Kolkata’s Horse Death Toll Mounts: PETA India Files FIR For Dying Young Mare Left to Rot Near Maidan
A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered by the Maidan Police Station after PETA India rescued a bone-thin young mare who was found in a near-dead state and apparently left to rot under the Hastings Flyover, near Maidan—another grim reminder of the urgent need for Kolkata to replace outdated and cruel horse-drawn carriages with heritage-style e-carriages. In 2024–2025, twelve horses were reported dead or severely injured in Kolkata due to similar abuse and neglect, according to data gathered by PETA India and the CAPE Foundation. In response, PETA India has learned that several West Bengal-based companies have officially offered to build e‑carriages for use in Kolkata instead of horses and are awaiting a response by the West Bengal government.
When the mare was being transported to the sanctuary for emergency veterinary care
On 14 April 2026, representatives of PETA India chanced upon the recumbent mare in a critical condition and were shockingly told by the owner that she was “just sleeping”. PETA India then approached the police, who registered a First Information Report (FIR number 48/2026/Maidan PS) under Sections 125, 291, 325 read with 62 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) and also multiple sections of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, including Section 3, 11(1)(a), 11(1)(f) and 11(1)(h) for the severe neglect that led to her deteriorated condition. The approximately four-year-old starving, dehydrated mare was found having no sensation in her legs, no reflexes, an eye being eaten by maggots, and her body was oozing discharge. Despite best efforts, the mare passed away in the early morning hours after being rescued.
PETA India has repeatedly attended to horses used for hauling tourist carriages who collapse on the roads or suffer in extremely poor physical conditions and are abandoned. Horses have been found anaemic, malnourished, overworked, and collapsed from constant use on hard road surfaces in the Victoria Memorial area, where horses are used for riding and horse-drawn carriages for tourists.
The Calcutta High Court has taken serious note of incidents in which horses collapsed at the Maidan and elsewhere in Kolkata due to poor health. The court also noted other issues, such as the wide-scale prevalence of unlicensed hackney carriages in the city and the high rate of abandonment of ailing and unfit horses by their owners, who cause traffic hazards. The court directed the state government to develop a proposal for rehabilitating horse owners and providing them with an alternative livelihood to hauling tourists in carriages so that “dispensing with the horse-drawn carriages as done in Mumbai can be considered and examined for its feasibility.” In Mumbai, following PETA India’s efforts in the Bombay High Court, Victoria carriages and horse-drawn carriages for tourists were replaced with heritage-style e‑carriages—a move preferred by the former horse owners.
