Horses hobble while walking on cobbles
LUCKNOW: The 1.8km cobblestoned stretch from Tile Wali Masjid to Chhota Imambara has literally become a matter of pain for the horses pulling the famed Old City carts. The bumpy stones have left the animals with swollen hooves and their owners with lighter pockets. So much so that the cart owners say if the cobblestones remain in place, ‘ikkas’ and ‘tongas’ - integral to the state capital’s rich heritage - may not survive for long.
The cart owners complain that the cobblestones - laid down as part of the Old City beautification project undertaken by the previous SP government - did nothing for them except injuring their horses. Not only that, with a good portion of their earnings going in their animals’ treatment, their income has also taken a beating.
“Our horses are in pain as the cobblestone pathway is too uneven to walk on. Injuries make it difficult for the horses to pull the cart and often cause bleeding and infection in their hooves,” said tonga owner Khuda Baksh, showing a swollen hoof of his horse.
Baksh, who earns around Rs 500 a day, said that about 40%-50% of his total income was spent in buying medicines for his injured horse.
He is not alone in his plight. Over 50 ikkas and tongas ferry people along this heritage stretch. Owners of most of these claim to be suffering from similar problems.
It was believed that the cobblestoned pathways would yield a vintage look to the area. The Public Works Department (PWD) - the constructing agency for the Old City beautification project - had brought the cobblestones all the way from the mines in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Of the total cost of the project - estimated to be over Rs 153 crores - an amount of around Rs 40.6 crores was spent on the cobblestoned pathway.
The horse cart owners now plan to meet chief minister Yogi Adityanath to plead him to allow for the pathway to be reworked on. “We don’t want public money to go waste, so we don’t want the government to dig out the cobblestones. We just want them to smoothen up the surface, making it more comfortable for the horses to move on,” said Guddu Tiwari, a cart owner whose family has been in this business since the era of the nawabs.
“Timely intervention of the government can save our fading ‘ikka’ ‘tonga’ tradition,” he added expressing hope that the Yogi Adityanath government would take the measures needed to revive the horse cart business.
‘Shahi bagghis’, ‘ikkas’ and ‘tongas’ were among the most preferred pre-independence era transport modes of the state capital, which was known for its culture of horse driven carts.