Delhi's horses have been taken for a ride, it seems.

The proud fillies of the Capital will surely frown had they known that a Rs 1.80-crore project launched by the UK’s premier overseas equine charity ‘Brooke Hospital for Animals’ to start a hospital in Delhi, particularly for the care of horses, has been a non-starter for almost 16 years.

Brooke Charity, which cares for over 1,00,000 “working animals” like horses, donkeys and mules across India, had in 1992 decided to start an animal hospital here specialising in equine care. The charity firm had taken the decision as it was impressed by the Capital’s “large horse population”.

Brooke became the “guiding force” for formation of a public charitable trust christened after the parent organisation — ‘Brooke Hospital for Animals (India) Ltd’ — in February 1992. During the next five summers — from March 1992 to January 1997 — the UK organisation remitted funds worth Rs 1.80 crore to its Delhi counterpart on a specific condition to buy real estate “in and around Delhi” to build a hospital.

But over the years, the British charity saw its good turn for Delhi’s horses stumble to a stop. The hospital still remains a “desire” yet to bear fruit, and all that remains of the brainwave is an allegedly inaccessible “landlocked” plot bought for Rs 41,27,971 at Bhondsi village, in Gurgaon.

But, “the land is lying unutilized,” the charity said in its petition before the Delhi High Court. “There is no proper account of the remaining Rs 1.40 crore. The trustees have purchased land without taking into consideration the fact that animals are not brought to hospital at far-flung places, and a hospital has to be provided near a place frequented by animals,”

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