Horse owners in Matheran stung by horsefly attack

Several horses were attacked by the horseflies (inset) and were administered tetanus vaccine

The Matheran horse owners, who make their living mostly via tourism, have had a series of setbacks this year. They were first hit by poor business in January, then the COVID-19 lockdown brought their job to a standstill, and now horseflies attacked most of their animals.

More than 250 of the 464 horses at the hill station of Matheran were administered tetanus vaccine after 20 of them were found to be have been attacked by horseflies, during a medical camp organised in the first week of June.

Dr Subhash Mhaske, deputy director, Animal Husbandry Department, Raigad district, said, "We had specific instruction from District Collector Nidhi Choudhari that a medical camp be organised at Matheran for the examination of all the horses and 200 ponies before the onset of monsoon."

"A day-long camp was organised and even large quantities of fodder, dry and green grass that were donated by good Samaritans, animal lovers and a corporate house was distributed among the owners of the animals," he said.

20 were attacked
During the physical examination of the horses, nearly 20 of them were found to be sick. They had been attacked by horseflies that suck their blood, and as a result these horses were anaemic, Dr Mhaske said, adding, "As a precaution, we gave tetanus injections to 256 horses."

Dr Mhaske said the horseflies are usually "found in thick bushes, and before the monsoon sets in, they attack horses, causing them discomfort and pain. And gradually horses become anaemic and get exposed to other ailments."

"We have given the owners skin ointments and other medicines that are to be applied on the body of the affected horses," he added.

Dr Kisan Deshmukh, livestock development officer, Panchayat Samiti, Karjat, under whose jurisdiction Matheran hill station falls, explained that horseflies usually attack the belly of horses as the skin there is soft and delicate, and 20 horse owners in the camp had brought their horses with injuries in their belly.

"Other than giving injections, we had also sprayed disinfectants in and around the stables and across the stretch where the horses are tied up. We also gave directions to the owners to have smoke fumigation done every evening to keep the flies away," he said, adding that, "Apart from horses and ponies, we gave anti-rabies injections to seven cats and 15 dogs."

Overworked animals
The Matheran Hill Station Municipal Council sealed the entry to the region due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Sources in the Animal husbandry Department told mid-day that ponies were being used to transport heavy materials like gas cylinders.

Deshmukh said before the lockdown, villagers' main source of income was tourism, which has now stopped. Moreover, only a single ambulance is stationed on the hill top, in case anyone needs to be taken to Neral 13 km down the hill. Vehicles are available from Neral to Dasturi naka, which is 9 km.

Ponies are used to carry loads from Dasturi naka to Matheran and some were putting extra load on the animals and the district administration had objected to it.

Union leader speak
Asha Kadam, the Matheran horse owners' union leader, told mid-day, "Yearly, our actual working days are 200, and usually on Saturdays and Sundays 158 horse owners in Matheran make a living [via tourism], which helps them survive the whole year."

"Since January this year, the season was not great and the sudden lockdown due to the pandemic made life miserable for the local horse owners, forcing most of them to keep their horses at home and many of them have taken up work as daily-wager earning Rs 150 a day doing odd jobs," she said.

"We, the local horse owners, don't have bank balances either. On an average, a horse's daily food requirement cost around Rs 300 and with no money coming in, it is difficult to meet the day to day expenses of the family and the animals," she said.

On the horseflies attack, she said, "Our horses are not sick. The horseflies did not affect our animals this year. The horses are at the stable and we are taking good care of them."

Collector speaks
Choudhari said she has "specifically directed that ponies should not be made to carry more than two cylinders or heavy loads, after we learnt that they were being made to lift four cylinders instead."

"Our preliminary assessment is that the horses were taken care of during the lockdown and the Animal Husbandry Department officials have already provided the owners with feed," she said. "As I was held up with post-cyclone monitoring and assessment, I was not able to gather the day-to-day information about Matheran. If anything is left or needs to be done, we will do so at the earliest."

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