Gadhimai festival is a month-long Hindu festival that is held once every five years at the Gadhimai temple of Bariyarpur, in Bara District, about 100 miles (160 km) south of the capital Kathmandu in southern Nepal. The event involves the world's largest sacrifice of animals including water buffaloes, pigs, goats, cows, chicken and pigeons with the goal of pleasing Gadhimai, the goddess of power.[1]

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About 5 million people participate in the festival, the majority of whom are Madheshi people from the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar & Terai. Attending the festival in Nepal circumvents the ban on animal sacrifice in their own states.[2][3] Participants believe that animal sacrifices for the Hindu goddess Gadhimai will end evil and bring prosperity.[4]

A month before the ritual in 2009, the Nepalese government realised there would be a "severe shortage" of goats for the ritual sacrifice, as well as for the consumption of goat meat during the festival. Th ...more