Animal rights organisation Humane Society International/India also joined the call and alleged that the temple authority is exploiting animals and impoverished devotees through this festival. |
Ahead of Nepal’s Gadhimai festival, which is known as the world’s largest animal sacrifice festival, former MP and animal rights activists Maneka Gandhi wrote to Nepal’s vice president Ram Sahaya Yadav urging him to not inaugurate the animal sacrifice phase of the month-long festival on December 2. Animal rights organisation Humane Society International/India also joined the call and alleged that the temple authority is exploiting animals and impoverished devotees through this festival.
Held every five years in the Bara-Bariyarpur district of Nepal, Gadhimai is the world’s largest animal sacrifice event, where thousands of animals, including buffalo, goats, pigs, pigeons and chickens, are beheaded as sacrifice to appease the goddess Gadhimai. A significant proportion of the animals killed at the festival are illegally transported into Nepal from India, with a large percentage coming from the state of Bihar.
The Free Press Journal had reported about the resentment among animal rights activists regarding the Gadhimai Festival and is actively campaigning to end the tradition of killing animals for religious means. Following FPJ’s campaign, Gandhi wrote a letter to Nepal’s vice president to skip attending the event on Monday where he is expected to inaugurate the animal sacrifice ritual of the festival.
In the letter written on Friday, Gandhi urged the vice president not to participate and urged him to follow the 2019 judgement of Nepal’s Supreme Court which deemed animal sacrifice inappropriate. Despite this, the ritual continues to be carried out during the Gadhimai festival with around 2.50 lakh animals decapitated in 2019. She requested him
“The systematic mass slaughter of animals during this festival stands in stark and painful contrast to our evolving understanding of life, suffering and moral responsibility. By participating in or associating yourself with the inaugural event of the Gadhimai festival, you would be seen as promoting activities that go against the directives of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of your country,” read the letter.
While reports claim that around 70% of the animals sacrificed at the festival are imported from India, campaigners from Humane Society International/India and People for Animals have been deployed to checkpoints along the Indo-Nepal border to help the authorities confiscate animals who are illegally transported in violation of animal welfare standards.
Alokparna Sengupta, HSI/India’s director, joined the call on the vice president to avoid contributing to the exploitation of both animals and impoverished devotees. He said that the temple suggests devotees donate thousands of rupees if they do not bring animals for sacrifice ranging from Rs8,000 without a buffalo, Rs4,000 without a goat and Rs300 without a pigeon.
For every buffalo killed in the main arena, a fee of Rs 500 must be paid. The temple is also known to make a lot of money from bidding for buyers for the sale of meat and skins from the sacrificed buffaloes, despite the fact that historically, Dalits have had the first right to the meat and the carcasses, claimed Sengupta. In 2019 only about 10% of the carcasses were given to the Dalit, with the majority being sold by the temple to a meat buyer, said HSI.
Sengupta said “We urge vice president Yadav to boycott the festival and comply with the order of Nepal’s Hon’ble Supreme Court. It is disgraceful that the Gadhimai temple committee is exploiting the hopes, fears and frustrations of impoverished people for its own profit. The Government of Nepal must protect against the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of people and animals in the name of tradition. If the Gadhimai temple wants to increase its wealth and image, it must do so on the pillars of compassion and progress.”
