Bharadwaj S
Senior Community Development Manager
Animal Rahat, Post Box No- 30,
Maharashtra – 416416 (India)
Naik K.P
Community Facilitator cum Animal Rescue Officer
Animal Rahat, Post Box No 30
Maharashtra – 416416 (India)
Chittora R.K
Senior Veterinary Trainer
Animal Rahat, Post Box No-30
Maharashtra – 416416 (India)
Upreti N.C.
Chief Operating officer
Animal Rahat, Post Box No-30
Maharashtra – 416416 (India)
Abstract
Chinchali, a village of district Belgaum, Karnataka located on the Karnataka and Maharashtra state boundary of India, is a place where people travel by bullock carts for hundreds of kilometers across Maharashtra and gather annually for worshiping Goddess Mayakka. A village named Dongarwadi, district Sangli, Maharashtra state, which is about 75 km far away from Chinchali and bullock owners from this village visit to Chinchali for annual function by bullock carts and such distance is covered only in one and half days’ time for onward journey and same distance is covered by them in less than one & half days’ time while returning back. Travelling long distance by bullock carts is tough for the bullocks as they suffer in various ways viz. lameness (limping due to continuous walking/running on hard surface i.e. on metallic roads), dehydration (deficit of water in body, due to non-availability & accessibility of water to animals), wounds (injuries to animals due to being beaten by whip, continuous yanking of no serope, inappropriate harness, use of torture devices), diarrhea (loose motion due to change in feed & water and travelling stress), accidents etc. To stop use of bullocks for travelling long distances, there was a need of people involvement to create awareness and sensitize them. Various participatory activities helped in changing behavior and attitude of bullock owners of Dongarwadi village and they realized that bullock suffers a lot when they are made to travel for long distances on metallic roads and hence they stopped use of bullock for this purpose and also stopped other practices in which bullocks suffer unnecessarily.
Key words: participatory activities, bullocks, long distance travelling, metallic roads, torture devices, behaviour.
