Cow smuggling rampant in ‘cow welfare state’

Yogi Adityanath has given many indications during two-and-a-half-year of his rule as Chief Minister that he would like to make Uttar Pradesh a cow-welfare state. But the ground reality in recent months indicates that Uttar Pradesh has been developing as a den of the cattle smugglers, and the police were playing an active role in it.

At least two dozen “smugglers” have been arrested and half-a-dozen policemen suspended in the state in recent months for running or aiding cattle smuggling rackets.

The police conducted a raid in village Badhupur of Kairana area in Shamli district in west Uttar Pradesh on a tip-off on September 19 and arrested a cattle slaughterer. However, those who had allegedly sold some sick animals to the slaughterer and were preparing to smuggle healthy cattle mysteriously managed to escape.

Ajay Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Shamali, has announced a cash reward of Rs 20,000 to those who give information about the smugglers but there no breakthrough so far.

Rahul Mishra, a constable posted at Ramnagar police station of Varanasi was suspended and arrested on September 16 for helping the smugglers of west UP to transport cattle from the state via Bihar and Bengal to Bangladesh. His name was mentioned by a gang of five members who were arrested near Elia police station in Chandauli district of east UP on September 6.

As per police records, one of the traffickers disclosed that Mishra used to leak the movement of the police to them.

In another case, on May 18, four illegal cattle traders were arrested in Gosaiganj police station of Lucknow. The police seized three trucks loaded with 11 dead and 64 alive cattle.

Before that, the smugglers, while trying to run away from police on January 1 had entered a house in village Muldah in Chandauli district, killing seven people on the spot. The accused managed to escape with the truck. However, a sub-inspector of police was suspended for dereliction of duty.

“Cattle smugglers have chalked out a specified route through Bihar and West Bengal heading to Bangladesh with the help of policemen,” a report recently prepared by Varanasi police said, adding that the trucks full of cattle would be led by a police-jeep, which would give information about the movement of the police. In return, these policemen get anything between ₹4000 to ₹5000 per truck.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in the State had approved a corpus fund earlier this year for basic expenditure on ‘Go Vansh’ (cow family). But the government is clearly not serious about stopping cattle smuggling in which there seems to be an international racket with the base in Uttar Pradesh.

The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, whose public display of love for cows often grabs headlines, has launched several schemes for those who run cow shelter homes in the state. He has approved ₹1,095 lakhs for this purpose.

While addressing a public meeting in Gorakhpur last week, he had also promised that there would be a bio-fuel plant in the district soon where the farmers can sell cow dung.

The UP CM needs to accept the harsh reality that not only has cattle smuggling intensified during his rule but the involvement of police and some owners of cattle shelter homes has also increased.