India News | U'khand: Teams to Prevent Cruelty Towards Horses, Mules During Kedarnath Yatra 4/13/2023 9:16:49 PM
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Monitoring teams will be deployed on the trek route to Kedarnath to ensure that horses and mules used for carrying loads or pilgrims to the Himalayan temple are not subjected to cruelty, officials said on Thursday.
Rudraprayag, Apr 13 (PTI) Monitoring teams will be deployed on the trek route to Kedarnath to ensure that horses and mules used for carrying loads or pilgrims to the Himalayan temple are not subjected to cruelty, officials said on Thursday.
Several equines died during the yatra last year as they were overworked. There were reports of horse and mule operators drugging the animals to make them carry loads without any breaks and denying them proper food and water led to their deaths.
However, monitoring teams are being formed and trained by experts this time to ensure there is no inhuman treatment of the animals along the trek route.
The teams will be stationed at different points along the 18-km trek between Gaurikund and Kedarnath to keep a vigil, Rudraprayag Superintendent of Police Vishakha Ashok Bhadane said.
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One such monitoring team consisting of police personnel and officers from other departments constituted to keep an eye on the horses and mules along the trek to Kedarnath was briefed by experts in Rudraprayag on Thursday.
Well-known animal rights activist Gauri Maulekhi was also with experts from the police and animal husbandry departments who visited Rudraprayag on Thursday to sensitise a monitoring team on the issue.
Section 11 of the Animal Cruelty Act says overloading any animal, making animals with disability, injury or old age work and not providing them nutritious food and hot water and making animals work continuously fall into the category of animal cruelty, Maulekhi said.
If this is done by any person, it is absolutely necessary to take immediate action against him under the Animal Cruelty Act, she said.
Presiding over the programme on the first day of training, Bhadane informed the team about the work to be done.
Instructions were given to the officers to ensure that there is no cruelty towards the horses and mules plying on the Kedarnath yatra route.
They were told to do strict monitoring of the situation and take action against the concerned person and horse-mule owner or operator under the Animal Cruelty Act.
Chief Development Officer of Rudraprayag Naresh Kumar said if the horses and mules are not operated as per the rules, immediate action should be taken against the concerned.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)