Gauhati High Court quashes Assam govt SOP allowing buffalo, bulbul fights

Guwahati: Gauhati High Court quashed Assam government's Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the traditional buffalo and bulbul birds fight, reinstating the ban on the practice. 

The buffalo and bulbul fights are organised during the Magh Bihu celebrations in Assam in January every year.

The BJP-led state government issued a SOP in December last year for allowing such fights after such practice was disallowed.  

The HC on Tuesday, however, quashed the SOPs, while acting on a petition by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India. The animal righst body argued in the court that the buffalo and bulbul fights violate the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 and that the bulbul fights additionally violate the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. "The high court accepted our arguments. The High Court further held the SOP to be in violation of the judgment of May 7, 2014 passed by the Supreme Court in Animal Welfare Board of India vs. A. Nagaraja," PETA India said in a statement.  

PETA India submitted investigations into such fights which revealed that terrified and severely injured buffaloes were forced to fight through beatings and that starved and intoxicated bulbuls were made to fight over food. PETA India had also submitted numerous examples of fights being held illegally, outside the dates allowed via the SOP, arguing that allowing the fights at any time of the year was resulting in enormous animal abuse, PETA India said.  

“Buffaloes and bulbuls are gentle animals who feel pain and terror and do not want to be forced into bloody fights in front of jeering crowds,” says PETA India Lead Legal Counsel, Arunima Kedia. 

An investigation into a buffalo fight held in Ahatguri in the Morigaon district of Assam on January 16 by PETA India revealed that to instigate buffaloes to fight, owners slapped, pushed, and shoved them; jabbed and struck them with wooden sticks; and pulled them by their nose-ropes to force them to approach one another. When fights were underway, some owners and handlers jabbed the buffaloes with sticks and whacked them with bare hands to cause them further distress. The buffaloes locked horns and fought, sustaining bloody wounds to their necks, ears, faces, and foreheads – many had injuries all over their body. The fights lasted until one of the two buffaloes broke away and fled, said the PETA India. 

About the bulbul birds fight organised at Hajo in Assam's Kamrup district, the PETA India said an ivestigation on January 15 this year revealed that red-vented bulbuls – who are protected under Schedule II of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 – were illegally captured and incited, against their natural instincts, to fight over food.

It is reported that the birds are captured several days before the fight. Capturing protected wild birds is considered a form of hunting and is illegal.The birds are reportedly commonly drugged with marijuana and fed other intoxicating herbs, bananas, black pepper, cloves, and cinnamon to agitate them, then they are starved for at least one night before the fight. During the fight, a piece of banana is dangled in front of the hungry birds, inciting them to attack each other.

Each fight lasted approximately five to 10 minutes, and handlers forced exhausted birds to continue fighting by repeatedly blowing air on them, PETA India said in the statement.