People for Ethical Treatment of Animals have mounted a legal challenge against the practises of buffalo and bulbul fighting in the Gauhati High Court. What are these traditions? Why were they discontinued? Now that they are back, why does PETA want to ban them?
he Assam government’s attempt to revive traditional practices of buffalo and bulbul (songbird) fighting during Magh Bihu has come up against a legal challenge by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in the Gauhati High Court, which admitted petitions by PETA India seeking a ban on both.
What is this tradition all about? Why were the fights disccontinued? What is behind the Assam government’s move to revive the tradition? And what is PETA’s challenge?
An age-old tradition
These fights are part of the folk culture associated with the Assamese winter harvest festival of Magh Bihu, which takes place in January, at the same time as harvest festivals in other parts of the country such as Makar Sankranti, Pongal and Lohri.
Buffalo fights are held in different parts of Assam during Magh Bihu, with Ahatguri in Nagaon district being the biggest centre. There, the fights been conducted for many decades by the Ahatguri Anchalik Moh-jooj aru Bhogali Utsav Udjapan Samiti, drawing huge crowds. Bulbul fights, on the other hand, are an attraction at the Hayagriv Madhab Mandir in Hajo, around 30 km from Gauhati. Participants rear birds for around two weeks before Bihu, before they are made to fight until one emerges stronger.“While the buffalo fights are folk culture and tradition, this is tied to religion. Before starting, we light saki (lamps) in Lord Vishnu’s name and lay xorai (offering trays)… The practice is very old, we cannot really say when it started. But it was held with great pomp by the Ahom rulers,” Shiba Prasad Sarma,
Discontinued after SC ruling
The fights had been stopped on the heels of the Supreme Court’s 2014 judgement, which forbid the use of bulls as performing animals in jallikattu events and bullock-cart races in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra or anywhere else in the country.
The Court also directed the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to ensure that “the person-incharge or care of the animal shall not incite any animal to fight against a human being or another animal.” In January 2015, the AWBI wrote to the Assam government seeking an end to animal and bird fights during Bihu celebrations, following which the government directed district administrations to prevent them. doloi (administrator) of the temple
This was not without resistance. Buffalo fights continued to be held in some quarters in defiance of the prohibition, and the management of the Hayagriv Madhab Temple challenged the order in the Gauhati High Court.
After SC clears path, Assam govt releases SOP to conduct fights
The Supreme Court May last year overruled its 2014 judgement, upholding amendments made by Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka governments to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 to allow jallikattu, kambala and bullock cart racing. Subsequently, in December, the Assam Cabinet gave a go-ahead for the framing of SOPs for the conduct of buffalo and bulbul fights without “deliberate torture or cruelty” to the animals.
The SOPs which were subsequently released specified that the fights will only be permitted in places where they have been “traditionally conducted” for the last 25 years, and that moh juj (buffalo fights) will only be allowed between January 15 and January 25. The moh juj guidelines prohibit human inflicted injuries, and ban the use of intoxicating or performance enhancing drugs, as well as sharp instruments to instigate the animals. The bulbul fight SOPs require the organisers to ensure that the birds are released in the open “in perfect condition” at the end of the game. The SOPs state that any organization violating the stipulations will face a ban for the next five years.
With the release of these guidelines, the activities were held again during Magh Bihu this year, and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma himself attended the events in Ahatguri and Hajo, and spoke of their revival as an effort to “preserve Assam’s timeless Bihu traditions.”
PETA’s challenge
PETA India has now filed two linked petitions before the Gauhati High Court seeking the prohibition of both activities, as well an interim stay preventing any such fights from taking place during the course of the proceedings.
In these petitions, they state that they investigated the events in both Ahatguri and Hajo this year. The claimed that in Ahatguri, in order to instigate buffalos to fight, owners slapped, pushed and shoved them; jabbed and struck them with wooden sticks; and pulled them roughly by nose ropes. They stated that many buffalos had injuries on their bodies from the fights, and that the fights lasted util one of the two buffalos “broke away and fled”.
With regards to the event in Hajo, they stated that the bulbuls “were illegally captured and incited, against their natural instincts to fight over food.”
On Thursday (February 1), the court heard an interlocutory application by the petitioners stating that a buffalo fight event was scheduled to be held in Nagaon district on February 4, which would be outside the stipulated period specified in the government’s guidelines.
The Court observed that organising a buffalo fight beyond January 25 is prima facie in violation of the government’s notification. It stated that the petitioners should inform the relevant district administration of the particulars of the event, following which the latter should take the necessary stops to prevent the event, in line with the SOPs.
Written by Sukrita Barua
Source: Indian Express, 4/02/24
