Brooke-AHTCS Staffs attend the Dewa Fair, India
October 5, 2017. Dewa, a town in India located at 42 km from Lucknow and 10 km from Barabanki is a major site of attraction for a number of pilgrims. Dewa is known as birth place of Haji Waris who spread the message of universal love for mankind. A monument has been built at the burial place of Haji Saheb in his memory to honor him. Every year Dewa fair takes place at the site of the tomb during October and November. A number of cultural programs are also organized during this fair like music and poetry conference etc. Animal market is also a major portion of the fair. A large number of animal traders come from northern part of India (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Panjab, Uttaranchal, Rajasthan). Nepali equine owners and traders from Nepal, especially from Nepalgunj also visit the fair in order to buy animals. In the animal market, the traders have to pay money for animal stall to fair organizers. In the fair, seller pays IC 600 and buyer pays IC 200 per animal.
About eighty percent equine owners of Nepalgunj buy the equines from this fair while some equine owners goes to other fairs like Bateshwor fair at Sikuwabad and Wever fair at Manipur. More than ten thousand equines are traded in this fair but Nepali equine owners/traders mostly buy mules rather than horses and donkeys. Some equine owners buy the animals for working purpose for themselves and some traders buy for trading purpose. They sell those mules to the hilly parts of Nepal. The traders and buyers bring the purchased animals to Nepal through Rupaudiya boarder by truck or by road.
Brooke-AHTCS vet Dr. Milan Kumar Sharma and welfare facilitator Mangal Bahadur Tharu visited the fair this year with the purpose to motivate and convince the Nepali equine traders to buy healthy equines. There they visited the traders from Nepal and instructed and aware them about the various aspects of animal welfare during transportation of animals. They made a short orientation to the buyers about colic, lameness, injuries, stress, etc. The main intention of the visit of Brooke-AHTCS staff to the fair is to stop the equine buyers of Nepal from bringing the unhealthy and sick animals to Nepal. They also visited the Brooke India’s stall and accompanied them to handle some clinical cases. They also observed the Work Based Assessment (WBA) done by the Brooke India’s staffs. The visit was fruitful in linking the equine traders from Nepal to the technical services of Brooke India. 58 equine traders from Nepal were directly benefited from the visit of Brooke-AHTCS staff’s to the fair.
