Rescue, rehab centre for urban animals in Pune

PUNE: Devna Arora (34) was just four years old when she first dabbled in rescuing a squirrel at home. Though she was bitten in the process, the act made her realise her calling as she went on to study conservation science from a university in Scotland’s Edinburgh and set up an animal rescue centre, Rehabber’s Den, in 2011.

The centre works on urban animal rescue and rehabilitation. As to how she started, Arora said, “I was crazy about animals and wildlife ever since I was a child. It all started in college when I got into animal rehabilitation and rescue. I also worked in research and conservation, but at the end of the day everything comes down to rehab.”

Rehabber’s Den was registered as a charity in 2015. “From 2014-15, we had a lot of tough rescues,” she said.

Arora operates Rehabber’s Den out of two rooms at her home in Salunke Vihar. “We don’t have a centre, but we function as an advisory for rescue and rehab for animals. I have two rooms in my house, from which I run the centre. We house 15 such animals for rehabilitation at any given point in time.”

She is not always able to take rescue calls as she also runs a home boarding for dogs. “I tell people to come in and drop the rescued or injured animal over at my place. It’s a volunteer-run charity and everyone chips in in the best possible way.”

Currently, the centre takes in urban wildlife. “It’s a home set up so I can’t accommodate big animals. Apart from Pune, we get calls from across the country. When I do get calls for larger animals, we divert them to another facility like the Katraj animal rescue centre and RESQ Charitable centre.”

Arora’s future plans for Rehabber’s Den include a fully functional centre, a fixed team, more volunteers and an ambulance for the rescue operations.

“Our aim is to get an ambulance and a driver who can help out with the calls and do a little bit of the running around. We don’t have a set number of volunteers. With animals, I try to limit human contact as much as possible. Some of them are terrified of humans so we try not to disturb them. We don’t want them to get too habituated to humans either,” she added.