which included overloading animals, using torture devices, forcing injured animals to work, and hitching together bulls of unequal size.
Following the law-enforcement drive and after a series of meetings with local police, starting this sugar season, Green Power Sugar Limited completely ended its use of bullock carts forever, at its factory.
“Assistant Police Inspector Uttam S Bhapkar has ushered in a new era in Maharashtra’s sugar industry, starting with Green Power Sugars Limited through its compassionate decision to employ motorised carts instead of overworked bullocks,” says Animal Rahat Chief Operating Officer Dr Naresh Upreti. “Animal Rahat will continue to push other sugar factories to modernise their operations and stop forcing bullocks to pull backbreaking loads under the hot sun.”
Overloading sugarcane carts; beating, whipping, and using painful torture devices to prod bullocks; and forcing sick and lame bullocks to work remain common practices at sugar factories and along the roads leading to these facilities, even though they’re illegal under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960; The Prevention of Cruelty to Draught and Pack Animals Rules, 1965; and the 2013 directives of the Maharashtra Commissioner of Sugar. The enforcement drives conducted by Satara police from 2018 to 2019, in 12 sugar factories have resulted in police registering 397 non-cognizable offence complaints against bullock cart owners.
The directive of the Maharashtra Commissioner of Sugar also holds sugar factories responsible for providing bullocks with shelter, rubber mats at weigh stations to prevent falls, soft bedding for farriery, clean drinking water, and quality veterinary services.
