Police have directed the agency implementing the Joka-Esplanade Metro Project to restore the green patch in the old Maidan paddock near Manohar Das Tarag so the horses of Kolkata Mounted Police can graze during their regular exercises.

The horses, part of the country’s oldest mounted police unit, are currently training in a temporary paddock near Shahid Minar, which lacks grass.

Officers said grazing is essential for the horses as it helps them stretch their muscles in the neck, shoulder and back and joints properly.

“We have asked the RVNL (Rail Vikas Nigam Limited) to restore a part of the old paddock that has grass and where construction activities are not taking place now,” a senior Kolkata Police officer said.

The mounted police, which has 61 horses, was established in 1840. The unit earlier trained some of its horses at the Royal Calcutta Turf
Club before moving to a
dedicated paddock on the Maidan in 2006.

Around two years ago, Metro Railway set up the temporary paddock on a plot south of Shahid Minar because the existing paddock near Manohar Das Tarag had to be acquired for the construction of the Esplanade Metro station on the Joka-Esplanade Purple Line corridor.

“Nearly three-fourths of the old paddock has been covered to construct the new Maidan market as part of the Metro project. Iron rods, concrete leftovers and other materials remain strewn across the remaining portion of the paddock,” the police officer said.

“If these materials are removed and the stretch cleared of the outgrowth, our horses can start grazing there.”

Senior RVNL officers said a part of the old paddock will be restored shortly after work to construct the new market is completed.

“The construction is almost over, and building materials and other items will be removed soon before the remaining part of the paddock is restored,” a senior RVNL officer said.