Traders incur losses due to ban on horse fairs, urge Punjab govt to lift restriction

Punjab government has banned horse fairs in an attempt to avoid horses getting infected with glanders disease. The traders complained that they are incurring losses as business has been completely stopped due to the ban. They said two cases of glanders disease were reported last year but there is no sign of the disease now. They have urged the government to lift the ban.

Bathinda: Horse traders have complained of incurring huge losses due to the Punjab government's decision to ban horse fairs to avoid horses getting infected with deadly disease, glanders. The traders said that they are spending crores on the maintainence but are unable to make any profit.

Business of stud farms have been severely affected as Punjab government has banned horse fairs and entry of horses in the state to avoid horses getting infected with glanders.

Jalore Singh, a horse trader who works in a stud farm at Diun village in Bathinda said that most people in stud farms have invested lakhs of rupees in this business. Many traders from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maldives are involved in trading horses.

Following the state government's ban on horse fairs, two such events scheduled in Jagrawan and Sri Muktsar Sahib were cancelled. Traders from across the country used to attend these events to buy horses. With the cancellation of these fairs, the trading of animals worth crores of rupees has been badly affected. At the Jagrawan horse fair alone, horses worth more than Rs 5 crore were traded.

Jalore said that last year he had earned a profit of Rs 10 lakh from the fair at Jagrawan alone, but this time due to the cancellation of the fair, he has incurred a huge loss. He demanded that the Punjab government should withdraw its ban and allow organising horse fairs in Punjab so as to revive the ailing business.

Notably, two cases of glanders disease were reported in Punjab's Ludhiana and Bathinda last year following which, the animal husbandry department alerted the horse traders. The samples of the animals were also collected but now there is no fear of any such a disease, Jalore said.