the Gadhimai mass wanton slaughter

 Refusing to heed the plea by animal rights activists to stop the mass wanton slaughter of birds and animals at the Gadhimai Fair
scheduled to start in the Terai plains of Nepal from Wednesday; the fair management committee is offering a circus, "breakdancing" and other amusements to draw hundreds of thousands of villagers from India and Nepal.

Under Shiv Chandra Kusahawa, president of the committee, a timetable has also been published Monday for the slaughter of buffaloes and goats.

The fair at the Gadhimai temple in Bara district, held every five years and notorious for Hindu devotees sacrificing thousands of buffaloes, goats, chickens, pigeons and other birds and animals, is proudly described by the organisers as "the biggest and best-known in the world from the perspective of animal sacrifices".

The committee said buffaloes would be killed at the altar on Nov 25, the seventh day of the festivities while Nov 26 has been fixed as the day for decimating goats.

"To provide entertainment at the fair, we are arranging a circus, theatre, 'maut ki kuwan' (wall of death where daredevil motorcyclists show off their skill), break dance and other amusements," the committee said.

It also said that bus services have been organised to ferry thousands of Indian pilgrims – and their doomed animals – from four border stations in India's Bihar state to Nepal's Birgunj town.

Animal activists say about 70 percent of the visitors are from Bihar and West Bengal who flock to the Gadhimai temple since their own states have banned animal sacrifices. Thousands of hapless animals are subjected to an inhuman journey from India to Nepal with hundreds dying due to suffocation, starvation and accidents on the way.

Ironically, while animal lovers in Nepal say the carnage – this time about 500,000 animals are to be slaughtered reportedly – will convey to the world an image of Nepal as a barbaric superstitious country, the unfazed temple authorities however are using IT innovations of the 21st century to augment the number of visitors.

They have created a web site with the history of the festival, important phone numbers and the names of their sponsors though the www.gadhimai.com site doesn't seem to be functioning.

Former Indian minister Maneka Gandhi, whose appeal to Nepal's Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to stop the blood bath has fallen on deaf ears, says that the fair is driven by purely commercial interests and not piety. The hide of the slaughtered animals is bought by leather industries in Bihar and West Bengal while in Bara, the fair organisers augment their coffers by renting out plots to stalls.

"Besides the wanton cruelty to the animals, severe environmental pollution and grave fears of animal-borne diseases entering Nepal, think of the impact the endless killings would have on the minds of the children who witness it," said Pramada Shah, niece-in-law of Nepal's former king Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah, who is among the anti-sacrifice campaigners in Nepal. "Wouldn't it create a terrible psychological impact on our younger generations? At a time the parties say they are creating a new Nepal, it this the kind of Nepal we want?"