Current project

Areas of operation

Ponies are extensively used in Bangalore’s core commercial areas. Some of the important locations where the ponies are used during a working day include:

1. S.P. Road (Bangalore central - close to K.R. Market-)
2. Kalasipalyam (Bangalore central - close to K.R. Market)
3. Palace Guttahalli (Bangalore North)
4. Tannery Road (Bangalore North)
5. Siddaihah Road (Bangalore Central)
6. Banashankari (Bangalore South)

The above list is not exhaustive and just represents the data collated from our survey. There are other areas in Bangalore, such as Shivajinagar, etc., where the survey has not been carried out. 

When the pony and his/her caretaker are done for the day, he/she (i.e. the animal) spends the night either along with a few members of his/her family in a stand/shed – wherever applicable, or close by to the caretakers’ house.  There are a few resting places where one could find concentration of these ponies. Some of these areas are:

1. Kalasipalyam (equipped with a proper shed)
2. Palace Guttahalli (equipped with a proper shed)
3. Tannery road (shed available only for a few horses/ponies)
4. Nagarthpet (equipped with a shed)
5. Magadi road (equipped with a shed)
6. Goripalya (no shed; ponies rest next to a railway track)
7. Banashanakri (no shed; ponies rest close to public parks)
8. Neelasandra (no shed; ponies rest outside the caretaker’s house)

In a few other areas of Bangalore, the animal’s resting place would be very close to his house. 

Survey

Since the beginning of May 2010, a survey was conducted by SAMABHAVA, which included the below points amongst others:

1. Details about the animal (Gender, Age…)
2. Details about the owner (economic status…)
3. Area of operations (commercial)
4. Type of work (whether transporting construction materials, furniture…)
5. Known health related problems
6. Remedy sough by the caretaker

Kindly click here, to view the template of the two data sheets used in our survey.

Survey results

The below data is an amalgamation of the data collected during our survey. It must be noted that the below data has been compiled by the Managing Trustee based on suggestions provided by people in the domain of equine welfare, and must not be treated as absolute. This is rather a macro-analysis of the survey. Once we are able to get an equine care specialist’s analysis on the survey data, we will be able to provide more comprehensive analysis of the condition of animals, practices and other details thereof. 

1. Number of ponies/horsed covered in the survey: 107
2. Number of donkeys covered in the survey: 15
3. Number of commercial stands covered in the survey: 14 (in certain cases a commercial stand is just a few kilometres from another one in the same area)
4. Number of resting places covered in the survey: 11 (this number only indicates the resting places where there is a concentration of one or more animals)

Condition of the animals

1. 25% of the animals covered have fever at frequent intervals
2. 6% of the animals covered have fatigue at frequent intervals
3. 18% of the animals covered suffer from colic at frequent intervals
4. 25% of the animals covered attract leg pain at frequent intervals
5. 6% of the animals covered had lameness related problems
6. 15% of the animals covered have food-intake related problems
7. 25% of the animals covered have other miscellaneous problems, such as:

• Infections
• Cold
• Stiffness

Practices

• Apart from the animals at Palace Guttahalli, all the other animals received water only twice a day at an average. 
• Only one stand, Palace Guttahalli, had both adequate shade and water facilities.
• Apart from the animals at Palace Guttahalli, the feeding pattern remains the same for all the other animals.

The food fed to horses and ponies are uniform throughout Bangalore.