Seven months on, Lucknow artisans make no bones about hardship after closure of abattoirs

The slaughterhouses in Lucknow that used to serve as the bulk supplier of bones - preferably femur - are still lying closed

Israr Ahmed says the closure of meat shops and slaughterhouses has not just affected menus in Uttar Pradesh.

An Artisan making Bone art at Old Lucknow, India.(HT Photo/Deepak Gupta)

Lucknow, the City of Nawabs, used to be the hub of bone carving with over 350 families engaged in the art until the government’s order to close the illegal and mechanised abattoirs across Uttar Pradesh in March also brought the art to a grinding halt.

The Allahabad high court ordered the closure of three slaughterhouses – in Motijheel, Fatehganj and Maulviganj areas of the city which were their main source of raw material – in March 2015. But they kept operating illegally until the March orders.

“Artisans are idle due to non-availability of bones,” the award-winning artist says as he sharpens a miniature chisel and other special tools designed by him to suit his carving skills.

Ahmed, who has given shape to thousands of pieces of bone art in his 40-year-old career, designs and carves these tools when he is out of work.

“The City of Nawabs leads in the bone craft. The finest bone work is done here. There are over a dozen ustads, who have not only bagged the President’s Award for their intrinsic artwork but also represented India at the international level,” Ahmed says.

“In Lucknow, Hussainabad, Daulatganj, Thakurganj, Yaseenganj, Wazir Bagh, Billaujpura, Khadra and Mehbullapur used to be the hub of bone carving,” said Mohammed Jalaluddin, another national level artisan from Hussainabad area of Lucknow.

Lucknow was known for producing the best bone art but the craft was also practised in many other districts of the state, including Ghaziabad, Moradabad and Bareilly.

Historians say the art of bone carving got the maximum patronage during the era of Nawabs.

“In those times, Lucknow used to be the centre of bone carving on ivory tusks. But the trade stopped after the ban on ivory was imposed, forcing bone craftsmen to switch to buffalo and camel bones for their survival,” Roshan Taqi, a noted historian from Lucknow, says.

Known as one of finest artisans in the state capital, Ahmed has never faced a shortage of orders, largely from exporters. But he is worried about the current situation as he is unable to meet the orders.

Asked why bones were still unavailable when meat shops were more or less open, Jalaluddin says shops are opening gradually as the process of issuing licenses was “too slow”.

“As a stopgap arrangement, the district administration has asked the buffalo meat sellers to buy meat from a legal slaughterhouse in Unnao, 40km from Lucknow, and sell it in Unnao. And the licenses too are being issued only to sell the meat and not for slaughter,” he points out.

The local slaughterhouses that used to serve as the bulk supplier of bones - preferably femur - are still lying closed.

“Meat shops sell the meat of only one or two buffaloes a day. That means only four to eight femur bones per animal a day are available. This is too little to meet the requirement of an individual bone carver who needs three to four quintals for two weeks,” Jalaluddin says.

He says camel bones are also used for carving but artisans largely depend on buffalo bones, which are less expensive. Buffalo bone costs Rs 45 per kilogram and camel bone Rs 100 per kg.

According to a rough estimate, each artisan’s family buys two to three quintals either weekly or every two weeks from city’s three slaughterhouses that are now lying closed after the government crackdown.

The bones are first cleaned, trimmed and then boiled for at least four hours for a clean look. After that, they are dipped in a solution of hydrogen peroxide and kept under the sun for seven hours. The pieces are then joined using adhesive, which is followed by engraving, says Jalaluddin.

Craftsmen make several patterns using miniature chisels, drills and special tools. The final product is then buffed, polished and painted.

The craftsmen say the shortage of bones is killing the trade that was already on its last legs. Some craftsmen have shifted to other vocations, taking up carpenter’s job or opening grocery shops in order to provide for their families.

Artisans have said if nothing is done to ease the shortage of bones, the 400-year-old art will die.

But there are a few who are still hopeful and think that the government’s order is just a dark cloud and a silver lining will emerge soon.