India, Dec. 1 -- "It is no more a Pashu Mela (livestock fair). Things have changed here. Now it is a cattle fair only in name," said Guddu Singh, who owns a shop on the main road close to the Sonepur cattle fair.

For centuries, the Sonepur cattle fair has begun on the full moon day of the month of Kartik (November) at the confluence of the Ganga and Gandak rivers in Bihar's Saran district. The month-long fair, which usually ends in December, has for long been billed as Asia's largest cattle fair.

But Singh appears to be right as livestock today is missing from the fair, except a few dozen goats, dogs, cattle and horses. The vast swathe of private farmland (nearly 500 acres in area) that has been the site for the fair for decades, is now...