Hon’ble Mr. Justice P.N. Prakash, Forme er Judge of Madras High Court released a book on Memories and Milestones ma rking sixty years of the Blue Cross of Ind ia
· Mrs. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Animal rig hts activist, and Environmentalist and M r. A.L. Somayaji, Former Advocate Gener al, Govt. of TN, graced the occasion
Chennai, March 2025
Scripting a monumental journey, histori an V. Sriram and Lashman document the 60 years of Blue Cross in their book “Me mories and Milestones”, which was relea sed by Hon’ble Mr. Justice P.N. Prakash, F ormer judge of Madras High Court and former Special Public Prosecutor, Natio nal Investigation Agency, in the presenc ce of Mrs. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Anim al rights activist, and Environmentalist a nd Mr. A. L. Somayaji, Former Advocate General, Government of Tamil Nadu, wh o also received the first copy of the boo ok, at a function held here in Chennai on 15th March 2025.
Celebrating Blue Cross and its 60th anni versary, one cannot stop but applaud th e achievements of the Sundaram family and all the others who have volunteered and worked for the Blue Cross of India, s ince its first registration in 1964. The m ost active animal welfare group in the co untry that has many firsts to its credit. T he first of a new genre of animal protect ion groups that were concerned with all animals, the one that pioneered some pa ath breaking initiatives like the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme, the firs st time in the world, where the sterilizat ion of street dogs was put forward as a h umane approach to control growing dog population, first in the world to begin int eractive computer programmes as an alt ernative to dissection of animals in scho ols, and the first animal welfare group in India to get the Platinum Level certificat cation for transparency from GuideStar India in 2013.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Chinny Kri shna the co-founder of Blue Cross and t he Praani Mitra awardee from the India n government for his lifetime of animal s ervice shared that running any organisa tion for 60 years was difficult; running a n organisation in the animal welfare fiel d, a Herculean task. Welcoming Mrs. Ma neka Gandhi and thanking her for her pr esence, Dr. Krishna said, “Much of the w ork done wouldn’t have been possible, b ut for the sympathetic listener in parllm iament, Mrs. Maneka Gandhi, who was a ble to understand what was done and be ing done, and her diligent follow ups wit h legislation on aspects of animal welfar e”.
“Till 1987, the Blue Cross of India was a volunteer group with 24×7 ambulance s ervices driven by off duty Indian Airline es pilots. Of course, it helped that both my parents were pilots – my mother, Ush a Sundaram, was India’s first woman pilo t and as the pilots of the Mysore Mahara jah’s “luxury” aircraft VT AXX, had the h onour and privilege of flying Sardar Pate el on his mission to unite the princely st ates to form the Indian Union. Even toda y, we are fortunate in having a group of professionals who donate their time and efforts on a purely honorary basis to loo k after much of the administration and s pecial projects like our adoptathons and the Great Indian Dog Show for Indies an d non-pedigrees. This ensures that dona tions received by us are not unduly erod ed by “administrative expenses”, he add ed.
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