Glanders Outbreak in Delhi Addressed Nearly Six Months Later, Posing Grave Risk to Public Health; PETA India Calls For Immediate Enforcement of 2010 Ban on Horse-Drawn Tongas
Following nearly six months of extensive work by PETA India, action has finally been taken regarding three horses who had tested positive for glanders in Delhi, but the remaining recommendations of the National Action Plan for Control and Eradication of Glanders in India (NAPCEGI), 2019, have still not been fully implemented. About six months ago, the National Research Centre on Equines of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research identified blood samples from three Delhi horses as positive for glanders, a dangerous zoonotic disease that is potentially fatal in humans. The samples had been collected by PETA India from horses used to illegally ply tongas in Delhi. However, in violation of a protocol detailed in the NAPCEGI, 2019, testing of other horses in the area has only just begun.
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In accordance with the NAPCEGI, 2019, protocol, horses who test positive for glanders must be immediately quarantined and humanely euthanised to mitigate the risk of further transmission; all equines within a minimum radius of 5 kilometres of where infected animals are found must be tested repeatedly, with the first test within three weeks of the first incidence; and the movement of equines in and out of this zone must be restricted. Despite the guidelines, the infected horses were left among the public until 31 August, jeopardising both the public’s health and the animals’ welfare. Owners of horses used to ply tongas in the area state that testing of their animals didn’t start until around 1 October.
The action of the Delhi Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD) concerning the glanders cases followed a meeting on 28 August between PETA India and Delhi Cabinet Minister for Environment, Forest and Wildlife and Development and the General Administration Department Sri Gopal Rai regarding the enforcement of the NAPCEGI, 2019, protocol. Video footage provided to PETA India apparently shows that while collecting the horses who had tested positive for glanders for euthanasia on 31 August, workers from the DAHD and the Delhi Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals hit the animals and forced them into a vehicle through an improper entrance. The workers and bystanders present did not wear any protective gear, putting themselves and the wider public at risk of infection.
Information received under the Right to Information Act, 2005, revealed that even though the NAPCEGI, 2019, requires that all horses within a minimum radius of 5 kilometres of an outbreak be tested for glanders, as of 12 August, testing had been limited to ceremonial horses of Rangpuri and ones at the racecourse in Delhi – leaving out the horses used to illegally ply tongas, who are most likely to be infected.
On 20 September, PETA India again contacted Shri Rai, beseeching him to take action regarding the enforcement of a 2010 ban on horse-drawn tongas in Delhi – as 14 years later, the prohibition has yet to be enforced and glanders still poses a significant health risk. PETA India is calling for an official investigation into the improper handling of horses who have tested positive for glanders and the safety breaches that have put both animals and the public at risk. PETA India emphasises that implementation of the ban could have prevented these outbreaks and the mismanagement of infected horses that followed.
Enforcing the ban on tongas could eliminate the risk of human exposure to glanders and spare horses suffering. Horses used to ply tongas are kept without adequate food, water, and shade and forced to haul overloaded carts despite wounds, swollen hooves, and diseases. Since there are no horse stables in Delhi, the animals are kept on shared spaces, such as on footpaths, in public parks, and in residential areas, heightening the chance that the disease will spread. The use of horses to ply slow-moving tongas also constitutes a traffic hazard.
PETA India has already encouraged over 150 horse and bullock owners to transition to battery-operated e-rickshaws via its Delhi Mechanisation Project – securing their livelihoods and sending the animals to sanctuaries.
