IN/NP: SSB to check smuggling of animals travelling to Gadhimai

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*Good news from India...*

 

 

*SSB to check smuggling of animals *

 

Sanjeev Kumar Verma

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/SSB-to-check-smuggling-of-animals-\

/articleshow/5228470.cms

 

 

 

PATNA: There's good news for animal rights activists, finally. For, the

Sashashtra Seema Bal (SSB) has put its border outposts (BOPs) in the

districts of East Champaran, West Champaran and Sitamarhi in Bihar on alert.

Reason: these are the districts from where Indians generally enter Nepal to

attend the quinquennial Gadhimai fair in the Himalayan nation where a large

number of animals and birds are sacrificed. The SSB action comes with the

fair is only a week away.

 

 

 

The three main entry points which is used by Indian visitors to the fair are

Raxaul (East Champaran), Sikta (West Champaran) and Barginia (Sitamarhi

district). SSB has a total of 54 BOPs functional in these three districts.

 

 

 

" This has been done to prevent transportation of animals and birds,

particularly fowls, from India to Nepal during the fair, " SSB IG (frontier

headquarters) Shyam Singh told TOI here on Wednesday.

 

 

 

About five lakh animals and fowls would be sacrificed at this year's fair

and approximately two-thirds of the visitors to the fair would be from the

Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, who generally take animals and fowls

along with them to the fair from India.

 

 

 

Singh said though BOPs keep vigil even on normal days as transportation of

animals and birds was an act of smuggling, yet keeping the Gadhimai fair in

mind, an extra vigil would be maintained.

 

 

 

" Law breakers will be dealt with sternly, " the IG said.

 

 

 

Singh, however, made it clear that SSB was not authorized to prevent

movement of people.

 

 

 

The SSB IG's must be music to the ears of animal rights activists, including

Maneka Gandhi, given that their repeated requests to the Nepal government to

ban sacrifice of animals and fowls at Gadhimai fair, have been turned down.

 

 

 

Nepal information and communication minister Shankar Pokhrel, who also is

the spokesperson of the current ruling coalition in the Himalayan nation, is

on record saying that the government could not use force to stop animal

sacrifices at the fair as it had to take into account the psychology and

sentiments of different communities.

 

 

 

Fair organisers, on the other hand, have come out with a timetable which

says, buffaloes and goats would be sacrificed at the altar on November 25

and 26 respectively.

 

 

 

Moreover, there have been reports that the organisers are trying to attract

more people to the fair by holding like circus and theatre shows at the fair

this time.

 

 

--

Lucia de Vries

Freelance Journalist

Nepal - Netherlands