Have you ever seen a stray dog lying in pain beside the road hit by a passing truck or something, and felt anguish about not being able to help? If yes, Nygil Otter is your man. He runs the Animal refuge for the silent creatures of nature that don’t have the language skills as humans have to tell their sorrows.

India Project for Animals and Nature is run by Nygil Otter and is situated in Masanagudi in Nilgiri District of Tamilnadu, a southern state of India. If you are a visitor who simply loves to see animals, you will have a host of cats, dogs, horses, donkeys and monkeys here and they will reciprocate your love with simple friendly gestures. In IPAN, humans and animals live as a community.

Once the telephone rings at IPAN, Nygil and his staff get ready for a rescue mission. Somewhere in Ootty town or in some remote village, a donkey might have broken his leg due to the over-burden he is made to carry or a horse might have been abandoned because of getting injured in the (in)famous Ootty horse race. Nygil and his team will rush to the site and bring the unfortunate animal home; the sweet caring home of IPAN.

The horses sheltered here had been used to getting special and delicious food and been showered with praises in the past when they had won the horse races for the rich and the elite. But once they had become unfit for the races owing to injuries or health reasons, the owners had abandoned them to starve in the cold streets of Ootty.

Another set of horses in Nygil’s farm had gone through a different and crueler treatment in the past. These black horses were victims to the superstition that horse shoes taken from the feet of black horses bring good tidings if placed above the front doors of houses. So, 10 or 15 horse shoes were nailed into the feet of these black horses and then taken out and sold each day and this practice went on for years. The feet of the horses were totally shattered and when Nygil came to know about this macabre practice, he rescued the horses from Mumbai with the help of authorities.

Each animal in IPAN animal refuge has to say a similar heart breaking story of human apathy and cruelty. But IPAN by protecting these animals, try to create awareness and a space for animals in the selfish human world.

Compassionately yours..