SOCIETY

Bhubaneswar residents march against animal sacrifice

     Bhubaneswar: A religious tradition of sacrificing animals to appease the Gods has been banned with the help of some local social organizations and the police at Khairaguda village in Bolangir district of Orissa. Citizen groups conscious of animal rights held a protest march before the District Collector's office on Monday, a day before Sulia Yatra (Killing Festival).Sulia Yatra is an annual religious fair in Khariguda village where hundreds of buffaloes, goats, sheep and hens are hacked to appease Goddess Sulia. According to Shantanu Kumar Nayak, convener of the campaign, the ban would abolish people's superstition and would bring a lot of change in collective thinking of the society. He said, "The head priest of the temple where all these animal sacrifices were used to be performed in the name of God, himself abhorred the idea of killing animals in the name of religion. So we took inspiration from him and organised a protest to bring a full stop to this practice. The collective action has brought a sea change in people's thoughts and actions." Though majority of local people came forward to stop this ritual of killing innocent animals, but for some it was an attack on their traditional faith. A local resident Radhey Kumbhar, who came for sacrificing his buffalo expressed his discontent saying, "Due to the police intervention we had to forego the animal sacrifice ritual. So we say, stop the killing of animals everywhere, why just here? People slaughter goats and hens to eat their meat but when we wish to sacrifice them to offer to our Gods, they ban that. This is highly unfair." The local administration was also optimistic about the initiative and expected a deep impact on people's mind. Narasingh Bhol, Superintendent of Police, Bolangir said, "We could not stop the sacrifice of sheep and goat, though we were effective in stopping the slaughter of buffaloes in this fair by putting in last ditch efforts to avert it. We have succeeded in stopping buffalo sacrifice all over Bolangir district." The Sulia Yatra is a hundred years old practice in the village where around 20,000 animals are hacked in presence of thousands of people to appease Goddess Sulia by washing the animal before being sacrificed and anointing it with turmeric.
-Jan 5, 2006

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