By IANS
Bhubaneswar : A prohibitory order has been enforced in a village in Orissa’s Balangir district after the villagers declared to sacrifice thousands of animals as part of their annual religious ceremony, officials said Tuesday.
About 400 armed policemen were deployed in Khairguda, some 300 km from state capital, as the villagers announced to continue the age-old practice of animal sacrificing during the local Sulia Yatra or the annual killing festival, which begins Tuesday.
As part of their custom, the people of the tribal village sacrifice the animals in order to appease the god hopping for better fortune through out the year.
The sacrificing continues through out the day in the presence of hundreds of people, including women and children.
In October 2005, the Orissa High Court had ordered all district collectors to educate the people and create awareness to stop animal sacrificing in the name of religious rites.
Similarly the social activists from across the state have been opposing the practice for quite some time.
Despite the government prohibition and strong opposition from animal activists, the villagers have said they will continue to practice their age-old ritual.
“We have deployed more than 400 security men to avoid any untoward incidents during the festival” district police chief Himansu Lal told IANS.
“Besides we have clamped a prohibitory order on mass gathering in the village so that they should not sacrifice any animals during the occasion,” he said.
Lal also said that the district administration had organised several awareness programmes in the past and asked people not to join in mass killing.
“We hope this year killing of animals and birds will come down,” he said.
While the animal sacrifice ritual take place in a big way in Khairguda it is also celebrated in a small way in a dozen of nearby villages in the district.
Animal activists, however, called for the government to adopt a stronger legislation to strop the inhuman practice.
“The existing Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act should be amended in order to check such barbaric practices,” Biswajit Mohanty, well-known conservationist of Orissa, told IANS.