Horse attack sheds light on forgotten fact: Police across India still have mounted units

"Was the horse anti-national?" asked Twitter users on Monday evening shortly after news reports claimed that Ganesh Joshi, a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Uttarakhand, had assaulted a police horse with a lathi during a protest in the state capital of Dehradun earlier that day. The animal suffered multiple fractures on its leg, which may have to be amputated.

Though video footage shows Joshi swinging the lathi in the direction of the horse, the politician on Tuesday blamed the media for misrepresenting facts. He claimed that he was only preventing the horse from attacking protestors.

As a case was filed against the MLA under the Prevention of Animal Cruelty Act, Chief Minister Harish Rawat visited the animal at the Army Vet Hospital in Dehradun to check on its condition and a petition surfaced online urging the BJP to expel Joshi.

Amidst the fracas, the incident was a startling reminder for many people that even in the age of mechanisation, several police forces around the country continue to use horses – and not just in ceremonial roles.

Police forces in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kolkata, Kerala, Karnataka and Delhi are among those who have mounted police units that are regularly pressed into service.

In hilly states like Uttarkhand, horse units seem to make sense because they can traverse unwieldy terrains with greater ease than vehicles. But only last month, the Hyderabad police announced that it was going to acquire ten horses to patrol the Gachibowli area.

"Depending upon the availability, a team will be deployed for patrolling in the IT corridor every day,” Cyberabad Commissioner CV Anand told The Hindu. "It will give a sense of confidence to the people."

Long service

In Delhi mounted policemen can be seen doing the rounds around India Gate in the evening where Section 144 is regularly imposed to bar the assembly of large groups. The Delhi police currently has 41 horses, even as it decided to induct 40 new stallions in November last year. Horses are acquired at the age of two and retire by the time they are 17 years of age.

"Police horses have been extensively used in police training institutions for training officers, for controlling huge crowds during rallies, processions, festivals etc," says the Delhi police website. "They are also used during ceremonial function and in high visibility patrolling in rural and outlying areas of Delhi."

Delhi's use of horse power has been falling. In 2005, mounts on law and orders duties for a total of 10,173 hours. But in 2012, the year for which figures are last available, mounts were used for 1,672 hours.

On the borders

Gujarat has the largest mounted force in the country, with 606 animals in 2013. LF Vasava, the official in charge of the unit, told DNA that the animals were used for "night and day patrolling in the city outskirts, along village perimeters in rural parts, as well as along the international and state borders".

The Karnataka police use horses for traffic control, night vigil, officer training and during the Dasara festival in Mysore, when tens of thousands descend on the city. This unit got its first horses from the maharaja’s bodyguard in 1951 and is now made up of 90 horses and around 150 officers and handlers.

“The mounted police have their own utility which is not likely to be dispensed with,” a former police official MB Chande wrote in a book published two decades ago. “Police horses have been used on traffic patrol duties and police training institutions for training of cadets in the past. They proved very effective to control crowd, but their use has been restricted considerably due to heavy brick-batting and use of bombs by unruly bombs.”

The native Kathiawari breed of horses is preferred for use by many police units. These horses have great resistance to heat and can survive on minimum food and water and are known for being intelligent.

The Indian Express recently chronicled a day in the life of two Delhi Police horses – Feroze and Tarzan – that were on crowd control duty outside the cricket stadium when India was facing South Africa.

“When a horse is inducted into the unit, it is trained for six months in racing, patrolling, etc.,” Constable Subhash Chandra told the paper. "The most athletic ones are used in sporting events, the slightly slow ones are used for patrolling to maintain law and order, and the best-looking creatures are used in ceremonial functions."

Mounted units continue to thrive around the world. The US has more than 50 such units, with the state of New York having eight. The most famous of all is, of course, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, better known as the Mounties. For the most, though, the Mounties uses horses only for ceremonial occasions.