Dipala Chauhan’s mission: rescuing abandoned animals for over 30 years

Dipala Chauhan has been saving abandoned and abused animals for over 30 years thanks to her shelter, despite the hostility of the locals and the lack of help from the government

Dipala Chauhan is a 70-year-old woman from Shimla, India, who, for the past three decades, has worked tirelessly on saving abandoned and mistreated animals. She runs a shelter for animals and houses over 120 animals, including dogs, cats, cows, and buffaloes in the region of Himachal Pradesh.

Most of the animals she rescues are victims of abuse or abandoned when they no longer prove useful to local farmers. Others show up with mutilated limbs, poisoned, or left to die near cliffs. The worst stories Dipala shared had to do with cows tied up in wires and brutally mutilated, then left behind never to survive.

Not deterred by the challenges-which include the burning of her house by arson-twice, by neighbours who did not favour her work-Dipala continues to tend to the animals with such passion that she has managed to save over 4,000 animals. Mainly alone in this challenge, apart from her son living abroad and sporadic volunteers. The lack of local support is palpable: the government has never responded to her application for making her plot a permanent animal sanctuary.

A home for abandoned animals

But Dipala remains unfazed because she knows her mission: to make abandoned animals secure with a permanent shelter in perpetuity even after she is gone. She works for trust creation for continuity of her work and has asked that animal welfare be included in school curriculums so that the young generation is more aware of the importance of compassion toward all living creatures.

What Dipala Chauhan does is a striking example of selfless love and devotion to the protection of helpless creatures. In spite of all those colossal obstacles and hostility, she is still fighting for animal rights, hoping that one day her mission will see more general support.

The tireless work that she has been doing reminds one of other “heroes” that we have featured over the years, such as Joseph Keter, who, for over 15 years now, has been rescuing injured and orphaned animals in Kenya’s Naivasha Wildlife Reserve; or Zadrigman, who takes to the streets of Mexico to save abandoned animals. These are just regular people whose actions, generally met with much resistance, make an incredible difference for these creatures.