Meet the man feeding Bengaluru’s hungry strays with home-cooked food amid coronavirus crisis

We have come across a plethora of instances where people are seen serving their society selflessly in these trying times, but not many have thought of taking care of those, not of their kind. 

Praveen Kumar, the Founder of We Save Animals, is one such person who is helping hungry strays of Bangalore. Formerly a gym trainer, Praveen has now turned into an activist with the Kanakpura-based NGO. 

“After realising that there are many injured animals and not enough places to take care of them, I decided to construct an animal shelter,” he said, as reported by Bangalore Mirror.

Ever since the 21-day lockdown was announced regarding the spread of coronavirus on March 24, Praveen has been witness to and has received calls informing him of several stray dogs dying on the street. With not a lot of people roaming the streets, most stray canines have given in to extreme hunger.

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The activist says that his usual practice of feeding animals has been hindered due to the lockdown, which is not even close to getting over. Buying enough biscuits for animals has become close to impossible. 

Praveen would usually buy 100 biscuit packets in a day to feed dogs, and Rs 1,000 worth of fruits and vegetables to feed monkeys and cows daily. While travelling from JP Nagar to Kanakpura every day for work, he would stop wherever he saw an animal, feed them, and move on, with mornings reserved for feeding the strays around his house.

At present, in these trying times, Praveen has started making chapatis for animals from his kitchen. Rice mixed with chicken and soybean is the staple that he cooks during weekends, making this preparation in large quantities to feed the animals. Going to buy biscuits, rice, and other groceries to feed animals would require Praveen to stand in queues for two to three hours. 

"I usually buy biscuits from small grocery stores or supermarkets. But from the past three days, they have not been able to get enough stock. Sometimes, even if they have stock, they refuse to give it to me because they know that I feed animals. But feeding these hungry animals is what matters to me and gives me happiness," Praveen tells Edex Live.

(Edited by Suman Singh)

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