The suspension of racing in parts of southern India has been justified as a matter of strict compliance with the National Action Plan for Control and Eradication of Glanders (Revised 2025). A close reading of the document, however, suggests that the current response goes beyond what the Action Plan actually prescribes.

Glanders is a notifiable and serious disease, and the Action Plan rightly mandates decisive measures. These include immediate notification of infected areas, isolation and euthanasia of positive cases, strict restrictions on movement of equines in and out of notified zones, and intensive, repeated surveillance of the surrounding population. There is no ambiguity on these points.

What is often overlooked, however, is that the Action Plan simultaneously introduces the concept of compartmentalisation, particularly for organised establishments such as race clubs. India`s turf clubs operate as closed racing populations with fixed stabling, permanent veterinary oversight, and restricted movement. Clause 4.8 of the Plan explicitly states that organised establishments or compartments that follow defined biosecurity and surveillance protocols may continue routine activity, even if they fall in or near a notified area. This provision exists precisely to prevent the shutdown of entire ecosystems due to isolated infections.

The Plan goes further. Under Clause 7.3.2, it clearly allows racing and other equestrian events to be conducted with horses from disease-free compartments, even within notified areas, provided all biosecurity measures are followed. In other words, the framework anticipates controlled continuation of activity, not indefinite suspension.

Notably, the document does not call for blanket confinement of all horses, nor does it mandate cancellation of race seasons until multiple testing cycles are completed across entire centres. The emphasis is on risk-based zoning, regulated movement, and epidemiological separation, not on stopping sport by default.

In effect, the Action Plan advocates a test–track–destroy strategy, not a test–lockdown–wait approach. While caution is justified and necessary, the complete stoppage of racing involving healthy, repeatedly tested horses housed in organised, bio-secure premises is not an explicit requirement of the national protocol.

The distinction matters. Policy-driven containment and administrative overreach are not the same thing, and the Action Plan, as written, leaves room for racing to continue under controlled and scientifically managed conditions.