THE LAST EMPEROR: A girl leads the exotic hippopotamus around the ring at the Gemini circus running in Vijayawada. — PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR

VIJAYAWADA: What is the fun in a circus without lions? In the past, the greatness of a circus was measured in the number of lions it had, says retired schoolteacher R. Ranga Rao.

"Everybody waited for them. One could feel the rush of adrenaline in the blood as the giant cage was assembled piece by piece before the lions were brought into the ring. Then, the ringmaster walked in with a whip and the lions followed him. There were at least a dozen lions in the ring at one time and there was only the ringmaster to control them," he recalls in an animated way, remembering the lions he saw at a circus some three decades ago. The circus is not such an exciting place any more. There are no lions in them and ringmasters do not stick their heads into the mouths of beasts to show how brave they are.

The Government of India banned training and display of five animals - lions, tigers, panthers, bears and monkeys.

The argument in favour of the ban is that travelling circuses have very little space for animals. All the structures in which animals are housed or exercised have to be easily transportable. In the case of the big cats and bears, which pose some threat to public safety, the transport cage is a permanent home. According to a survey conducted by the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), big cats are confined to their transport wagons for over 90 per cent of the time, where they have between 0.17 and 0.45 cubic metres of space for each animal. Elephants are shown to be leg-shackled for over 60 per cent of the time in a day. India is one of the first few countries to ban the use of wild animals in circuses. Singapore banned the use of all animals in January 2002 and the U.K. is seriously considering incorporating the ban in its legislation concerning animal welfare.

`No ill-treatment please'

Elephants have not been banned from performing in circuses because they have a 3,000-year association with human beings. The exotic hippopotamus is not much of a performing animal. Horses and dogs are not much of a novelty. "Children want to see animals perform. Rules should be made to see to it that the animals are not ill-treated," says P. Vijayalakshmi, a psychiatrist.

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