The pleasant part is that New Year has arrived prompting us to ring out all that is obnoxious in our life and start it afresh.
But the unpleasant one is it is very closely preceded by one most cruel incident — bloodbath of animals and birds — at Sulia festival ground in Balangir district. The beginning of a New Year marks the end of life of hundreds of innocent fowls and birds. Despite imposition of Section 144 and ban order of the Odisha High Court on the bloodletting in the tribal festival, the devotees are unfazed and hold onto their time-tested customs. The ban or any interference in their rituals is considered sacrilegious and provokes outrages.
This is the result why despite our modern ways of living and scientific temper, we have not been able to ward off the impact of old beliefs and customs on us. Even as the mass sacrifice of animals and birds is inhuman and cruelty in the most ghastly form, the tribal devotees consider the killing as sacred as it is a way to propitiate the presiding deity and secure her blessing.
But cruelty to animal does not seem to have stopped there. That is why the tribal devotees are not only to be held responsible for the act. The fact of the matter is we all have not been able to shed our cruelty for animals and birds and should be prepared to take a portion of the blame. Animals like goat, cattle, lamb, pig etc and birds like chicken, dock and several domestic and even migratory birds are killed every day these days because of celebrating the New Year. The inhuman act is perpetrated in lakhs of butcher- points which have mushroomed everywhere under full public glare. Nobody is worried about what spell the open slitting of animals by butchers casts on animal lovers and particularly on children.
We cannot stop people buying meat which is a prime cause of proliferation of butcheries in open market, roadside and near public places like schools and temples. The demand for meat also gives the poachers a shot in the arm, who are now active in various forests, water bodies and sanctuaries, killing the animals that are on the verge of extinction and migratory birds who have thronged the State to spend the ongoing winter.
But if we can think a little about the innocent creatures killed for no fault of theirs with a sympathetic heart, we would call a spade and spade and hold us responsible for the colossal cruelty now being shown to the animals and birds. If we cannot cast off non-vegetarian food, at least let us be choosy about it. We cannot allow indiscriminate killing of all kinds of animals and birds that are so precious for our biodiversity.
The Government should also take step to ban public spectacle of animal and bird killing. laws should be implemented to ban all slaughter points that are on prime public places and shift them to specific places earmarked for slaughter houses. let the New Year be an occasion to say hale and hearty to the animals and birds that are endangered. Happy New Year to all!