KATHMANDU: The state is set for the world’s one of the largest animal sacrifice fair in Bara’s Bariyapur VDC-1. But a week before the fair kicks off, Ram Bahadur Bomjan, who came to limelight for his Buddha-like penance in a jungle, allegedly without water and food, is all set to stop the animal carnage.

The world’s supposedly largest animal sacrifice is scheduled for November 24 and 25 on the premises of Gadhimai Temple. Tens of thousands of animals and birds are butchered at the Gadhimai Fair, which takes place once in every five years in the district.

Despite protest from animal rights activists in the country and abroad, the Gadhimai Management Committee (GMC) is bent on the rare sacrifice, arguing that it was their age-old tradition to appease the local deity.

However, Bomjan, popularly known as the Buddha Boy, whose official name is Palden Dorje Tamang Rinpochhe, will switch his meditation ground from the jungle to the premise of the Gadhimai Temple on 22 November, in a bid to stop the killing.

Bomjan had vowed to begin a non-violence sermon at the venue to stop the animal carnage.

However, his avowed commitment to move to the carnage site and the GMC’s inflexible stance have panicked the local residents and government law-enforcing agencies who do not rule out untoward incidents.

The government has deployed over 1,000 police personnel in

and surrounding areas of temple fearing possible skirmishes between traditionalists and animal rights activists.

Speaking at a function organised in the capital today, DB Bomjan Tamang, chairman of Nepal Tamang National Federation (NTNF), said they had no plans

to go for confrontation whatsoever. “It is nothing but an earnest plea

to love the animals as they are also

a beautiful creation of the god,”

he said.

Sudip Pathak, a human rights activist, said that animal sacrifice in any form was an illustration of murder and violence and appealed to the Constituent Assembly to come up with a law against the practice.

“Even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has urged all to put an end to any form of violence,” he argued.

Similarly, Shyam Tamang, general secretary of NTNF appealed to all to offer posy, fruits and vegetables, incense sticks, tika, sweets and coconuts instead of animals and their blood to appease the goddess.

More than a dozen organisations have announced a series

of awareness campaign in the Valley and other parts of the country to help stop the mass sacrifice of animals, citing that it was unbecoming of a civilised society in the 21st century.

Animal rights activist Dr Govinda Tandon, Buddhist gurus, Hindu priests and representatives of Jain faith also supported the assertion, on the occasion.