Human sacrifice at Gadhimai?

November 23, 2009

Indian among four dead at Nepal's controversial fair

21 Nov 2009, 1515 hrs IST, IANS

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KATHMANDU: The most controversial religious fair in Nepal's Terai plains,

where thousands of birds and beasts are doomed to be slaughtered next week,

has fallen into more disrepute with the death of four visitors, including an

Indian.

Laloo Mahato Nuniyar, a resident of Motihari district in India's Bihar state

and said to be in his mid-30s, had gone to attend the fair at Hindu goddess

Gadhimai's temple in southern Nepal's Bara district.

Nuniyar died Thursday after consuming adulterated local moonshine while

three other Nepali men died Friday and a fifth was fighting for life in

hospital, police said on Saturday.

The three other victims claimed by the adulterated brew are from Bara,

police said. They have been identified as Chhotelal Shah, Harendra Prasad

Yadav and Krishna Prasad Yadav.

The Gadhimai Fair, held every five years and drawing hundreds of thousands

of visitors from India and Nepal, has been one of the most controversial

religious events in Nepal where, according to animal rights activists,

commercial considerations drive the festivities.

Dozens of shops selling illegal local spirits have been set up on the fair

ground to cater to the visitors, most of whom are poor and uneducated

villagers from Nepal's Terai as well as the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar

Pradesh and West Bengal.

The deaths come on the eve of mass slaughter of birds and beasts to start

from Tuesday. The temple authorities say 500,000 buffaloes, goats, chickens,

pigeons and other birds and beasts will be killed for two days.

They claim a slaughterhouse has been built at a cost of over Rs 5 million to

kill the animals and about 250 butchers have been hired. Nepal's government,

struggling to survive in the face of new disruptions threatened by the

former Maoist guerrillas, has refused to ban the slaughter despite warnings

by animal experts that the massacre could trigger swine flu, bird flu and

cattle diseases and gravely affect the environment.

Though legendary French film star turned animal rights campaigner Brigitte

Bardot and India's noted animal rights activist and MP Maneka Gandhi urged

the Nepal government to stop the slaughter, the pleas have been disregarded

for fear that a ban would inflame Hindu religious sentiments.

Even Nepal's celebrated Ram Bahadur Bomjan, the boy who shot to world fame

with tales of his meditation without food and water for months, has been

asking villagers not to indulge in animal sacrifices but with little result.

Animal rights activists from Nepal have also warned the government that the

killings, which turn the fair into the " world's largest killing fields " -

will adversely affect Nepal's image in the eyes of the world, projecting the

Himalayan republic as a barbaric nation ruled by blind superstition.

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November 23, 2009

I could be mean and say something crass like ³That¹s Kharma for ya² but

instead I¹ll just warn all about the dangers of local roxi, and to only

drink grandma¹s. The good news this year from all of is that

Nepali/Indian/International groups have really come together and made plenty

of noise. KTM town is buzzing with the debate, and the work of AWNN,

AnimalNepal, and other groups has paid off in the awareness raising part of

the problem. The challenge is to maintain some pressure in the off-massacre

years, as this one only happens twice in a decade or so, and folks

attentions spans (as with Gadhimai animal lifespans)