‘Salman’, ‘Shahrukh’, ‘Basanti’, and ‘Dhoni’ are grabbing eyeballs at the much-famous Donkey Fair that began on Tuesday on the banks of the Mandakini River here, as customers lined up to bid for creatures with celebrity tags.
Last year, donkey Salman Khan sold for Rs 1.85 lakh and donkey Shah Rukh Khan for Rs 1.25 lakh. A donkey named Basanti sold for Rs 85,000. The excitement is just the same this year for celebrity donkeys.
Traders from various parts of the country, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Nepal and even Afghanistan are expected to participate in the three-day fair.
The fair keeps alive a unique age-old tradition that started during the reign of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb. According to locals, when Aurangzeb’s military forces faced a shortage of horses, mules were imported from Afghanistan and the Donkey Fair was held in Chitrakoot. This tradition has continued ever since.
According to Fair organisers, approximately 5,000 donkeys are expected to be bought and sold, and turnover could reach Rs 1 crore this year.
The donkeys sold at the fair, considered the second largest animal fair in the country after the Pushkar Fair in Rajasthan, are used for construction purposes and for transporting goods in brick kilns.
Traders bid on the donkeys based on their breed, strength, and gait. It’s being reported that donkeys named ‘Salman’, ‘Shahrukh’, ‘Basanti’, and ‘Dhoni’ may fetch the highest bids.