Bengaluru dog-lover travels 9,000 km to spread a message
At the age of 8, Sushant Ajnikar became a vegetarian, and seeds of his unwavering love for animals were sown. At the age of 30, that love culminated into a 9,000 kilometres long journey of traversing highways, unknown cities, rugged landscapes, and braving hardships. Last year May, this digital designer undertook an arduous trip on his Royal Enfield from Bengaluru to Leh just to propagate love and compassion towards Indian street dogs, and create awareness about dog adoption.
Aggrieved at the perceived injustice meted out to street dogs (he refuses to call them strays), Sushant felt there was an urgent need to educate people about the value of these dogs.
For the love of dogs and bikes:
“A simple mantra fuelled my expedition; adopt a street dog, instead of buying one. So many people opt for different breeds of dogs when street dogs are readily available,” he exclaims. “I don’t understand the rationale, after all, dogs are dogs, and they will love you irrespective of their breed,” he adds. Last year, Sushant planned to take this message far and wide. “I am a passionate biker at heart. I decided to bring both my loves, biking and dogs, together to create an important message. Thus, the idea of biking from Bengaluru to Leh was born,” says this Mumbaikar who has made Bengaluru his home for the last five years. He also started a Facebook page, ‘Paws of India’ that chronicled his unique journey.
The highly sensitive issue of street dogs, for years now, has divided citizens into two opposing groups; supporters of adopting extreme measures to rid the streets of dogs, and those advocating a more Gandhian approach. Weighing in on the debate, Sushant adds, it is imperative to comprehend the cycle of ill-treatment that exists between humans and the street mongrels. “Since they have been pups, they have lived in a climate of fear. People throw stones at them, kids pull their tails and are usually shooed away from everywhere. Will it be wrong to say that their aggressive behaviour is probably their only defensive mechanism,” he counters.
This trip then was not only to encourage people to look at these dogs kindly but also to understand the lack of empathy people have towards street dogs. To set his plan in motion, Sushant approached Let’s Live Together, an NGO that works in the sphere of stray dog adoption, and its owner Achala Paani. “I wanted some pamphlets, flags demoting what my trip was about, and some t-shirts with messages encouraging adoption of Indian dogs,” he adds. After getting the logistics in order, Sushant left for Leh.
A trip of learning:
Sushant’s journey and his varied rendezvous with animal lovers for whom compassion towards four-legged beings was as integral as breathing, humbled him. “In Gurgaon, I met an old rag picker who is fondly called Amma. She would collect leftovers from restaurants and hotels and garbage bins. After keeping some food aside for herself, she would give the remaining to street dogs. On average, she would feed more than 60 dogs! Such tales of selfless love moved immensely,” he reminisces. 
Sushant himself fed more than 200 dogs on his journey. “You don’t need much. Just a packet of Parle G biscuits, costing only Rs 5. That’s all it takes,” he says. Wherever he would see dogs, he would park his vehicle, get down, take out a biscuit packet and feed the mutts. “They would gobble up the treat hungrily. I would pet them for some time, take pictures, and continue on my way. Those precious moments made up my trip,” he says.
The trip also bought with it immense learnings for this aspiring Vegan. “There is a pattern that I noticed. Street dogs are ill-treated in cities, while in towns and villages, people are more welcoming towards them. In cities, it is more of a lifestyle issue,” he says. Then as an afterthought, he adds, “Maybe in cities, because we live in high rise buildings, and move about in cars, we have probably become oblivious to things that surround us. There’s this wall between the dogs and us. In villages, that wall doesn’t exist. If a dog gets injured, you will see people tending to it, not killing it.”Sushant also noted that many accidents relating to street dogs take place on the highways. “The high-speed traffic vehicular movement is an important cause of accidents,” he says, adding that Rajasthan was probably the most animal-friendly state he had visited.
The icing on the cake remains the warmth of people he met on his life changing journey. “I was offered free lunches and tea. Some hugged me and appreciated my efforts. That was extremely motivating,” says Sushant who is currently volunteering with a Leopard wildlife conservation organization in Maharashtra.
Sushant has one piece of advice for all bikers. “On your next journey take some biscuit packets with you, and when you see a dog, try feeding it. You will make a friend for life!” he says.
