Animals being ignored due to reduced dependence: CJI Bobde

Guwahati (Assam) [India], December 19 : Asserting the history of civilisation is one of people's association with animals, Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde on Saturday said animals are being ignored since our dependence on them weakened due to mechanisation.
"History of civilisation in a sense is the history of man's association with animals. But somehow, since mechanisation developed and became an integral part of our lives, the sole dependence on animals have considerably weakened and animals which were found to be indispensable are being ignored," Bobde said addressing an orientation event on protection of wildlife here.
He said the environment is an intricate web, deeply interconnected and fascinating beyond imagination. It has wonders we do not see in the world of mechanisation, computerisation and artificial intelligence, he added.
"Animals, even wild ones, after domestication has played an important part in the civilisation itself. Cattle and bulls have been used for centuries. So many things from cows have been produced for purposes as varied as nutrition, to maintaining house and leather etc. Elephants and horses have been used as war machines," CJI Bobde said.
"With the reduction of our dependence on animal for ourselves and our purposes, we find that we have begun to ignore animals. We are not bothered too much about their existence, which earlier was indispensable to our lives," he added.
CJI Bobde said it is the movement of mechanisation and our dependence on it that has probably brought about "such vast destruction" (of the environment), which he said humans are finding difficult to reverse.
"It is undoubtedly true, that we may never be able to stop the advancement of the invention of scientific thought, but it is certainly true we can, we should and we must restrict the uses of such invention and ensure that these huge earth-moving machines and saws that can log down forests don't fall in hands that abuse them," he said.