The misery of the reptiles and birds seized from the Parassinikadavu Snake Park, did not end even after the High Court came to their rescue. Following Tuesday's division bench order, they were unceremoniously bundled in gunny bags and released into their cages.
Only, they now had their natural predators for company.
A day after being returned to their homes, the creatures are bruised and appear listless, not even responding to the presence of strangers.
A UNI correspondent who visited the Park run by the Pappinissery Vishachikilsa Society saw many reptiles, animals and birds refusing food.
Returned to their cement enclosure in the park, the traumatised crocodiles were not even tempted by their favourite pieces of meat.
The park was shut down on Sunday, and the animals seized by
police and forest officials to enforce the last year's closure order issued by the Central Zoo Authority.
This correspondent saw a monkey with deep cuts on its left thigh,shoulder and behind its ear, wounds, which the keepers said, would invite infections and cause complications.
The officials tied the inmates to bamboo poles, forced them into makeshift cages or threw them into gunny bags, not releasing them until the Court order. While doing so, they inadvertently put traditional enemies in the same cages.
So, monkeys, brownfish owl and eagles found themselves sharing a cage. The same was the case with the porcupines. Such bunching would lead to many creatures fighting with each other, causing avoidable injury or even death, before the final Court order came, a Society official said.
Mr M V Raghavan, a former minister who founded the Communist Marxist Party (CMP) after his expulsion from the CPI(M) in 1986, is the president of the society which runs the park.
There were widespread allegations that the raid was the outcome of political vendetta by the ruling CPI (M) and not connected with law enforcement, since none of the parks and zoos in the state, both private and government run, barring the Thiruvananthapuram Zoo, possessed a certificate from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA).
However, Thaliparambu Forest Range Officer K V Uthaman, in charge of the operations, said the upkeep of the creatures inside the park was not proper, and illegal.
No snake inside the park survived for more than three months due to bad treatment, when their life span was much higher. Death was a common phenomenon inside the park, though such facts did not come into the open, he said, when asked about the death of 20 baby crocodiles after the seizure.
Society secretary K K Nanu, however, attributed the deaths to rough handling and inadequate space.
Admitting that there might have been shortcomings in the seizure, the Range officer said the officials had expected to release the creatures into their natural habitat the same day.
But the intervention of the Payyannur magistrate who was in
charge due to the absence of the Thaliparambu magistrate did not allow the creatures to be removed without proper inventory.
Mr Sudhakaran, chief demonstrator at the park, said many injured creatures, including the largest king cobra in the park, which had its scales broken and had difficulty breathing, were unlikely to survive.
The administrative officer of the society, Mr Ramesan, said the inventory provided by officials before and after the seizure had discrepancies.
While the range officer said that they had caught 369 creatures, the official inventory in the park showed only 206. Sudhakaran said seven pythons listed in the inventory report given by the forest officials earlier were unaccounted for now.
Since the staff were disallowed entry into the park after the early morning operation, they were also unable to give an account of the real proceedings.
Society President M V Raghavan is away at Delhi attending a UDF meeting there.
Tuesday's High Court order was temporary in nature, and the court would take up the case again on December 18.
Bureau Report
