Every five years, in a tiny region of Nepal, as many as half a million animals are beheaded in an extraordinary mass sacrifice.

As director of the Indian branch of Humane Society International, I have spent many years campaigning to end this slaughter, and I’m about to witness it in Nepal myself. The footage I have viewed over the years has haunted me. I have seen terrified animals corralled into the festival site. One by one they have their roped heads yanked down, their kicking hind legs restrained, and then their heads sliced off with a machete. Others are so exhausted from travelling hundreds of miles to the festival without food or water, that they simply languish even as all around them buffaloes and goats are being decapitated. I have even seen calves trying to nuzzle comfort from the severed heads of their mothers lying on the ground.

The people carrying out this brutal sacrifice are farmers and factory workers, all hoping that this bloodshed will bring them prosperity from the Hindu goddess Gadhimai. The sights and sounds are unimaginable. Pools of blood, animals bellowing in pain and panic, wide-eyed children looking on, devotees covered in animal blood, and some people even drinking blood from the headless but still warm carcasses.



In the years since we have been campaigning to stop this and similar animal sacrifices, we have received colossal support from people globally, but most crucially from people in India, from which most of the sacrificial animals are imported illegally to Nepal. Swami Agnivesh, president of the World Council of Arya Samaj, has urged Hindu devotees to stop the sacrifice. At a press conference in Patna he said: “India was a pioneer in introducing the principle of ahimsa [non violence] to the entire world. Rituals like Gadhimai where scores of animals are mercilessly sacrificed only corrode our values of compassion.”



The supreme court of India issued an order directing the government to stop animals being illegally transported for sacrifice at Gadhimai. Photograph: Humane Society International

The supreme court of India has also backed our campaign, issuing an order directing the government of India to stop animals being illegally transported across the border for the sacrifice at Gadhimai. The court asked animal protection groups and others to devise an action plan to ensure the court order is implemented.



The festival itself is already underway, with the sacrifices due to take place on the 28 and 29 November. There has been much activity on the Indian borders: so far there have been 114 arrests, and police have confiscated nearly 2,500 animals. Thanks to these collective efforts, the number of animals in Gadhimai is far down from previous years.

I will be there with a small team from HSI/India, People for Animals India and Animal Welfare Network Nepal, to patrol the border as well as the festival itself, and to ensure that as many illegally smuggled animals as possible are seized and spared the sacrifice. It is a life-saving mission I know I must make, but I go back to Gadhimai full of dread and fear. I know it is going to be hard, but someone needs to help these animals. Compassion for animals is written in India’s constitution, so we owe them our best efforts.

Jayasimha Nuggehalli is director of the India branch of Humane Society International.

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