Just as Pakistan still reels from recent flooding, the Leh District in Jammu and Kashmir state in neighbouring India has also been badly affected, with a large proportion of the region’s crops destroyed and many animals potentially in need of assistance. WSPA India’s Ashish Sutar was invited to join a team from SPHERE, a coalition of humanitarian groups, to assess the situation on the ground. With a harsh winter approaching, feed destroyed and a shortfall in supplies of concentrated fodder, the team found that there is an urgent need to increase stockpiles of feed for winter, as well as to vaccinate animals against diseases resulting from the presence of floodwaters.
In the coming days, WSPA, together with Delhi-based member society, Jeevasham, will begin to deliver 16 tonnes of animal feed to local distribution centres and administer over 10,000 foot and mouth and 1,500 tetanus vaccines. This aid will reach around 10,000 animals in an area where about 13,668 livestock are reared across 23 villages, and potentially safeguard the livelihoods of an estimated 2,000-2,500 families, who depend on their animals.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, despite the ongoing poor security situation preventing the dispatch of a WSPA team to Islamabad the local Vet Care Club is assessing what the animals will need as attention now turns to Pakistan’s recovery. With WSPA funding, the VCC was able to feed and vaccinate some 1,500 animals in immediate need following the recent floods.
