HC orders closure of animal shelter in housing complex

The Calcutta High Court today ordered closure of an animal shelter running on a plot in the middle of some housing societies in the city.
A division bench of acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice T Chakraborty ordered the head of a civil society, running the animal shelter, to vacate the plot by June 16 saying it was being run illegally on an encroached plot owned by Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation.
The bench also asked civil society Sonata Foundation head Pranay Dutta to submit an affidavit on Tuesday stating that the premises would be vacated by June 16 and that they would not bring in any more animal at the shelter from today.

According to Dutta's counsel Suman Ghosh, there were at present 28 cows, 23 goats and 24 dogs in the shelter.
On August 17, 2016, Subrata Bandopadhyay, a resident of a housing society in Action Area 1B of New Town filed a petition seeking closure of the animal shelter, claiming that the animals, living in the middle of the housing societies, were health hazards for residents, besides causing sound and other forms of pollution.
Claiming that the NGO was illegally occupying the HIDCO- owned land, which was meant for a park, his counsel Rabishankar Chatterjee submitted that the shelter had no license to operate from there and should be evicted.