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In a heartwarming show of love to animals, Animal helpline organisation celebrated "Kukur Tihar" or Kukur Puja at a street dog rescue centre in Siliguri, West Bengal.
Kukur Tihar or Kukur Puja literally means the worship of dogs. This is a mini-festival within a larger Hindu celebration of Diwali, the festival of lights. During the festivities held on Wednesday, each dog gets a flower garland or "malla" placed around its neck.The forehead is painted with a "tikka," a paste made from red powder, rice and yogurt. Animal helpline, a renowned animal lovers organisation of Siliguri celebrated the day with great enthusiasm. Starting from the morning the members of the voluntary organisation bathed around hundred Street rescued dogs and worshiped them.They also cooked special food for them following the festival of Kukur Tihar. Priya Rudra, founder of animal helpline said, "It's a very special day for us like Durga puja and Kali Puja.During the day, we tried to give special attention to them. We worship them and serve special dishes. It's a very important day for us because there are so many festivals for human beings, but nothing for the animals. A day like Kukur Tihar tells us that animals are also an important part of our society. People should love and respect them." She further said that people should be concerned with the bursting of crackers as it disturbs the animals. "During the Diwali festival people like to burst crackers which are very disturbing for the animals. So they should be concerned if animal-like dogs are very much near to them during the time of bursting crackers," she added. Smita Majumder, an animal lover appealed to the people to respect street dogs and give food to them whenever possible. She said, "we enjoyed the day with great enthusiasm with the dogs at the shelter as it is Kukur Tihar. It's my appeal to the people that they respect street dogs and serve food to them as per your limits and give some respect to them." (ANI)
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