4-horned harbinger of Nanda Raj Jaat

Jotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 19

Animals for ages have been symbols of faith in Uttarakhand. Chausingha khaddu, the four-horned ram of the sheep family, which leads the Nanda Devi Raj Jaat Yatra held once every 12 years in Uttarakhand, amply reveals how close the people of this region are connected with the wildlife. The Nanda Devi Raj Jaat Yatra depends on the birth of Chausingha Khaddu or “Mainda” in the local dialect and it leads the arduous three-week yatra. Usually black in colour, the ram plays a prominent role in the yatra that depicts the return of Nanda Devi to her husband’s home in Kailash after spending time at her parents’ house at Nauti village in Karnprayag tehsil in Chamoli district.

Four-horned Khaddu at times is even born white though its parents are always normal. In 1964, the yatra was cancelled as no Chausingha Khadu was born. It was then held in 1968. Wildlife expert in study of ungulates S. Satyakumar says that the birth of a four-horned ram was certainly the result of genetic variations, which though takes place once in a million sheep and is the rarest of the rare, but getting born in a particular region once in 12 years is certainly interesting and a case study in faunal genetics.