Last month, we also rescued two kites, who are hawk-like birds. The rescues took place on different days in different locations, but the circumstances were similar. Both birds were found lying on the ground in front of a tree. They appeared to have fallen off a branch and were unable to fly.

An Animal Rahat staffer who specializes in handling birds took them back to our office, where our veterinarians checked them out and found that neither had been injured but that both were stressed and dehydrated. Both kites were kept inside for several days and given food, vitamins, and plenty of water. Fortunately, both quickly regained their ability to fly, so they were released at the spots where they had been found.

Our Tractor Project—through which we’re working to get bullocks replaced with eco-tractors in the sugar industry in order to spare them the pain of hauling tons of sugarcane up and down rutted roads in the hot sun—tried a new approach. We’ve had some remarkable success working closely with the sugar factories, but this month, we decided to go directly to the villages from which the bullock cart owners are recruited in order to see what influence we could exert there.

This new phase has benefited 32 bullocks so far who have been freed from the hardship of hauling sugarcane—bringing the total number of bullocks replaced with eco-tractors to 6,700!