Pune: The Maharashtra Equestrian Association, which failed to adhere to the animal husbandry department's order and hosted the second day of the show on Saturday, is drawing flak from several quarters. While the police are preparing to issue a notice to the association for ignoring the ban on horse gathering in Pune, animal activists are crying foul after a horse allegedly collapsed and died during a jump.
The Maharashtra Equestrian Association has been organizing a horse show at the Pune race course since the past two days, despite a directive from the animal husbandry department. On Friday, the department had sent a notice to the association stating that gathering and transportation of horses in Pune was banned to check the spread of glanders, an infectious and often disease. An official from the animal husbandry department told TOI that a notification was sent to the organizers on Friday. It is now the police department's jurisdiction to take action against the organizers who went against the notification, he said.
Ravindra Kadam, the joint commissioner of police (law & order), said the police will send a notice to the organizers, telling them to not hold the show. "I have directed the senior police inspector of the Wanowrie police station to brief the organizers that under the government notification, such shows cannot be held because Pune is a controlled area. If they hold the show again, despite our intimation, we will register an offence against them under the Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Act, 2009," he said.
Meanwhile, a blame game has started over who permitted the organizers to host the event at the Pune race course. On Saturday, both the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) and the army disassociated themselves from the event.
A top RWITC source maintained that the club had no connection with the ongoing horse show as it had not granted permission to the organizers to hold the event. He said the permission was given by the defence authorities. Meanwhile, a senior army officer said, "The management of the race course and conducting equestrian competitions is the responsibility of RWITC. The army doesn't have any administrative role to play — neither in organizing competitions nor in the management of the races or tournaments conducted at the RWTIC. Moreover, the army's horses have not participated in the ongoing competition."
Horse collapses, dies
Meanwhile, the death of a horse during the event has shocked eyewitnesses and fingers are being pointed at the organizers.
Lorenzo Standen, the president and founder of LIFE Farm Animal Sanctuary Trust, Pune, had visited the race course to observe the event on Saturday. He was asked to visit the event by the Delhi-based People for Animals (PFA) — an NGO founded and chaired by Union minister Maneka Gandhi. "I saw a horse jumping over an obstacle and collapsing. There were around 40 to 50 horses there, one of which died," he said.
Purushottam Kadam, another horse lover, first approached the collector's office and then the Wanowrie police station. "I had read the government notification on glanders and how Pune had been made a controlled area. However, when I visited the Pune race cource on Saturday, the show was still on, despite the fact that one of the horses had died during the event," he said.
Repeated calls to the Maharashtra Equestrian Association went unanswered.
