Ram Bahadur Bamjan, the Buddha boy, has promised to reach Gadhimai on November 20 in his campaign to stop the carnage at any cost, while Indian animal rights activist and parliamentarian Maneka Gandhi has also written to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal urging him to stop animal sacrifice.
Chief priest of Gadhimai Mangal Chaudhari, on the other hand, has reiterated the sacrificial offerings will be made to avoid confrontation with the locals. He opined that the age-old practice should not be stopped at once but should be gotten rid of gradually by raising awareness.
Human rights activist of Kalaiya Roshan Aryal concurs and believes stopping sacrifice forcefully would invite confrontation.
The government has decided to deploy 1,000 additional security persons in the area to avoid untoward incidents. Undeterred by protests, however, chief priest Chaudhari, has claimed that more than 20,000 buffaloes would be sacrificed on November 24, while as many goats, pigeons and ducks would be offered the next day.
“There have been widespread protests against sacrificing animals. But they are not enough to stop killings,” said Satya Shrestha, a journalist from Kalaiya. According to Shrestha, a majority of locals have already bought goats, buffaloes, pigeons and ducks for the ritual. “It is an age-old tradition among the locals to sacrifice animals. It is not possible to change their beliefs overnight,” Shrestha opined.
There has been a massive hike in price of animals of late. “We have bought this goat to offer to Gadhimai,” Lalbabi Sah of Parasauni had said, adding, “We didn´t have a son and had promised to offer a goat at Gadhimai five years ago. Now that we have been blessed with a son, we have to offer this goat to the deity,” Sah reasons. She said more than hundred goats have been bought for sacrifice in her village alone.
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