This year’s Gai Tihar celebrations in the hills melded tradition with pragmatism.

On Tuesday, when the Nepali community worshipped cows as part of the Tihar (Diwali) festivities that celebrates different animals on successive days, cows were distributed to families who had lost their livestock in the October 5 downpour-induced landslides.

The Tihar festivities of the Nepali community comprise worshiping of crows on Kaag Tihar, followed by the Kukur (dog) Tihar, Gai (cow) Tihar and Goru (ox) Tihar before the festivities conclude with Bhai Tika.

This year, the festivities started from Sunday. Bhai Tika will be held on Thursday.

The VikRun Foundation based in Darjeeling, with support from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), started distributing cows on Gai Tihar on Tuesday from Sukhiapokhri block.

“We wanted to do something that would bring tangible relief and emotional comfort to the victims. Launching the project on Gai Tihar, a day when cows are worshipped as symbols of purity, motherhood and prosperity, felt deeply meaningful,” said Vikram Rai, founder of
the foundation.

Rai said they had named the project Asha Gai (cow of hope).

According to figures from the GTA, 24 cows were killed in the October 5 landslides along with 14 bulls, 53 goats and hundreds of fowls in the hill areas. The livestock of at least 60 families in the hills were affected.

VikRun Foundation plans to distribute 24 cows under this project. On Tuesday, a couple of cows were distributed to beaming families.

Asim Rana, deputy director, animal husbandry department of the GTA, said plans were afoot to locally source the cows for distribution.

“Over the past few years, the GTA has started artificial insemination of bovine breeds like Holstein, Jersey and Sahiwal. We are looking at distributing these breeds even though we had to distribute crossbreeds today (Tuesday),” said Rana.

Officials say that a cow cost anything between Rs 22,000 to Rs 25,000 in the hills.

“People don’t want to sell calves born through artificial insemination,” said Rana, who inaugurated the project along with La Tshering Bhutia, block livestock development officer of Sukhiapokhri block.

Prashant Subba, a farmer from Rangbhang, who received a cow on Tuesday said that the move would go a long way in helping him
financially.

“I lost my entire livestock comprising five cows, four pigs, four goats and dozens of fowls on October 5,” said Subba.

The farmer said that his livelihood mostly depended on selling around 35 litres of milk every day.

“At least I now have a cow with which to start my economic recovery,” said Subba.