Shillong, Apr 9: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has moved the Gauhati High Court citing the flagrant organisation of buffalo fights (Moh juj) across several districts of Assam during Magh Bihu.
PETA India has filed disturbing new evidence of extreme cruelty to buffaloes from this year with the Gauhati High Court and is seeking accountability and urgent action against the unlawful events that took place and immediate intervention to prevent any future events from being held in open defiance of the Gauhati High Court’s orders and the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in Animal Welfare Board of India vs A Nagaraja.
PETA India’s documentation, placed on record, was observed at “illegal events in Morigaon and Nagaon this year”, with blood-soaked buffaloes with gaping open wounds “being nearly constantly beaten with thick sticks during the events and yanked by nose ropes to be forced to fight, resulting in severe injuries”. The documentation also shows one man being pummeled by a fleeing buffalo.
In December 2024, acting on petitions filed by PETA India, the Gauhati High Court quashed the Assam government’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) from the previous year that had allowed buffalo and bulbul bird fights during a certain time of the year (in January). The High Court further held the SOPs to be in violation of the judgment dated May 7, 2014 passed by the Supreme Court, which prohibits animal spectacles involving inherent cruelty.
Despite these clear and binding judicial directions, illegal buffalo fights were organised in Assam earlier this year, under the very nose of the authorities. PETA India had submitted multiple representations to the concerned district and police authorities in advance, warning that these events would amount to blatant violations of statutory duties and contempt of court, and filed numerous formal complaints against the organisers, pursuant to which only two FIRs were registered in Sibasagar and Gomotha Pathar, Nagaon.
However, FIRs were not registered for complaints regarding illegal fight events that took place in Ahatguri, Gormori Gaon, Mikirbheta, Roha, Majrahola Dal Pathar, and Dibrugarh, PETA India said. Effective action was not taken in any of the complaints, even where an FIR was registered; the victim animals were not seized, as required by law.
“In an era of space travel and artificial intelligence, allowing buffalo fights drags Assam into the Dark Ages. Beating terrified animals bloody for public spectacle has no place in a modern society and is a stain on the state in the eyes of the world. We seek the Honourable High Court’s intervention for the sake of justice and humanity,” Vikram Chandravanshi, Senior Policy and Legal Advisor of PETA India, said.
PETA argued that such fights are inherently cruel, as the very purpose of them is to cause immeasurable pain and suffering to the animals forced to participate, and contradict the tenets of ahimsa (non-violence) and compassion, which are integral to Indian culture and tradition.
