Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Friday declared 500-metre areas surrounding the Somnath temple in Saurashtra and Ambaji temple in Banaskantha district as “vegetarian zones”. “From now on, there will be a total ban on selling non-vegetarian food in these areas,” Rupani told a gathering in Palanpur city of the state, PTI reported.

Local Hindutva organisations in Veraval municipality, where the Somnath temple is located, have been demanding a ban on the sale of non-vegetarian food near the shrine for many years, The Indian Express reported. The municipality had passed a resolution in April 2018, asking the state government to declare at least a three km area around the temple a “vegetarian zone”. The municipality added that the local police support their demand.

In 2006, the collector of Junagadh district, in which the Somnath temple was then located, had issued a notification banning sale and consumption of non-vegetarian food within a 500 metre radius of the shrine.