TIRUPATI: For the first time in Tirupati city, an initiative was taken up to quench the thirst of animals and birds in hot summer by supplying cement water bowls to be placed on balconies, terraces and other places.
The initiative was launched by an NGO Animal Care Land with the support of Bengaluru-based organisation WFV (water for voiceless) to provide water for stray animals and birds.
Some Jain community philanthropists were instrumental in providing the service in association with the two NGOs and 62 animal and bird lovers in the temple city. They brought 180 specially designed cement water bowls of various sizes from Vellore. Tamil Nadu Animal Care Land has appealed to the people as “Dear community animal feeders and fellow animal lovers as summer approaches, community animals like stray dogs, cats, birds, cows and wildlife struggle to find clean drinking water. We, the team of Animal Care Land, along with ‘Water for Voiceless’ are conducting a free water bowl distribution drive for stray animals.”
Water for Voiceless (WFV) is a Bengaluru based NGO founded by Jain Sunny Hastimal from Tumkuru in 2015. WFV is a Pan India initiative that successively distributed more than 1,00,000 water bowls for thirsty animals & birds during the summer.
TTD Board member and also animal lover Bhanuprakash Reddy said, “it is a fundamental duty of every citizen to provide drinking water and food for all animals in our vicinity in order to avoid man -animal conflict”.
Supriya, representative of WFV (Bengaluru) said, “Volunteers must take responsibility for refreshing the water regularly which is very important to address the concerns over mosquito breeding.”
Dr NV Sreekanth Babu, AD, Animal Husbandry speaking to TNIE emphasised that as the temperature raises stray dogs will get alterations in temperament due to lack of water which may increase incidence of dog bites. “Therefore everyone has to come forward to provide water to stray dogs and birds. It is an act of humanity. We are encouraging many volunteers who always working for animals and birds conservation,” he said.
“We plan to extend the initiative in a phased manner based on resources availability,” Dr Sreekanth revealed.
He lauded the involvement of Dr Yagna Valkya,Veterinary Officer of Animal Care Land, and local animal lovers Sangeetha Babu, Jagan, Dr Kusuma, Radhika who are supporting the thirst quenching initiative enthusiastically.