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Volunteers feed hungry animals at Nepal's revered shrine

A lockdown because of COVID-19 is preventing hundreds of monkeys, cows and pigeons from being fed by visitors.

Credit: AP

In this Tuesday, March 31, 2020, photo, staff from the Pashupatinath Development Trust feed pigeons at Pashupatinath temple, the country's most revered Hindu temple, during the lockdown in Kathmandu, Nepal. Guards, staff and volunteers are making sure animals and birds on the temple grounds don't starve during the country's lockdown, which halted temple visits and stopped the crowds that used to line up to feed the animals. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Every morning and evening, guards and volunteers at Nepal’s most revered Hindu temple gather to feed hundreds of monkeys, cows and pigeons.

The animals, which normally are fed by thousands of visitors at the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, were at risk of starvation after Nepal’s government ordered a complete lockdown last month to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

People are forbidden from leaving their homes and markets and temples closed.

Without receiving the food from visitors, it's up to a few guards, about a dozen staff and some volunteers to make dough and prepare corn for cows, which are sacred and worshiped by the Hindus, and monkeys, which are believed to be descendants of the Hindu god Hanuman.

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