VICTORY : Buffalo fight seems to be a thing of the past in upper Asom

[Guest guest]

MANY THANKS TO MS. ANURADHA SAWHNEY OF PETA-INDIA, SMT. MANEKA GANDHI,

MS. BELINDA WRIGHT AND ALL THOSE WHO STOOD UP TO FIGHT TOGETHER AND

STRIVE TO END THE TRADITION OF ANIMAL ABUSE FOR ENTERTAINMENT IN ASSAM.

 

THESE ARE OUR PAST VICTORIES :

 

1. KAZIRANGA CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS 2005: Traditional events involving

elephants playing football, mock fight, tug of war and races were

BANNED after we protested. Two years hence the BAN still stays enforced.

 

2. SIVASAGAR ( Assam ) BUFFALO FIGHT 2005: Traditional buffalo fight

in Sivasagar district of Assam was scratched off when PETA and PFA

protested here. The fight still stays cancelled in the RONGPUR

FESTIVAL here.

 

3. AUTUMN FESTIVAL ( MEGHALAYA ) BULL FIGHT 2005: Smt. Maneka Gandhi

and Anuradha Sawhney of PETA-India wrote to the organisers and asked

them to cancell the BULL FIGHT which was the most popular sport of the

festival. The BULL FIGHT was cancelled and still stays cancelled two

years now.

 

And now we have another district of Asom ( formerly Assam ) Jorhat

comming out with a NO to Buffalo Fight since past two years.

 

I hope the state of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala etc take a lesson

from the state of ASSAM and try and brionhg an end to the animal

entertainments which they have been practicing for years.

 

I am proud of Assam, that in an age when even a section of fellow

animal welfare people feel that " Elephant POLO " is a 'RIGHT' thing and

that it should be continued in the most extravagant manner....here is

a state which despite reeling under its existing problems of

militancy, terrosim, poverty, unemployment, encroschment etc etc...has

also felt that ANIMAL RIGHTS DOES NEED ATTENTION TOO.

 

Azam Siddiqui

 

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Link: http://www.sentinelassam.com/

 

 

Buffalo fight seems to be a thing of the past in upper Asom

 

From a Correspondent

 

JORHAT, Jan 17: The tradition of buffalo fight, popularly known as

mohor jooj on Magh Bihu, started during the days of the Ahom kings who

reigned for 600 golden years, is slowly getting lost with not a single

one being held in any of the upper Asom districts this year.

Sivasagar, the capital of the Ahoms, usually witnesses this event in

three or four places namely Jerenga Pathar, Gowala Pathar, Raona

Pathar and Bengmuia Pathar. In Jorhat, which was the last capital of

the Ahoms, the event which marked Magh Bihu has been discontinued at

Malow Pathar for the last two years.

 

Sources said that the buffalo fight may have not been staged in

Sivasagar due to the recent bloodbath in upper Asom in which more than

60 labourers of the Hindi-speaking community were gunned down by

militants in five upper Asom districts and dampened the Bihu spirits.

“The people must have felt that enough blood has been let and as such

they desisted from enacting this tradition in show of empathy,” the

sources said.

 

Other sources, however, stated that rearing buffaloes to take part in

the buffalo fight entailed a tremendous cost and one could ill-afford

to maim or lose a buffalo in such a fight. Moreover, one also had to

put up with criticism of animal rights activists who also threatened

to take legal action in such cases, the sources added.

 

There have been a number of buffalo fights at Ahotguri in Nagaon and

other places in lower Asom indicating a distinct shift of this tradition.