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Floodwaters pour into Visakha SPCA

June 28, 2007, 12:0AM MT

By Sharon St. Joan

Conditions worsen yesterday

Conditions worsen yesterday

By Sharon St. Joan, Best Friends Network

In India, the monsoon has started early, and, as Pradeep Nath, of Visakha SPCA, wrote to us in the story posted Monday, there is already loss of life in the surrounding area from the flooding, and both people and animals need rescue.

The Visakha SPCA has three rescue teams, trained and with rescue experience from last year's devastating flooding. Funding is needed so that the teams can be sent out with gas for the vehicles
and supplies.

Now, since yesterday, the flooding is damaging the Visakha SPCA shelter itself, and there is a fear that the flooding could become much worse.

Last year, in 2006, vast tracts of land were flooded in the state of Andhra Pradesh, but Pradeep's sanctuary was untouched, and they were able to send out relief teams to save a great many animals, and working with other agencies, to save people.

The year before, however, in the fall of 2005, the shelter was disastrously flooded and destroyed, though the animals were saved. The floods arrived in successive waves--two floods of four feet high water and one flood that reached a depth of nine feet.

When several of us from Best Friends visited the Visakha SPCA this past January, everything had been rebuilt; even tall trees had grown back, with the help of the tropical climate.

The shelter looked spectacularly beautiful, and the animals were content. A tremendous amount of work and care had gone into rebuilding the shelter. Now all that has been so painstakingly rebuilt is being threatened again by flooding.

Update on Flooding - Wednesday, June 27, 2007

By Pradeep Nath, President and Founder of the Visakha SPCA

It is definitely a trying time at our shelter. Yesterday with continuous, heavy rains, the shelter got flooded two feet in the ABC area! (ABC is Animal Birth Control and means spay/neuter…Ed.)

This is the first time that the ABC has been flooded. The outside water rushed inside with very high velocity of water flowing. Also the Goshala area is flooded one foot. (The goshala area is the shelter for cows...Ed.)

The hut of one vermicompost collapsed. (The vermicompost provides eco-friendly energy to the shelter...Ed.) It would be nice to have them all inside a concrete building, but cost factors and circumstances have gone otherwise.

Water is now flowing behind the shelter menacingly.

I wrote a strong letter to the VUDA to provide a better drainage outflow. (The VUDA is the Vishakapatnam municipal agency with responsibility for city drainage…Ed.)

The front room i.e., the interpretation room (used for educational displays…Ed.) is completely wet with water flowing in from outside.

Now it is important that the drainage from the main gate also needs to be done, which we did plan, but had not the money. And it looks like this has to be done now, and other repairs. This is just the beginning, and the rainfalls are continuing even now.

How you can help

By donating through the International Rescue Fund -- India (please see the button on the right), you'll be helping animals in India--those in the current floods and those in other urgent situations, who are being cared for by the Visakha SPCA, CUPA, Blue Cross of India, Wildlife SOS, and Friendicoes SECA.

Thank you for helping!

The website of Visakha SPCA is

http://www.visakhaspca.com

Photo: Visakha SPCA / cows in mud after previous flood

Comments

Posted July 02, 2007, 1:19PM by eileenwj

July 1, 2007 at 3:23 PM
posted by: eileenwj
Dear Friends:
Thanks to Sharon for posting all of this - she is amazing! Its been a tough time but the shelter is getting cleaned up now, if we get the funds repairs can be made to the generator and the Intrepetation room. The damaged areas of the vermicompost area can be rebuilt.

Like other parts of the world Andhra Pradesh is suffering from too little rain where it is needed and too much rain in other areas.

We do hope these recent storms will not continue all this summer into December as the cyclone season on the Bay of Bengal is not supposed to start this early! It is generally the same as the USA Florida hurricane season which is usually Sept - Nov.

The Best Friends network is tops and now that the India month is over if you would like to be sure to keep updated to Visakha SPCA news please sign up for our infrequent newsletter as we are working on another one right now (sign up on the web site please) or set your browser for when we can update our web site but we are not able to update anywhere as frequently as this network as we do not have the means to do so.

Our big focus now is on the ABC program and helping Visakha's street dogs and cats, along with humane awareness as even though India has the best animal welfare laws in the world the common person does not understand much about companion animals and there is still much cruelty due to illegal activities such as the wildlife trade and superstitions like animal sacrifice.

We try to meet our expenses but is always met month to month and any donation no matter how small makes a difference for our animals and our area. Please see: www.visakhsapca.org.donate/php

Anyone is always welcome to contact info@visakhaspca.org and this email goes to myself and Pradeep and one of us will be sure to answer and we are always happy to hear from you!

Thanks to everyone once again for your support and interest in India's animals! We are so honored to have been featured this month in this India campaign.
kind regards,
Eileen Weintraub (based in Seattle, WA)
Visakha SPCA Global Outreach
www.visakhaspca.org

Posted June 29, 2007, 12:58PM by PamelaB

This is scarey and sad news. I've been thinking about Pradeep and his Visakha sanctuary for days now.

It looks as if some permanent changes need to be made to protect the sanctuary from annual flooding--so that Pradeep is not always playing catch-up.

Pradeep and his staff and their animal friends are overwhelmingly beautiful beings, and we all need to help them now!

I've recently made a small contribution, and I hope that my fellow readers and members of the Network will give a thought to helping Pradeep in this time of clear need.