Government to lift ban, allow animals to perform in religious events

Performance of animals in religious, social and cultural events will not be debarred as the environment ministry will soon be changing rules to nullify a Supreme Court ban on animal performance in festivals and sporting events like Jallikattu (a bull taming sport) in Tamil Nadu.

Updated on: Jul 19, 2015, 12:11:17 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Performance of animals in religious, social and cultural events will not be debarred as the environment ministry will soon be changing rules to nullify a Supreme Court ban on animal performance in festivals and sporting events like Jallikattu (a bull taming sport) in Tamil Nadu.

The Supreme Court banned ‘jallikattu’ (bull fighting) and bullock cart racing in Tamil Nadu in 2014 because of animal cruelty. The court also banned bullock cart racing in Maharashtra. (HT Photo)

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar had recently spoken about the possibility of amending the law to allow performance of animals like elephants in religious functions and bullocks in traditional rural sporting events.

“If age-old traditions of the country face hurdles because of the law, then we would try to amend them,” Javadekar had said while addressing BJP leaders at an event in Kolhapur earlier this year. He reiterated the same in Tamil Nadu while promising to lift a ban on Jallikattu.

More than anti-animal protection, the government’s move has political connotations as the BJP looks at strengthening its foothold in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where it has been traditionally weak.

The environment ministry informed the Kerala government that use of elephants is not covered under the rules as per clause 2 (h). The clause, however, defines performing animals as ones which are used for the purpose of any entertainment, including a film or equine event to which public are admitted.

Gauri Maulekhi, a trustee of People for Animals, said religious and cultural events are public events and covered under the rules. She alleged that this was being done to circumvent the Supreme Court directions related to performance of animals.

The rules notified in 2001, when the previous NDA government was in power, provided for registration of all performing animals and inspection by Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), a statutory body constituted under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960.

Government sources, however, explained that the board had resisted giving relaxation for performing elephants as it had earlier this year filed an affidavit in the SC detailing “mental and physical torture” suffered by elephants in religious events in Kerala.

Officials said similar relaxation would soon be issued to allow performance of other animals such as bullocks in rural sporting events.
Bullock cart races are extremely popular in rural Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana and taming of bulls in TN and parts of Andhra Pradesh.

A senior government functionary said the “work of over a decade in animal protection will be lost” if the proposal gets the
government nod.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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