By Anuksha Dey
In December 2020, Residents Watch wrote about Nandi, an injured bull who was saved by conscientious animal lovers of HSR Layout. Five months later, Nandi died, and the post mortem revealed that it was due to 40 kilograms of plastic that it had ingested over the course of many years. This has prompted the residents to launch an awareness campaign on the dangers of plastic. Says one resident who did not want to be named: “Please don’t throw plastic on the streets; give it to the BBMP guys who collect them from door to door. If you spot cows that appear pregnant; their bellies could well be home to plastic that we throw on the streets.” Therefore, the residents are pleading with everyone to stop using plastic or discard them the right way.
Though disheartened by the death of Nandi, Team Nandi comprising Monish, Nalini, Prabha, Priyanka, Shabir Kauser, Sujit, Susan and Upendra, has now taken an oath to make the streets safer for stray animals who suffer and die due to littering by inconsiderate people and improper methods of plastic disposal. After Residents Watch’s December story, Nandi was injured for the second time in January – it bled due to a broken horn. This prompted the residents to shift it to the Kaggalipura Goshala. “This time, we saw that Nandi had become physically weak, lost much weight, and looked stressed,” says one resident of Team Nandi. Instead of giving him post-operative care and treating him on the streets with medicine, they shifted him to a gaushala. The team members continued to visit the gaushala and monitor Nandi’s health. Within two months, Nandi recovered completely from his wounds and was shifted to the Arasikere Gaushala as it was bigger and allowed the bull more place to roam around freely. “Things were going on well till May 6th morning,” says one team member. “We got a call from the gaushala manager that Nandi was in a serious condition, and not breathing well.”
Despite the best efforts of the team of residents and the manager of the gaushala, Nandi passed away on May 6 before he could be seen by the vet. The residents received a postmortem video of Nandi showing around 40 kilos of plastic being removed from his stomach. “Due to plastic, the rumen (animal stomach) movement was reduced, leading to a condition called ruminal (stomach) impaction,” a doctor from animal welfare group CUPA (Compassion Unlimited Plus Action) told them. “This puts pressure on the wall in between the stomach and the heart called the diaphragm. The pressure caused breathlessness, and asphyxia, leading to death.”
The plastic problem
The death of their loved bull opened Nandi team’s eyes to a brutal reality. The plastic we dispose of in the streets ends up being eaten by animals, such as cows and bulls, who cannot distinguish it from food. The plastic builds up inside the animals and often proves to be fatal for them. “Nandi had come into our lives probably to show us this deeper problem and to awaken us, paying with his own life,” says a team member.
The team has started the “Nandi campaign”, to spread the story of their dear departed four-legged friend, hoping that Nandi’s story will force people to think twice before disposing off plastic and drastically reduce its usage. The first leg of this drive was a video campaign where each team member shared their experience of saving Nandi on WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook. Through their personal video stories, they are requesting people to stop the use of single-use plastic, and adopt proper channels of disposal when they cannot avoid using it altogether.
The group hopes to reach out to more like-minded people across HSR Layout and Bangalore to use the Nandi story to catalyse change, and make the streets safer for animals.
You can support Team Nandi by reaching out on 99805-10217 or emailing them at prabha.bhaktharam@gmail.com.
