It may sound quite surprising, but India has the world’s 1st fully vegetarian city. This city is quite a well known Jain pilgrimage centre. Yes, it is Palitana in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat. Are you still not able to digest this fact? Well, it is quite natural for anyone to think on these lines but it is true.

Palitana is 50km south-west of Bhavnagar. It holds the record of being the only mountain which has more than 900 temples and is considered to be the largest temple complex in the world.

Palitana has been declared as the only fully vegetarian city wherein government declared a ban on animal slaughter way back 2014. It is now illegal to kill animals for any purpose whatsoever. Can you believe that even selling of eggs is not allowed here. People have pledged to stay vegetarian until their last breath.

The city is counted as the purest and the most revered Jain pilgrim destination. Since 2014, not a single animal has been slaughtered in Palitana. The ban came as a result of protest by 200 Jain monks who went on a hunger strike and declared that they would rather die than have any animal killed and/or consumed. Later all butcher shops were brought down and the city was declared a meat-free zone. The residents however consume milk, ghee, butter etc.

Palitana is home to hundreds of temples. It is said that the saviour of Jains, Sri Adinath, once walked the hills of Palitana and that is the reason why this place is so sacred. No definite number of people following Jainism has been provided, yet it is believed that there are around 4 to 5 million followers of Jainism across the world.