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79, Kala Vihar IMPORTANT
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The Forbidden Fruit
It was not a sudden decision. It took many years. For many years there were demonstrations. Thousands of articles were written. Hundreds of delegations met with hundreds of politicians. Then at last, the Animal Rights Activists were able to attain their goal: the lions whose ancestors were brought from the jungles of Asia and Africa to Europe were to be transported back to their place of origin. But it was not easy. There were some young lions who were of the third or fourth generation, born and brought up in the zoo. They were used to tinned food and tetra-pack milk. If suddenly one fine morning they had woken up in the dense forest of Africa or the rain forest of Asia, they would have fainted. That was why it was decided that, before transporting them to the place of origin, they must be exposed gradually to the circumstances, life, flora and fauna and habits of the few lions still surviving in the forest. In the age of the electronic media this was not difficult. In the zoo, when a film on the place of origin of the lions was screened, the reactions were not as desired, some lions refused to accept the very fact that they belonged to the place shown on the screen. When they saw a lion attacking and killing an innocent wild deer a few of them angrily protested, saying that this was part of a conspiracy to defame and demoralise them. They were also suspicious that it was the first step to pushing them out into the difficult and frightening forest. But the activists were determined to carry on with the programme. Of course, as humans they could not understand the lions’ jargon. Even if they could have, they would have replied that what they were doing was a symbol of their beliefs and commitments. It was a question of values which have been developed in the course of thousands of years of the growth of civilisation. Substantial amounts of packed food and milk were stored in the lions’ cages ; they knew that it would take a long time to get accustomed to killing other animals and drinking water from the filthy streams. Apart from food, bedding and other things for day-to-day needs–even the toys for the cubs – were kept in the cages so that the young ones should not feel deprived. The activists were very anxious that nobody should be able to say that they were insensitive. On the day of the departure, school children were mobilised to put farewell cards in the cages. Air travel was not new for the lions. They were calm during the flight, but as soon as they reached the destination airport they became agitated. The doctor who accompanied them gave an injection which proved extremely effective ; the lions became normal and some of them even started purring. Then the cages were transported to the jungle, and the cage doors were flung open. A few weeks later when the activists went back to collect the cages, for the noble purpose of recycling them, they found that instead of lions the cages were full of strange creatures. The activists were never frightened of lions; but these new creatures did frighten them. The creatures proved, after a medical examination , to be human beings. Apart from a curious primitive language of their own, one or two of them were also able to speak broken English which was just barely comprehensible. “Why have you come into the cages?” the activists asked. “Take us with you.” “Why?” “Because we are worse off than the lions’.” “But all of you are human beings.” “But it is not our fault. We are human beings in the same way that the lions are lions.” “But it is your country, you live here.” “The lions were taken away, long ago. They also used to belong to this soil. Please take us with you now.” “Look, lions were kept in the zoo.” “We can manage to live even in the worst place.” “No, we cannot take you with us.” “Look, we are more useful than the lions. We can increase the production of your country.” “Increase production? No, no. You know, every year we destroy millions and millions of tons of grain.” “We can help you in destroying the grain. Without worrying about cholesterol, protein, or vitamins. We can eat whatever there is.” “No, no. We do not need that. We pay our farmers not to grow grain in their fields.” “Your country is ideal for people like us to live. You must definitely take us there.” “Sorry, we cannot take you. But let us know if there are any wounded or sick dogs or cats around.” “We can injure ourselves to qualify as wounded. Otherwise as far as sickness is concerned our whole nation is sick.” “You are too clever. that’s why we do not want to take you.” “We are not clever. Compared to the lions we are badly off. Lions do not have to buy food. They do not make national boundaries which are re-drawn frequently. Lions do not believe in religion and they don’t speak different languages. Lions do not use guns. They do not claim to be democrats. Please take us with you away from here. In spite of all the arguments they still refused to come out. Even force, which the activists would not have used against the lions, failed to eject them. Then one activist said : “I know the reason why they will not come out from the cages.” “Why ?” “Because they must have tasted the food that we brought for the lions.”
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