Animal hospital makeover

The Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals in Parel is due for a major makeover later this year, reported The Times of India (TOI) in its issue dated July 24, 2008. The institution is a Grade II-A heritage structure, a status that often makes small repairs and major overhauls difficult for caretakers despite the best intentions. Architect Brinda Somaiya, who is working on this conservation project, faces an additional hurdle, since she needs to gauge the needs of users by their non-verbal cues, the report notes. Somaiya is now awaiting the green signal from the heritage committee before work can begin and though the budget has not yet been determined, the MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) has evinced interest in putting funds into the project.

Parel animal hospital: in dire need of repairs

The animal hospital is a verdant complex with cottages and enclosures for sick animals and their caretakers. The original plans for this facility went on the drawing board in 1874, when a resolution was passed in the Town Hall to construct a hospital for animals in Bombay. To this day, more than a century later, it remains the city’s only full-fledged animal hospital, functioning like a regular medical institution with residential wards, an outpatients’ department, an intensive care ward, even a birth control ward and cardiac care unit, the report reveals.

However, the rundown enclosures hidden among the overgrowth are in dire need of repairs. The staff quarters have been surviving "on bamboo props and a prayer,” the report states. The floor line has sagged in places, having caved in under the weight of the structure as well as the furniture and the people who stay in it, according to project architect Meenakshi Chauhan. Trustee Sheila Bhogilal said that the Mangalore tiled roofs of some cottages were repaired piecemeal, but much more remains to be done. The general ward for dogs is decrepit since bad tempered mongrels have twisted the bars of the cages with their teeth. In contrast, the air-conditioned unit where well-bred household pets are nursed is in far better shape.

In 2005 the hospital authorities installed a rainwater harvesting system in this heritage structure, the report reveals, adding that the current plans for restoration are a major step forward toward modernity.