This year has seen a raging monsoon and typhoon season across Asia, devastating lives and livelihoods, particularly in the Indian sub-continent. Our expertise will be used to full capacity in the coming weeks as we intervene in the Philippines, the Indian state of Orissa and Nepal, as well as being prepared for other possible disasters worldwide.
In India, monsoon rains hit the eastern state of Orissa especially heavily last week, affecting 2.2 million people and over 742,000 livestock in 19 districts. A Disaster Assessment Response Team (DART) will travel from WSPA India in New Delhi this week to conduct an assessment of the situation and determine how we could intervene. However, we do anticipate that there will be a need for feed, water, shelter and veterinary care.
To the north in Nepal, monsoon rainfall has also been devastating, affecting more than 30,000 livestock in the Himalayan nation. WSPA’s local partner, the Society for Animal Welfare and Management Nepal (SAWM), is to intervene but has requested our assistance, so a DART will also travel to the country in the coming days to conduct an assessment of the animal impact.
At the end of August, seven provinces in the Philippines were struck by a devastating typhoon, killing 35 people and affecting over 400,000 people. A state of calamity was declared in the province of Ilocos Norte on the main island of Luzon, where all of the reported animal fatalities occurred – in total 1,781 livestock were reported dead.
We received a request for assistance and a WSPA DART was deployed to undertake an assessment of the need for animals in the province. Recommendations are being set out but it is expected that veterinary care and feed will be required.
Meanwhile, following recent floods, our long term response work in India’s West Bengal region continues while the distribution of cattle feed is still ongoing. Animal owners in six of the most affected villages are receiving training in Disaster Management, which will ensure that villagers will be better equipped to assist their animals in future floods.
