India, May 29 -- A park which usually bustles with activities this time of the year when it turns into a goat market for Eid-ul-Azha, the decades-old Benia Bagh Bakra Market in the heart of Varanasi wore a deserted look this Bakrid after the civic body sealed it following complaints of poor sanitation and overcrowding, triggering resentment among the goat traders.

The Benia Bagh falls within a 2-km radius of the Kashi Vishwanath temple. Under the Smart City project, the park now has a children's playing area, an open gym and walking tracks.

Unlike previous years when goat sellers from several Purvanchal districts, including Ghazipur, Mau, Jaunpur and Gorakhpur, flocked to Benia Bagh, the empty park looked a pale shadow of the past on Th...