Animal rescue and welfare have long been synonymous with the Blue Cross of India (BCI) in Chennai. That familiarity is the product of more than six decades of work. The organisation’s beginnings, however, were modest. In 1959, in Madras, Captain V. Sundaram, a pilot, brought home two stranded puppies he found on a flooded street near his house at T. Nagar. With his wife, Usha, also a pilot, and their children, Suresh, Chinny Krishna, and Vijayalakshmi, he built makeshift kennels at home. Injured and abandoned animals soon began to be rescued from across the city and brought here.
It started as an informal network, known as the Animal Aid Association, before being registered in 1964 as the BCI, with nine founding members, including Sundaram, his family, and early supporters like Daivasigamony, then secretary of the Indian Football Association.
