GUWAHATI: Buffalos locked horns in central Assam’s Nagaon and Morigaon districts on Monday during the fights of the animals, organised to mark the Assamese harvest festival Magh Bihu, also called Bhogali Bihu.
Some 60 domesticated buffalos were brought to the historic Ahatguri in Morigaon district by their keepers from various parts of central Assam for the fights which were held after a gap of three years. The keepers organised the fights despite the Supreme Court’s ban on the fights of animals. According to some locals, there was no resistance from the administration.
However, Morigaon superintendent of police, Swapnaneel Deka, told The New Indian Express that the fights were stopped when the police had intervened.
“They had organised the fights elsewhere, not at Ahatguri. However, they (the organisers) stopped the fights when we asked them to do so,” he said.
Stating that there is no ban on the fights of animals or bulls, the SP said, “The government allowed the fights in Tamil Nadu by bringing in an ordinance. What the Supreme Court had said was that the fights cannot be organised if they cause injuries to animals,” he argued.
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But when the SC banned Jallikattu in 2014, it had made reference to various Sections of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The court had ruled that all animal fights incited by humans are illegal, including those carried out in the guise of tradition and culture.
According to the keepers of buffalos in Assam, the fights help the animals to release aggression. “If we don’t make them fight, they will attack us instead,” a keeper said. Injuries and the resultant oozing out of blood make them calm, he added.
Meanwhile, the fights left the Peoples for Animals (PFA) fuming.
“If the fights of bulbuls can be stopped at Hajo, why can’t the fights of buffalos? Sangita Goswami, who heads the PFA’s Assam chapter, asked. "How dare they defy a ruling of the Supreme Court? We are deeply pained as well as offended,” she added.