After being shuttled from Agriculture to Environment and Forests to the farout Statistics and Programme Implementation Ministry, animal welfare may have finally found a permanent shelter.A week after former Union minister Maneka Gandhi met Prime Minister Vajpayee to discuss the future of the Animal Welfare Department, a presidential notification has been issued transferring it back to the Environment and Forests Ministry, where it rested till five years ago.The notification, issued on July 13, says the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 and matters relating to pounds, cattle trespass, goshals and go sadans shall be put under the Ministry of Environment and Forests with immediate effect. The Animal Welfare Department, which supervises enforcement of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, thus falls under the ministry.There was talk for some time to send the department back to the Agriculture Ministry, where it originally used to be. But the move was dropped after it was pointed out to Vajpayee that the ministry which handled animal husbandry could not do justice to animal welfare. Tourism and Culture Minister Vinod Khanna had expressed his desire to have the department under his wings, citing his love for animals.Maneka, who oversaw the department under her Statistics and Programme Implementation portfolio till she was removed from the Cabinet recently, has welcomed the selection of the Environment Ministry. ‘‘I am very happy it has gone to Environment and Forests,’’ she told The Indian Express. Maneka denied she had any role in the matter. ‘‘No prime minister has done so much to empower the department,” she said.
