Since independence Kerala and West Bengal where cow
slaughter is treated legal, are the sink-holes of cattle from across the
country – where they are brought to packed in trucks, sometimes with legs
broken so they can be dumped one on top of the other and be even more tightly
packed and brought in 1000 mile forced marches from as far as UP, Punjab and
Rajasthan into West Bengal. It is ironical that cows not just be given for
slaughter in a country that considers cow to be ‘holy, but that they are made
to go through this extreme pain for days/weeks before they are eventually
killed and sold by the kilo for their body parts. This is an account of
transportation of cows and calves for slaughter into West
Bengal is common from across Indian states. The pictures are
from Bihar and West Bengal .
Transportation of cows and
calves for slaughter into West Bengal is
common from across Indian states. 2 marked pictures have been taken in Patna
Rural district. Even then, it
was a Bengal-registered truck with a load of bullocks headed for slaughter. You
can see from the pictures, the trucks carrying govansh (cows, bulls, bullocks /oxes,
calves) have the following hallmarks and can easily be spotted:
1. In Bihar, UP and Jharkhand,
these trucks have their rear-ends completely boarded up as they still don’t
operate with the impunity with which they operate in Bengal .
2. The inside walls of the trucks have sacks filled with hay to provide some padding to the animals when the vehicle sways.
2. The inside walls of the trucks have sacks filled with hay to provide some padding to the animals when the vehicle sways.
3. In Bengal ,
no attempt is made to conceal and the animals are carried in two decks. The
larger ones standing on the load platform of the truck and the smaller ones on
a double-decking made of planks on top. The animals on top are bound hand and foot
so that they don’t jump off.
4. Usually, the number plate is
either mutilated or caked with mud/dung so that even if one wants to, the
number cannot be jotted down.
5. Most of the trucks used for
transportation are owned by Muslims and carry Islamic symbols
6. None of these trucks, either
inside Bengal or the ones in UP, Bihar, which bring the hapless animals to the Bengal border, have valid livestock permits. To get a
livestock permit, the owner has to pay more and he has to redesign his truck.
Once redesigned, it cannot carry so many cattle and hence the transportation
cost per animal shoots up. While the double-decker trucks carry 40-50 stuffed
in, a livestock-permit equipped truck can carry 6-8 at most. I humbly submit
that for starters, we can throw a spanner in their works by insisting that all
cattle-trucks must have livestock permits. The government also earns more
revenue if it gets more applications for livestock permits.
7. National Highways Authority
of India and the various toll plaza operators should be asked to charge per
animal and capture footage of such trucks on their CCTV cameras.
8. Despite all attempts to
conceal the cargo, cattle trucks give off a smell and their sides have dung,
urine and dried up hay trickling down. So, to an observant policeman or an
activist it wouldn’t be too difficult to spot such a truck.
9. Another dead giveaway is the
fact that such trucks always have 4-5 people sitting on top of the driver’s
cabin and making frequent trips to the loading area from the top even when the
vehicle is on the run, to settle down some animal or the other which may have
twisted its ropes or started shying etc.
10. None of these vehicles have
the full details of the consignor and the consignee pasted on the walls of the
truck and available with the crew. Transportation by rail would have involved
ding this and is one of the reasons they avoid rail transport of cattle. Transportation
of cows and calves for slaughter into West Bengal
is common from across Indian states. Transportation of cows and calves for
slaughter into West Bengal is common from
across Indian states.
