A view of the Gauhati High Court.
GUWAHATI
The Gauhati High Court on Tuesday (December 17, 2024) quashed the Assam government’s December 2023 standard operating procedure (SOP) allowing the traditional buffalo and bulbul bird fights during the mid-January Magh or Bhogali Bihu.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, an animal rights group, had petitioned against the SOP. The case was heard in the court of Justice Devashis Baruah.
Diganta Das, PETA India’s counsel, pointed out that buffalo and bulbul fights violate the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960 and that the bulbul fights additionally violate the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972. The court accepted the argument and held that the SOP was in violation of the Supreme Court’s judgment on May 7, 2014, in the case of the Animal Welfare Board of India versus A. Nagaraja.
As evidence, PETA India submitted investigations into these fights which revealed that terrified and severely injured buffaloes were forced to fight through beatings and that starved and intoxicated bulbuls were made to fight over food. PETA India submitted numerous examples of fights being held illegally, outside the dates allowed via the SOP, arguing that allowing the fights at any time of the year resulted in enormous animal abuse.
“Buffaloes and bulbuls are gentle animals who feel pain and terror and do not want to be forced into bloody fights in front of jeering crowds,” PETA India lead legal counsel Arunima Kedia said.
Forced to fight
An investigation into a buffalo fight held at Ahatguri in central Assam’s Morigaon district on January 16 by PETA India revealed that the owners instigated the buffaloes to fight by slapping, pushing, and shoving them besides jabbing them with wooden sticks and pulling them by their nose-ropes to force them to approach one another.
When fights were underway, some owners and handlers jabbed the buffaloes with sticks and whacked them with bare hands to cause them further distress. The buffaloes locked horns and fought, sustaining wounds to their necks, ears, faces, and foreheads. The fights lasted until one of the two buffaloes broke away and fled.
An investigation conducted into a fight of red-vented bulbuls held at Hajo in central Assam’s Kamrup district on January 15 revealed that the birds, protected under Schedule II of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, were illegally captured and incited, against their instincts, to fight over food.
The birds were caught several days before the fight. They were reportedly drugged with marijuana and fed other intoxicating herbs, bananas, black pepper, cloves, and cinnamon to agitate them but starved at least one night before the fight. During the fight, a piece of banana is dangled in front of the hungry birds, inciting them to attack each other.
“Each fight lasted approximately five to 10 minutes, and handlers forced exhausted birds to continue fighting by repeatedly blowing air on them,” PETA India said.
Published – December 17, 2024 08:25 pm IST
