The Gadhimai Festival: a tradition of bloodshed

The Gadhimai Festival, held every five years in Bariyarpur village in Nepal's Bara district, involves the killing of hundreds of thousands of animals. And every time, obviously, it's a real massacre. This year, fortunately, over 750 animals destined to be sacrificed were saved

Water buffalo, goats, chickens, pigs, ducks, and rats-most of them illegally transported from India into Nepal-are all decapitated with blunt metal swords. This is the reality of the Gadhimai Festival: a month-long celebration that culminates in the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of animals.

“A blood-curdling bloodbath“, say the animal protection organizations Humane Society International/India (HSI/India), People for Animals (PFA), Sneha’s Care, and the Federation of Animal Welfare of Nepal, urging the Nepalese government to take action to make this year’s Gadhimai Festival the last with animal slaughter.

There has been one small victory: HSI/India, PFA, and border police successfully intercepted and rescued more than 750 animals bound for sacrifice after being illegally transported from India to Nepal.

The Gadhimai Festival

The festival is a month-long celebration, or “mela,” that culminates in the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of animals. Water buffalo, goats, chickens, pigs, ducks, and rats are decapitated with blunt metal swords in a killing frenzy often fueled by alcohol. Most of these animals are illegally transported from India into Nepal through poorly monitored borders.

Regulations are flouted and animals cross borders without export licenses. The mass sacrifice puts the public health at serious risks, which is made worst by unsanitary condition of the festival grounds. “The air is thick with the stench of human and animal faeces, blood and death for there is no sanitation provided for millions of pilgrims.

The history of the festival is traced back about 265 years to when Bhagwan Chowdhary, founder of the Gadhimai Temple, had a dream wherein the goddess Gadhimai appeared before him and asked him to offer blood in return for releasing him from prison, saving him from evil, and giving him prosperity and strength. Although the goddess had asked for a human sacrifice, Chowdhary managed to offer an animal sacrifice instead. This ritual has been continuing every five years since then.

This year, the bloodshed started at dawn on December 8, when, according to entry records, 4,200 water buffalo were decapitated in the main arena, along with thousands of goats, pigeons, and other animals outside. The ritual closed on December 9 when thousands of goats were still killed as part of a centuries-old ritual sacrifice aimed at appeasing the goddess Gadhimai.

The animal welfare organizations had sent out teams to border checkpoints more than a week before the sacrifices started to help border police in intercepting and rescuing illegally transported animals. Through this effort, more than 750 animals—74 water buffalo, 347 goats, 328 pigeons, and two chickens—were rescued.

The youngest goats and those animals that needed immediate attention have been given permanent sanctuary at “Happy Home.” All rescued buffalo and chickens will be homed, while pigeons have been released into nature safely.

Despite these successes, eyewitness estimates put the number of animals slaughtered at between 250,000 and 500,000 during the two-day festival. Even more disturbingly, ahead of the 2024 sacrifices, the Gadhimai Temple called on devotees to bring the number of animal sacrifices back up to 500,000.

I have never seen anything so shocking and disturbing,” said Arkaprava Bhar, Campaign Development Manager at HSI/India. “The scale of the killing is unimaginable: animals are decapitated everywhere, and bright red blood stains the ground wherever you walk. Animals like buffalo and goats are sentient creatures, acutely aware of what is happening around them. It must be a horrific ordeal. This horrifying bloodbath must end.

What has been done so far

Since 2014, HSI/India and PFA have been working to end animal sacrifices at the Gadhimai Festival. An estimated 500,000 animals were killed in 2009, while an estimated 250,000 were slaughtered in both 2014 and 2019.

A decade ago, the Supreme Court of India directed the Indian government to stop the illegal transport of animals across the border into Nepal for sacrifice at Gadhimai. The Court also called upon animal protection organizations, including HSI/India and PFA, to create an action plan to ensure enforcement of its orders—a plan that HSI/India has implemented since then.

In September 2019, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered an end to live animal sacrifices at the Gadhimai Festival and urged authorities to develop a nationwide plan for the progressive abandonment of this practice.

Clearly, though, the ruling has been widely flouted, and more needs to be done.