Many years ago, the stock market in Mumbai, to a large extent, was controlled by the Jain and Gujarati community. And they had entered into an informal pact among themselves that they would not invest or encourage investment in companies that had anything to do with non-vegetarian products. Unfortunately this pact has broken down, and now Jains invest in soap companies that use animal flesh, gelatine made of cow bones and thousands of other products that kill millions of animals every month. Some Jains even export meat. One extremely famous stock market investor had come to me ten years ago. He wanted to start an Ethical Fund—he would only invest in environmentally ethical companies and all his investors would be told why and which one. With this process, he wanted to encourage companies to be more responsible towards the environment. His plan fell apart because he could not find respectable people for the board. Then, he got busy making money and forgot about saving the planet.

Meanwhile, the world has moved ahead and each company is under pressure to do something good, by supporting some cause, besides just earning money. Countries should be put under the same pressure. The consumers should now be making ethical choices themselves and they do. A large number of Apps and sites on the Internet are catering to this growing consumer base. For instance, hundreds of people I know buy only grain and lentils from organic shops that even deliver—something unheard of, even five years ago. I do the same. Some have organic vegetables delivered once a week and consume only those vegetables that are in season. Some search the internet  for organically grown fabrics and dyes—organic fashion companies are earning millions by exporting from India. Even I had started producing organic silk sarees called Ahimsa silk many years ago, but it and did not do very well. Today I would do much better.

Ethical travelling

A site in Europe  www.veggie-hotels.de—run by Thomas Klein from Berlin—lists all the vegetarian hotels across the world, and it is accessed at least 10,000 times a day.  It has been nominated for the Green Tech Awards—one of the best start-up awards to get in the world.

Even people are encouraged to send in the names of vegetarian hotels. I sent the name of Norbulinka, in Dharamshala, one of the nicest and most aesthetically pleasing vegetarian hotels I have stayed in. And the food is delicious.

In fact, Indians could send in hundreds of names.

Conscious travellers now need to wisely decide where to go for their holidays, and make choices that makes a difference. For instance I have three places on my list at the moment that should be avoided. Within India, do not go to Kerala right now. Everybody in Kerala seems to be killing street dogs or hiring people to kill them. Everyday pictures of  killed dogs, being dragged and thrown into garbage heaps surfaces in one paper or another. Thousands of people across the world have cancelled their holidays to Kerala because of this. And Kerala has responded by verbally attacking the people who have cancelled their trip, and some minister has sent email asking Keralites across the globe to ‘send tourists’. However, it would be better if they simply calm down, stop this savage killing and start the sterilisation programme, which is the only way to control the population of street dogs. I love Kerala and it breaks my heart to say something so negative about it.

Countries to avoid

Of the countries that should be boycotted, one is Mauritius. Mauritius is the only country in the world that exports thousands of monkeys to laboratories across the world for experimentation. Dozens of monkey breeders have now become monkey factories. These poor animals are grown like vegetables and then sent in boxes across Europe where they are subjected to unimaginable torture. In 2014 alone, Mauritius exported 9000 monkeys. Due to this all across Europe a campaign is underway to stop people from going to Mauritius. A survey, commissioned by Cruelty Free International, found that 53 percent of those interviewed who have been, want to go or would consider going on a holiday to Mauritius would not want to visit the island, or would at least reconsider choosing Mauritius as a holiday destination after learning about the island’s monkey trade.

Denmark, home to the Faroe Islands, is another country which should be avoided.  Only last month, the island performed their annual ritual killing festival, where they herd whales into a corralled area and kill thousands of these harmless, beautiful, sentient, intelligent beings with spears and swords or anything that pierces their skin. The entire area is bathed with blood. This year they killed over 1000 whales and instead arrested 10 people (including some Indians) from Australia that were trying to stop the killing. Indians have sent over one hundred thousand emails to the Danish Embassy in India in the last ten years, objecting such practice. Over three million people worldwide have sent in such anguished objections to the Danish government itself. The Danish government is impervious to the fact that ocean creatures belong to the world and whale killing is banned by international treaty. Japan should be boycotted as well for doing exactly the same thing.

Similarly, China should be boycotted for killing our tigers, elephants, seahorses, sharks, pangolins, musk deer, dogs, cats and every other animal you can think of. Furthermore, it is shameful that our businessmen are leaving India and starting their factories in China, the country that thinks that India is simply a resource for poaching animals and turning them into quack medicines.

It is not just Kerala, but India itself has been asked to be boycotted this year. An article in the Daily Mail has reported that in India, hundreds of elephants have been beaten and tortured in camps so that they could be used for the tourist trade. Over 100 elephants have died of torture in this process. The government is ignoring this, inspite of thousands of complaints that have come in,  senior Members of Parliament from England have also written expressing their anguish. We should be doing something to stop these camps. In fact the elephant should be now taken out of private hands totally.

Indians are now travelling a lot.  So we can now change the world for the good by making sound travel choices.  Start by writing to your own government about these elephant camps.

 Pl. add: To join the animal welfare movement contact [email protected], www.peopleforanimalsindia.org