JAIPUR, India (AP) — Right-wing Hindu activists have taken down an exhibit of a Styrofoam cow that was suspended in midair using a balloon, organizers of an art fair in western India and police said Sunday.

R.B. Gauttam, an organizer of the Jaipur Art Summit, said that the exhibit was meant to highlight how cows suffer after ingesting plastic waste at India's many garbage dumps. The activists, however, deemed the exhibit offensive and took it down on Saturday.

Cows are revered by India's majority Hindus, and the slaughter of the animals is banned in several Indian states.

"The activists claimed that the cow in the exhibit looked like it was hanging from a noose and that was disrespectful," Gauttam said. "They argued with us and took the cow down and even put a garland around it."

The cow exhibit continued to be a part of the art fair, but on Sunday it was no longer in midair.

Gauttam said the activists were just "looking for any type of publicity." Mahendra Singh, a police official, said the incident was being investigated.

In recent months, violence based on rumors of beef-eating by India's Muslim minority has spiked. A man was beaten to death by a mob over rumors his family had eaten beef, and two others were killed for allegedly transporting cows for slaughter.

Over the last several weeks, dozens of Indian intellectuals, writers, scientists and filmmakers have blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party for not speaking out against such brutal religious attacks. They say the government's silence has encouraged hard-line Hindu fringe groups to terrorize minorities and assert Hindu superiority.

India temple makes sari mandatory for foreign women

A temple in northern India has asked female foreign tourists to use a sari to "cover themselves and look decent" before entering the complex.

The Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi city has opened a new counter to provide saris for women who come in "outfits that end before the knee".

The temple authorities said the new measures had been taken to maintain decency in the temple complex.

But they denied that the temple was imposing a formal dress code on women.

"We get complaints that some foreign tourists come to the temple in indecent clothes. We have arranged saris for women and also dhotis [traditional wrap-around clothing] for men to ensure that they can cover themselves decently," the temple's chief executive officer PN Dwivedi told BBC Hindi.

Image copyrightRoshan Kumar

Mr Dwivedi added that tourists "can simply wrap a sari or a dhoti on top of their clothes" before entering the temple.

"They [tourists] will not be charged for this service. If Indians come in indecent clothes, they too will be helped," he said.

He told Times of India that no tourist will be denied entry in the temple.

"No foreign woman is going to be stopped from offering prayer inside the sanctorum, and we are not enforcing any dress code. This is just a way of motivating foreign women, who come to the temple in short Western attire to avoid such dresses," he said.

Some foreign tourists told BBC Hindi that they don't mind the new measures.