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For mules, Kedarnath haul brings unfettered torture, cruelty
In early July, videos of mules being forced to smoke marijuana went viral on social media.
Gajendra Rana stifles a laugh as he looks at the video on his mobile phone. These are visuals he has seen many times before, both reel and real. From the phone emanate the sounds of raucous cackling, as a group of men surround a terrified mule, eyes bloodshot, snorting in fear. Two people hold the mule’s mouth shut even as the scared animal resists, pulling this way and that. The second of the two men then inserts a marijuana cigarette into one nostril, waiting for puff of smoke that signals the substance has been inhaled.
In Rana’s voice, there is no hint of sympathy. “It is a gharelu nuskha (home remedy) to treat abdominal pain and gastric reflux in mules,” he says.
Rana, 50, is the owner of 15 equines that carry pilgrims up and down the Kedarnath pilgrimage. He says his mules make all of one trip up and down, in accordance with the rules. But a handler -- an employee of the mule owners that actually walks with the mules every day -- is quick to disagree. “We, and the mules, are forced to make three to four trips a day, because they want to make the most of the unprecedented footfall. The animals are always in sheer fatigue and starvation. We whip them, and yes, we give them marijuana to numb the pain,” the handler says, asking not to be named.
In early July, videos of mules being forced to smoke marijuana went viral on social media. The police got involved, and a case was registered at the Sonprayag police station. One mule owner, Rakesh Rawat of Jaal Malla village, was arrested under the section 429 (mischief by killing or maiming cattle) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 11(1) of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
The arrest was the official admission of a problem that has existed in plain sight for several years.
The Kedarnath trek is one of north India’s holiest Hindu pilgrimages, known for its devotion, faith, and human toil. But there is a dark side -- mules that are often subjected to inhuman cruelty to meet human demands, flogged, doped, and sometimes whipped to death.
Read | Photography banned at Kedarnath Temple
THE KEDARNATH TREK The trek to Kedarnath Dham, one of the four shrines in the Char Dham pilgrimage, starts at Gaurikund and traverses 19km in an arduous uphill climb through Jungle Chatti, Bheembali and Lincholi, to the temple surrounded by the Himalayas at 3,580 metres above sea level. There was a less difficult route that existed before June 2013, when a cloudburst wreaked havoc on man-made constructions in an ecologically sensitive area, washing away the original path that was 2km shorter, leaving over 4,000 people dead. Rambara, the yatra’s halting point, was completely washed away into the swirling Mandakini. It just ceased to exist.
A new route, the one in operation now, was opened on the left bank of the Mandakini in March 2014, but it has sharper turns, and a steep climb right up to Lincholi, 4km away from Kedarnath. For most devotees, several of them the elderly and children, walking up the entire stretch is unfeasible. There is the option of helicopter rides that take off at Sirsi, Phata, Guptkashi and land at the Kedarnath shrine helipad but the prices are prohibitive, between ₹5,000 and ₹7,700 per person per trip.
Many then opt for the one remaining option left: mules.
Data for 2022 shows that of the over 1.5 million pilgrims who visited the shrine during the entirety of the yatra between April and October, 530,000 used mules to cover the trek. This year, since the yatra opened on April 25, 1.16 million pilgrims have already visited the shrine till July 17, and of them, 370,000 lakh have used equines.
On May 1, five days after the yatra began, Uttarakhand government’s animal husbandry department issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the first time to prevent cruelty to horses and mules operating on the route. According to the SOP, only 4,000 animals per day can carry pilgrims, and only 1,000 animals can carry freight, goods, and supplies per day. These are higher numbers than the 3,800 in total per day suggested by the Uttarakhand Animal Welfare Board to the animal husbandry department in 2022, officials said.
The SOP also mandates that an owner can operate only two horses (mules) and stipulate one trip per animal in a day. They suggest temporary shelters along the route, a fixed 20-minute break for animals, a mandatory health check-up, ear tags, and horse sheds with facilities such as warm water, electricity, and animal feed.
“A mule task force was introduced this year to stop the abuse of equines on the Kedarnath route. From time to time, we check cruelty is not inflicted on animals and that they do only one trip each day,” said Naresh Kumar, chief development officer, Rudraprayag.
But the SOP remains mostly on paper.
This year, 108 animals have already died in less than three months, and 16 FIRs have been registered under the Prevention of Animal Cruelty Act, and over 200 challans that carry a ₹1,000 penalty, have been issued. In 2022 too, 350 animals died during the yatra.
Gauri Maulekhi, animal rights activist and trustee People For Animals (PFA) said, “Any pilgrim who tries to stop equine operators from inflicting cruelty faces violence. Hundreds of violations happen every day.”
THE LIFE OF AN EQUINE Geeta Ram Toshi, 42, lives in a Rudraprayag village and owns four mules. Over the past two weeks, he has been asked repeatedly by people that watched the video of the mule being given marijuana on their mobile phones, if his steeds are similarly “treated with charas”. As thousands of horses and mules operate on the route, some will definitely fall sick. If a video shows an animal suffering, it portrays all of us in bad light,” Toshi said.
Toshi does not deny that he doses his mules with marijuana , but says they are a form of “medicine”. “If a horse suffers a gastric headache, no doctor can treat the animal. The main reason for excessive gas is straw that has high moisture content and therefore may have fungus. Horses also consume polythene which gets stuck in the intestine. If all this happens, we have no medicines like liquid paraffin(that acts as a faecal softener) available here and therefore we resort to home remedies. They are given marijuana to ease the pain as they writhe because otherwise they bash their head in the ground and can lead to immediate death due to brain haemorrhage,” he said.
But it isn’t just a remedy to illness. A second handler, who did not want to be identified, said, “We give marijuana to keep them high so they push through exhaustion and serve more clients. Otherwise they resist and begin to protest. If the animal doesn’t move, we don’t make money.”
Avatar Singh Negi, president of the Sonprayag mule association, says that a lack of registration during peak seasons makes any regulation difficult. “Around 7,000 horses and mules were operating without registration before the rains. This leads to traffic on the trek route which in turn means that they (the mules) have to carry the load for longer periods, exacerbating exhaustion. Corruption helps operators of unauthorised animals beat the rules,” he said.
Negi says that owners also face the challenge of making their “business” profitable, with margins not very high, therefore pushing the need for more trips. “It is a vicious cycle. There is never enough feed, water or other arrangements. Each owner has to spend ₹4,000 per day for food, the handlers’ daily wages, and rent for private land for animals to spend the night. One trip from Gaurikund to base camp is ₹2,950, and the reverse charge is 2050. Considering all the other expenses, many feel this isn’t enough,” he said.
Dr Ashok Kumar, chief veterinary officer of Rudraprayag district confirmed that 108 animals have died on the route this year, most of them due to colic, which causes sever pain in the abdomen. “Poor diet, drinking cold water and stress are the main reasons. In acute cases, the animals die in an hour or two when colic becomes severe. The ‘traditional treatment’ only delays timely scientific interventions.”
Uttarakhand minister for animal husbandry Saurabh Bahuguna says that if 108 deaths have been reported this year, the corresponding figure in 2022 for a two-month period was 190. According to Sohan Singh Kathait, nodal officer for the registration of animals on the Kedarnath route, they issued licenses to 8,557 horses and mules and 3,775 operators in 2023.
Activists allege that deaths have been underreported because of the large-scale use of unauthorised animals without registration, meaning no check-ups, no official count, and no insurance. “Half the horses that operate are unregistered. Before the rains began, there were around 14,000 that were operating on the route and when they die the government doesn’t even count them as dead. These are the horses that don’t go through any health check-ups. They are just used and thrown away like chewing gum,” said Maulekhi.
CLAIMS AND COUNTERCLAIMS A PIL filed by Maulekhi in the Uttarakhand High Court in June 2022 alleged that there were “approximately 20,000 equines (horses, mules, donkeys and ponies) used at various pilgrim tracks in Uttarakhand. These tracks are predominantly in the districts of Rudraprayag (Kedarnath track), Chamoli (Hemkund Sahib track), Pithoragarh (Kailash-Mansarovar track) and Uttarkashi (Yamunotri and Gomukh tracks).” The application alleged that the mismanagement of these equines was a direct result of a state of policy paralysis, lack of enforcement, planning and foresight leading to animal cruelty and abuse.
The high court has issued notices to the state animal husbandry secretary and the Rudraprayag district magistrate to appear in court with their replies on August 10.
Maulekhi says that neither the court directions nor the government’s own instructions are complied with on the ground. “On my petition, the high court in September 2022 asked the administration to create an infirmary at Kedarnath. Nothing has been done to date. No health checkups take place there and they don’t have enough veterinary doctors. Even the doctors who are deployed are overwhelmed by the number of horses and mules operating on the route. Horses that are lame, have wounds or heart conditions are sent on a death march and when they die, their bodies either languish on the hillside or roll off into the Mandakini river.”
Bahuguna, the state’s animal husbandry minister, suggests that things were better this year because there were less videos of cruelty, and an increase in veterinarians from three to nine. “The video of a horse being forced to smoke marijuana is around three weeks old. Last year there were such videos coming up on social media every day. Compared to last year, the number of deaths have come down and facilities are better. We have filed more cruelty cases and challans have also been handed out. Last year there were only two to three doctors. This year the number of veterinarians has increased . It is an achievement,” he said.
Maulekhi, however, says that there was “reluctance” from veterinarians to see every horse, besieged as they are with wave upon wave of infirm animals.
“There is no facility for crucial rest and there is filth on the route,” she said. “It is clear that the local authorities have failed in every sector.”
