Mumbai, December 8, 2016: Five-time Grammy-nominated sitarist and composer Anoushka Shankar has sent a letter on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis urging him to put an end to cruelty to horses.

"I often stay at the Taj but have always been saddened to see Victoria horses struggling to walk on swollen joints while being forced to give so-called 'joyrides' which are not joyous at all for them", she wrote in the letter.

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Anoushka added: "Especially in a car-heavy city such as Mumbai, Victorias are out of place. They not only harm animals but also put humans at risk for injury."

Recently, following an inspection report submitted by a veterinarian and animal-welfare officers from PETA, Animal Rahat and People for Animals (PFA), the central government advisory body Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) advised the Maharashtra government to present a rehabilitation plan immediately to the Bombay High Court for the Victoria owners, drivers and horses in Mumbai, read a statement.

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This presentation to the court was directed by the Supreme Court on April 24, 2016. AWBI also wrote to the police commissioner of Mumbai urging him to stop cruelty to horses

This is not the first time Anoushka has helped PETA.

In 2011, she appeared in a print ad against keeping animals captive in zoos.

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She also appeared in a public service announcement with her father, late Pandit Ravi Shankar, encouraging the government to increase the currently weak penalty for cruelty to animals, and she performed at the Hyatt Regency in Mumbai exclusively for PETA to raise awareness of the plight of animals in zoos. (IANS)