Madhya Pradesh: Curious case of ‘missing’ donkeys and stigma attached to ‘beasts of burden’
Update: 2024-07-31 15:07 GMT
Bhopal: District headquarters of Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh has witnessed high drama over ‘disappearance’ of 16 donkeys with some members of a particular community hurling bizarre charges of ‘indifference’ against the police for the ‘stigma’ attached to the docile animal.
The owners of the ‘missing’ donkeys have moved from pillar to post to make the police act in the matter, leading to registration of FIR in the case on Wednesday. The donkey owners belong to the Prajpati community.
“We have received a complaint regarding missing 16 donkeys in the area. An FIR was registered in connection with the incident on Wednesday”, in-charge of Shikarpura police station Kamal Pawar told this newspaper.
The police finally yielded to our pressure and lodged a complaint in the matter, Aditya Prajapati, president of the youth wing of the local Prajapati community, told this newspaper.
Mr Prajapati alleged that a complaint in connection with the incident could not be lodged for the last two days as the two police stations in Burhanpur city, Shikarpura and Kotwali, were in a dilemma if the incident had taken place in the area of their jurisdictions.
According to Mr Prajpati, the donkey owners lived in Kotwali police station area while the alleged theft took place in Shikarpura.
“We had taken up the matter at the ‘Jan Sunbai’ or public hearing conducted by the local administration in Burhanpur on Tuesday. But, we were advised to go to the police”, Mr Prajapati said.
Interestingly, a blame game started between the police and some members of the community over the issue with both the sections linking the stigma attached to the pet animal to pin down each other.
“Police was perhaps initially hesitant to lodge the complaint considering the stigma attached to the donkey. That was our initial feelings. But, we no longer entertain such impressions since police registered the FIR now”, Mr Prajapati said, as a matter of fact.
The police officer Mr Pawar however dismissed it saying that ‘It is absolutely baseless’.
“We have scanned the footage of around 250 CCTVs installed in the area to get the clue on the missing donkeys. But, we have not noticed any sign of stealing of the animals. A probe is on into the matter”, Mr Pawar said.
A section of people were ‘unnecessarily’ raking up the issue to hog media limelight as ‘donkeys get easy publicity for them because of the stigma associated with the animal’, a police officer said, requesting not to be quoted.
The donkey owners use the animals to carry sand and soil from the nearby river of Tapti to make earthen pots and earthen lamps to eke out a living. Each donkey costs around Rs 20,000.
Two famous annual donkey fairs are held in Puskar in Rajasthan and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh where donkeys are sold.