Y.D. Gaur enforces one paramount rule at the speciality hospital where he works in New Delhi: No patient, once cured, is ever allowed to return home. Instead, they just fly away.
As chief veterinarian at the Indian capital’s 80-year-old Birds’ Hospital, Gaur deals with a daily influx of patients suffering a wide range of ailments, from ulcers and asthma to paralysis and tumors.
Those requiring extensive treatment are admitted and, in some cases, prepared for surgery, while others are dealt with on the spot and allowed to leave the same day.
PHOTO: AFP
Many are brought in by worried owners who must balance their concern for their pets with the knowledge that admitting them to the hospital means giving them away for good.
Since it opened in 1927, the hospital has operated a policy whereby all birds must be released after treatment, rather than returned to their owners or the person who brought them in.
The hospital is managed by followers of Jainism, one of the oldest religions originating in India, who believe that every living thing has a soul that is potentially divine.
Such is their commitment to avoid harming any living being that Jain monks wear masks over their mouths to avoid accidentally swallowing insects.
Funded entirely by private donations — all treatments are free — the three-story hospital has a dedicated following that never lets it go short of money, medicines or bird feed.
Bolstering the hospital’s reputation further is its startlingly clean environment, with no bird droppings or foul smells.
“It’s cleaner than many government hospitals,” said Rinki Patel, a housewife and first-time visitor to the facility that boasts an operating room, an intensive care unit and a general ward.
At any one time, the hospital looks after 3,000 to 5,000 “resident” patients.
The most common are pigeons, doves, parrots and budgies, with the odd peacock to brighten things up.
The seriously ill are put into intensive care on the first floor, where they have a cage to themselves. On other “wards” dozens of birds share large cages.
Broken wings and bones are carefully set and bandaged. Those in “post operative care” are dosed with antibiotics and carefully monitored for infections. Those too weak to eat are hand fed.
“That bird has paralysis caused by a virus,” Gaur said, pointing to a black pigeon.
“It looks as if it has just cocked its head or twisted its neck, but it’s a serious condition. Some nerve soothing medication will cure it,” he said.
The hospital claims a recovery rate of 90 percent.
Common injuries include those caused by children throwing stones, or birds getting caught in the blades of ventilators or ceiling fans, but some ailments require highly specialized treatment.
“Recently we operated on two peacocks with eye tumors. The growth was removed in both cases. One was as big as a tennis ball,” Gaur said, adding that both patients were well on the way to recovery.
Delhi’s high pollution levels have also led to a rise in avian asthma cases. All patients are put on a high-nutrient diet of seeds, grain, fruits and vegetables during their stay.
“We have had some eagles as patients. But they were also kept on a vegetarian diet,” said Gaur’s assistant vet, Vinod Kumar.
Once a week, those deemed to have recovered are taken to the hospital roof to be set free, although a fair number opt to resist the call of the wild.
“Though we encourage them to fly, only a few do. Others stay back because they are used to the easily available food here,” Kumar said. “They show no inclination to leave.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS