One look at Company Bagh in Jalandhar, Punjab, is enough to put you off from planning an outing there. Reason? The place is the fiefdom of stray animals and rodents.
Company Bagh, one of several eponymous parks in North Indian towns, is nominally under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Yet, like several historical sites and cultural monuments in the country, it is not maintained properly. According to a report in The Tribune newspaper, visitors are fed up with the countless stray dogs and cows that abound there.
While visitors may be sick and tired of animals overrunning a once-popular picnic spot—and who can blame them?—the situation seems to be at least partly the result of the neglect of animals, which appears to be something of a national characteristic. Company Bagh offers a safe haven to those four-legged critters that seek refuge from rashly driven vehicles on the streets and unfriendly shopkeepers. Cows also feast on the plants there.
Those few who dare to visit the place currently are rightly upset with the authorities for their lack of attention to the problem, and demand that the cows and dogs be shifted to proper animal shelters. Whether that will solve the problem of stray animals flocking to Company Bagh is moot. What isn’t is that something has to be done that will help both humans and the poor animals.
