The notorious Gadhimai festival is being carried out in southern Nepal, where hundreds of thousands of animals are sacrificed in what is thought to be the largest mass-slaughter of animals in the world.

The Hindu religious event is held every five years in Bariyarpur, near the Indian border, and began this year on December 2.

The two-day festival draws thousands of attendees from Nepal and India to witness the sacrifices, in the hopes of receiving good fortune from the goddess Gadhimai.

Footage shows hundreds of participants ready with cleavers and clubs to slaughter the various animals and birds brought for the sacrifice.

The event has received numerous condemnations from animal rights groups, and the Nepalese supreme court passed measures in 2015 to try to restrict the practice of animal sacrifice.

The Gadhimai festival, thought to be the largest mass-slaughter of animals on the planet, is underway in Nepal, despite fierce objections from animal rights groups. The Hindu religious event has been held every five years for the last 260 years in Bariyarpur, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of the capital Kathmandu. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the two-day event in the belief that animal sacrifices will please the goddess Gadhimai and bring them good fortune. An estimated 500,000 goats, buffalo, pigeons, and other animals were slaughtered in 2009, according to Humane Society International (HSI). That number dropped to about 30,000 in 2014. Thousands of people from Nepal and neighboring India traveled to Bariyarpur village to witness the festival, which occurs every five years. The sacrifices went ahead despite temple authorities announcing a ban in 2015 and Nepal’s supreme court directing the government to reduce animal sacrifice a year later. Last week the Indian border force and campaigners seized hundreds of baby goats, pigeons, and buffaloes at the border. This year’s event is the first since a supreme court ruling in 2015 that directed the government to discourage bloodshed, but thousands of creatures are still set to be killed over the two days. Even if they could not prevent the slaughter, activists were tending to the animals in their final hours in an attempt to minimize suffering.