Aloka had traveled with the monk on a plane from America to Canada, Sri Lanka, and India. The team arrived in Kathmandu on Monday from Bhairahawa on a Buddha Air flight.
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Renowned Buddhist monk Bhante Pannakar and his companion 'Peace Dog' Aloka, who have been trekking to various countries carrying the message of world peace, have been stopped from an Air India flight due to the lack of flight documents.
A team of 18 people, including monk Pannakar, who arrived in Kathmandu via Lumbini from Sunauli border in India on Sunday, and a dog named Aloka, were going to Delhi on an Air India flight at 6:30 this morning. But after the Air India station at Tribhuvan International Airport stopped them, saying that dogs cannot be taken with passengers, 17 people flew to Delhi, while monk Pannakar and the dog stayed in Kathmandu, said journalist Narendra Manandhar, who is coordinating the trip in Nepal.
According to him, the team is scheduled to leave Delhi for the US tomorrow. According to Manandhar, Aloka had traveled with the monk from America to Canada, Sri Lanka, and India on a plane. The team arrived in Kathmandu on a Buddha Air flight from Bhairahawa on Monday.
But Air India stopped Aloka from boarding, saying she did not have the necessary flight documents. According to Anil Kumar, manager of Air India's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), they tried to take Aloka into the cabin of the plane as a 'service dog'. But he said that the dog was not given a boarding pass because there is a rule that requires a letter certified by a veterinarian along with the passenger.
'They have called the dog a service dog.' But to take a service dog into the cabin, a medical certificate is required,' he said. 'We had requested to bring such a certificate since yesterday. This provision is clearly mentioned on the Air India website. But we had to stop it after we did not receive the requested documents.'
According to him, Aloka weighs about 20 kilograms. In such a situation, it would be difficult to take her into the cabin, he said. If the passenger had proven her health needs, it could have been facilitated. Otherwise, taking such a large dog into the cabin may have caused discomfort to the passengers nearby,' he said.
Air India said it had given Aloka the option of taking her through the cargo hold, but the airline says the monk did not agree to it. 'We had proposed that the dog could be sent through cargo. But they did not agree to it,' said Anil Kumar.
Air India has said that no final decision has been made on what will happen next. The company says that if the necessary medical certificate is available, it is possible to facilitate the flight through another flight.
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Joint Spokesperson Gyanendra Bhul said that the authority has instructed to send Peace Dog Aloka on the 10 am Air India flight.
