The Maharashtra government has set up a panel of veterinary doctors to study whether bullocks can be classified as an animal that can be used for racing, the Hindustan Times reported.
The government’s move comes in the backdrop of the Bombay High Court’s decision to extend the ban on the popular rural sport of bullock cart racing.
The nine-member study group – set up by the Maharashtra Agriculture Department on Thursday – has been asked to analyse the animal’s anatomy, their stamina to run and pull weights, and the physiological and biochemical changes bulls undergo while running, India Today reported.
The group will also compare bulls to horses as the interim High Court order referred to an order passed by the Supreme Court in 2014, which noted that “given its physiology, a bull, unlike a horse, does not have attributes for racing”.
The BJP-led government in Maharashtra had even tried linking bullock cart racing to the state’s cultural tradition. It had amended the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act in August, taking cues from the Tamil Nadu government’s attempts to legalise the bull-taming sport of jallikattu earlier in the year.
But soon after, the Bombay High Court stepped in, acting on a Public Interest Litigation plea.
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