The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Assam Amendment) Bill, 2025 paved the way for permitting the traditional Buffalo fight (Moh Juj) during Magh Bihu celebrations, similar to the Jallikattu event in Tamil Nadu.
PETA stated that this decision undermines the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, which prohibits forcing animals to fight; constitutional duties to protect animals under Articles 48A and 51A(g); and judgments of the Supreme Court of India, in Animal Welfare Board of India v. A. Nagaraja (2014) and Animal Welfare Board of India v. Union of India (2023).
“The passage of this cruel bill aimed at allowing vulnerable buffaloes to be beaten into charging at, wounding and bloodying each other plunges Assam into the Dark Ages,” says PETA India’s Senior Policy and Legal Advisor Vikram Chandravanshi. “Buffalo fights will stain Assam and deter tourists, many of whom visit Assam expecting animals to be protected in the national parks and elsewhere in the state.”
Following a petition by PETA India, the Gauhati High Court previously quashed the Assam government SOP dated 27 December 2023, which had allowed buffalo and bulbul bird fights during a certain time of the year (in January) upholding that they violate the PCA Act 1960 and in the case of bulbuls, the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
As prey animals, buffaloes are innately nervous, so men who use them for fighting deliberately instigate them to fight. An investigation into a buffalo fight held in Ahatguri in the Morigaon district of Assam on 16 January 2024 by PETA India revealed that during these fights, owners and handlers jabbed the buffaloes with sticks and whacked them with bare hands to agitate them. During the fights, the buffaloes sustained bloody wounds. The fights lasted until one of the two buffalo broke away and fled.PETA India urged the Assam government to reverse this regressive move and uphold India’s true culture of ahimsa and compassion.