MUMBAI — For tourists visiting the Gateway of India, they are a charming relic from Mumbai’s past, but for the city’s harried motorists the horse carriages that ferry visitors around Colaba’s narrow lanes, they are a nuisance and a perennial danger.
And now animal activists and celebrities have also joined in, demanding a ban on horse carriages. On Monday, Salsa dancer Sandip Soparrkar and his supermodel wife Jesse Randhawa, dashed off a letter to the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC), seeking a ban on horse-drawn carriage rides throughout Mumbai.
Other celebrities, including actors Hema Malini and John Abraham, former Miss Sri Lanka Universe Jacqueline Fernandez, and even Lea Michele, star of the American musical-comedy drama series, Glee, have teamed up with the Indian unit of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), seeking an end to the horse-drawn carriage trade in the city.
The celebrities have joined PETA in calling for an end to the trade following an incident last week at Nariman Point, where an exhausted horse, pulling a heavy carriage for a joyride along Marine Drive, collapsed suddenly.
“The exhausted horse collapsed on the ground and was unable to get up for nearly 20 minutes,” Benazir Suraiya, media and celebrity projects coordinator, PETA India, told Khaleej Times on Monday. “This time the horse did not die but it may not be so lucky next time.”
According to her, horses are forced to share Mumbai’s busy roads with increasing numbers of vehicles and pedestrians. “Conditions for horses are deplorable: they are forced to haul passengers in sweltering heat and extreme cold and are frequently denied adequate rest, food and water. Over the years, there have been accidents in which both horses and people have been seriously injured.” Suraiya points outs that in May another carriage horse collapsed at Kala Ghoda and the Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
rescued it. — nithin@khaleejtimes.com
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