AURANGABAD, SEPT 21: Shunned by their owners, ignored by forest officials and incapable of taking to the wilds, four lions and as many elephants at the Prabhat Circus here are crawling slowly but surely towards a painful death by starvation. The countdown for the circus animals began on August 6, when a 12-year-old lion died under mysterious circumstances. Now, the other felines and pachyderms stand to meet the same fate.Bhimrao Patil (86), who owns the circus which he shut in April, however, almost managed to get an `all-clear' Transfer Permit from forest officials, who somehow believe that the bankrupt man will be able to sustain the animals once he moves his show out of Aurangabad. The truth however, as Jignasha Patel of the Jalna Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who has taken up the issue explains, the officials desperately want the dying animals out of their jurisdiction.But that is not surprising as there is very little that is legal about the circus in the first place, from licences to acquired animals, their upkeep and the mysterious disappearance of as many as 14 animals from the circus between 1989 and 1999. The circus itself is not registered under the Performing Animals Act, 1973. Bhimrao Patil, in an blatant violation of a government notification dated October, 28, 1987, acquired five lions from the Sangli Zoo!Apart from Patil and the zoo's culpability, it is still inexplicable how forest officials overlooked these documents every time they issued a Transfer Permit to the circus, which enabled it to take its act from one district to another over a decade.Government veternirary doctor Dr Arun Deshpande, for instance, did not think anything of issuing a certificate on August 20, 1999, stating that all animals with the zoo were in good health when in fact a 12-year-old lion under his own care had died just a fortnight before that.Jignasha Patel says there are question marks over the post-mortem report of the lion prepared by Dr Deshpande as well. While he states that the lion died following a kidney infection, there are no documents suggesting he had carried out the pathological tests for such a disorder. Moreover, while documents say the feline's age was 12, the doctor had mentioned it as 18 in the post-mortem report.Deputy Chief Conservator of Forests at Aurangabad, Sameer Sahay, claims ``lack of funds to feed the animals'' prevents him from seizing the animals from Bhimrao Patil. Chief Wildlife Warden Ghogte laughed off the problem, Jignasha Patel told the The Indian Express. Besides, Sahay had also cleared Bhimrao Patil's plea for a Transfer Certificate to Akola. But within hours of its issuance Jignasha Patel got it withheld by contacting Satish Tripathi, secretary with the Department of Environment and Forests, Government of Mahharashtra.But that will probably make no difference. It probably only changed burial grounds for the ill and ageing cats.
