Background
True to Pujya Bapu’s belief and seeing animals and birds suffering due to the actions of humans, he passionately wanted to act in relieving some of the injustices suffered. Help The Animal Trust (HTAT) was formed with this in mind and as its guiding principle.
Help the Animal Trust was established in 1999 with the following objectives:
- To protect and conserve animals and birds
- To establish and manage Gaushalas and Panjrapols
- To establish grazing land for cattle
- To improve the breed of the cattle
- To provide medical care to sick, elderly, injured animals and birds
- To provide relief in accidents and natural disasters to needy animals and birds
In the early days, Pujya Bapu had organised feed for cows whenever the rains failed and there was a shortage of grass. He would order grass from other states of India sometimes at a high cost. Also, he noticed that some animals needed medical treatment to relieve them of pain and suffering due to injury or ill-health. The owners, mainly poor farmers, would treat their animals with traditional medicine and methods but sometimes it was not sufficient and needed modern medical intervention.
This they would not do due to the high cost. Pujya Bapu experiencing this situation started holding animal camps in Chaparda regularly. Farmers after a slow start began attending these camps where local veterinary surgeons and with the help of the local Government department for Animal husbandry would give seminars on best practices and also do check-up and treatment of animals free of charge. This had a very positive impact on the health of the animals and hence the wellbeing of farmers.
In the process of conducting these animal camps, Pujya Bapu learnt about the Gir cow breed. The Gir breed is considered to be one of the finest cow breeds and its milk is considered to be the most nutritious. As one of Puja Bapu’s pet projects, he ensures that he only keeps Gir breed in all his dairy farms and also encourages the promotion of this breed by running a breeding programme with the local farmers. He has kept some fine bulls and by artificial insemination techniques, the local farmers can make use of this technique to impregnate their cows especially when the animal camps are held.
