KATHMANDU: Hindu devotees slaughtered an estimated 200,000 animals during a recent festival in Nepal, organisers said yesterday, attributing a sharp fall in numbers to Indian export restrictions.
Some 2.5 million worshippers from India and Nepal sacrificed buffaloes, goats and pigeons to the Hindu deity of power, Gadhimai, on Friday and Saturday, in a ritual held every five years, despite mounting pressure from activists.
In 2009 an estimated 300,000 animals had their heads chopped off or throats slit at the Gadhimai festival, held in the remote village of Bariyapur near the Nepal-India border.
This year, however, a ban on Gadhimai-related animal exports by the Indian Supreme Court provoked police to patrol the border and stop worshippers from taking buffalo and goats across to the temple. Animal rights activists applauded the court decision.
According to legend, the first sacrifices in Bariyapur were conducted several centuries ago when Gadhimai appeared to a prisoner in a dream and asked him to establish a temple to her. When he awoke, his shackles had fallen open and he was able to leave the prison and build the temple, where he sacrificed animals to give thanks.
AFP
