Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: FIR Registered Against Buffalo Fighting Event Following PETA India Complaint 

For Immediate Release:

28 August 2026

Contact: 

Meet Ashar; [email protected] 

Varulika Dixit; [email protected]  

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar – Acting on the information received from a concerned citizen about an illegal buffalo fighting event that took place in Devlai village of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) worked with Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Police to get a first information report (FIR) registered against those responsible for organizing the unlawful event.  

PETA India submitted a detailed complaint requesting stringent legal action against those responsible for organizing the illegal event and worked closely with the Superintendent of Police, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, to ensure the registration of a Suo Moto FIR. Consequently, an FIR was registered under Sections 62 read with 325, 125, 291 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023; along with Sections 11(1)(a), 11(1)(m), 11(1)(n), and 11(1)(I) of the PCA Act, 1960, and Section 12(a) of the Maharashtra Prevention of Gambling Act, 1887 against the organizers.  

A video of the buffalo fighting event is available upon request. 

“PETA India commends Shri Prakash Jadhav, IPS, Superintendent of Police, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Rural), for directing the registration of a Suo Moto FIR, and sending the message that cruelty to animals will not be tolerated,” says PETA India Lead Cruelty Response Coordinator Sreekutty Raje. “Forcing buffaloes, who already have difficult lives, to fight has no place in a civilized society.” 

The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, prohibits inciting animals to fight with each other. In a landmark judgment in 2014, the Supreme Court of India ruled in favour of the petitioners, PETA India, and the government advisory body, the Animal Welfare Board of India, establishing that bullfighting, dogfighting, and any other staged fights between animals, including between humans and other animals, for entertainment, must end. 

Buffalo fighting involves pitting two buffaloes against each other in a violent and bloody confrontation. The animals are hit and goaded into fighting until one is deemed the winner. Gambling is common at such events. These spectacles subject the animals to significant physical and psychological harm, including fractures, puncture wounds, and severe stress.  

PETA India – whose motto reads in part, “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram. 

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