The Great Prabhat circus story: then and now

When a

circus

troupe recently pitched its tent in

Kudla

, along with the usual jubilation, it also ended up sounding alarm bells among the city’s animal activists. A surprise inspection by ACT, an animal rights group, revealed that the

animals

in the circus were being housed in rather inhospitable conditions that included cramped enclosures, elephants being tied up with metal anklets and unclean food and water bowls. While this made instant news, what also needs to be acknowledged is the twist in the story.

Tauseef Ahmed, a member of ACT, narrates how the camp-in-charge not only immediately agreed to their shortcomings, but also turned around the living conditions of the animals.

“If you visit the Great Prabhat Circus today, you will notice that the bird enclosures are bigger. The dogs which lived in cramped units were shifted right away and crane belts were ordered to chain the legs of elephants instead of metal ones. Clean and nutritious food is being provided to the animals,” says Tauseef, adding, “The manager himself said that everyone who comes to usually check on the animals, just complains and shouts; nobody suggests what should be done. We gave them our remedies and the crew took it in the right spirit.” So, the show continues and both man and beast are happy.