The famous two-day Mundaneshwar Kheraling Mahadev Fair of Kalijikhal block in Pauri district concluded on the weekend without any animal sacrifice for the first time in its history.
The main organisers of the fair, residents of Thair village, organised worship in Kheraling Mahadev temple without any animals being ritually slaughtered. The Mundaneshwar Mela is celebrated every year in the first week of June with thousands of people offering their prayers at the Kheraling Mahadev temple here.
Devotees from different parts of the district and country particularly members of the Bengali community visit this temple to beseech the deity to grant their wish and again visit the shrine after fulfilment of their wish to thank the god on the occasion of the Mundaneshwar Mela.
On both days of the fair, devotees in large numbers reached the temple premises with ceremonial flags (nishan) to the beats of drums. Though male buffaloes were slaughtered last year, not a single animal was sacrificed this year. It is pertinent to mention that with the efforts of the district administration, NGOs, locals and the temple committee the ritual slaughter of animals in the name of religion was stopped in Mundaneshwar fair. The efforts were initiated a couple of years ago.