Six bovines dead at Greater Noida shelter; activists allege number higher

Noida: Six cattle died at a bovine shelter being managed by the Greater Noida authority in Jalpura village over the past few days, which, officials claim, died due to “injuries or for eating polythene”

Noida: Six cattle died at a bovine shelter being managed by the Greater Noida authority in Jalpura village over the past few days, which, officials claim, died due to “injuries or for eating polythene”.

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Animal activists, however, said about 20 animals died in the last 24 hours, while dozens allegedly died in the past few days and were buried in a nearby field of a bovine shelter run by the authority, with the help of JCB machines.

The issue came to light on Thursday after videos of starving and dead cattle went viral on social media. Soon after, activists and members of animal welfare organisations rushed to the spot along with fodder and medical help.

“Upon our visit, we found the cattle starving to death, with no records on purchase of food, treatment records, death records, etc. We got to know that about seven cattle had died the same day while a few dead bovines were lying around. The veterinary doctors had no resources to treat more than a dozen cattle on the verge of death. We are filing a formal complaint and the officials responsible must be held accountable,” said Gauri Maulekhi, an animal activist and co-trustee of People for Animal (PFA).

Officials of authority, however, denied the allegations stating that only six bovines had died due to injury or for eating polythene. The video making the rounds were old showing some of the injured bovines which were recently brought to the shelter, said the officials.

“There are a total of 1,916 cattle living in our shed. We have no dearth of food or medical supplies and there are veterinary doctors to take care of the cattle. The videos which are circulating now are old and are the ones that were recorded when we brought some injured and starving bovines from an NGO’s shed. These are the cattle which are discarded by the owners and the authority is taking good care of them,” said Narendra Bhushan, chief executive officer, Greater Noida authority.

He added the six animals which died were buried without post mortem as their death was “not suspicious”.