Vadodara: ‘Donkey work’ is a commonly used idiom for doing hard and tedious work and donkeys in Pavagadh have been doing this for decades or even centuries if folklore is to be believed. For once, the administration has noticed their drudgery and is looking to make life easier for them.
Donkeys are a major source of taking goods up the Pavagadh hill to various shops and other establishments. Vehicles can go on the hill only up to Maachi after which a ropeway and donkeys are the only means of transport.
But when it comes to transporting goods, the shopkeepers and those staying beyond Maachi on the hill find donkeys as the only means of affordable transport. From packaged water to construction material, it is donkeys that transport everything.
According to the district administration, 335 donkeys are being used to transport goods at Pavagadh. There are over 200 shops and over a hundred houses that need their services. “They are crucial to the day-to-day needs of those staying or having shops on the hill,” said A K Gautam who is deputy collector and took up the cause of mute animals actively for the first time.
Gautam said that a meeting of the owners of the donkeys and the shopkeepers was convened on Tuesday. “We have given them clear instructions to ensure that the donkeys should not carry weight beyond 50kg as specified under The Prevention of Cruelty to Draught and Pack Animals Rules,” he said.
To ensure that the rules are implemented, a check post with a weighing scale will be put up at Pavagadh. Officials of the district administration, Pavagadh panchayat as well as the roads and buildings department that is overseeing the development work there will ensure that the donkeys are not overloaded.
“A ropeway to carry goods for the development plan at the temple town is also being erected. Once work on it is over, the use of donkeys will go down significantly,” said Gautam.
On Wednesday, the donkeys were also examined by veterinary doctors roped in by the district administration. Gautam said that 11 of the donkeys were found unfit and their owners have been asked not to use them for a week so that they can recover. He said that such examination was done regularly for milch animals, but not in case of donkeys.
Inquiry report mentioned donkeys
Vadodara: An inquiry commission that had probed the Pavagadh stampede in October 2007, that had left 11 dead, had observed that donkeys used to cause inconvenience to visitors. It had suggested that the timings for the use of donkeys should be regulated in a way that they do not clash with rush of pilgrims. Since then, the donkeys are used during fixed hours on days like Navratri when large number of pilgrims are expected to visit Pavagadh.
