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House panel to suggest system to rehabilitate smuggled cows: Officials
The BSF has expressed difficulties in locating NGOs or animal welfare organisations to rehabilitate the seized cattle.
A Parliamentary committee is set to suggest an institutional mechanism to rehabilitate cows which are found being smuggled along the Indo-Bangladesh border, after the Border Security Force (BSF) highlighted difficulties in proper rehabilitation, three functionaries familiar with the matter told HT on Tuesday.
The standing committee on home affairs, led by senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi, is reviewing the menace of cow smuggling, along India’s 4,096 km-long and porous border with Bangladesh, which has also been a major political flashpoint between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal.
The BSF has expressed difficulties in locating NGOs or animal welfare organisations to rehabilitate the seized cattle. On Monday, the panel called BSF director general over concerns that the present rules and regulations in handling cows along border areas possibly needs a revamp, according to the functionaries cited above.
“Earlier, whenever the BSF seized smuggled cows at the Indo-Bangladesh border, they would hand them over to Customs like any other stolen goods at the border. But the Supreme Court, in one of its orders in 2018, directed the BSF to hand over the cows to NGOs or animal welfare organisations as the Customs doesn’t have proper infrastructure to handle seized animals,” one of the functionaries said on condition of anonymity.
The old process appeared to have major loopholes as it was observed that the seized cattle was auctioned by Customs and mostly bought by the same smugglers, the functionary added.
Following the court order, the Union ministry changed its protocol and directed the BSF to hand over the seized animals to NGOs and animal welfare bodies, the functionary said.
“The BSF finds it extremely difficult to locate suitable animal welfare organisations or NGOs in border areas. Packing off the smuggled animals to organisations located far away also runs the risk of higher mortality rate as mostly old cattle are smuggled to Bangladesh,” a functionary who was present in the meeting on Monday said.
The House committee is likely to suggest development of a pre-determined and institutional mechanism for better relocation and rehabilitation of cattle seized from smugglers, the functionary added.
“There is a political consensus in the panel that cattle smuggling has to be stopped at any cost and the seized animals should get the best treatment available. For this purpose, we need a pre-determined and institutional mechanism. Otherwise, the BSF might continue to face hurdles in relocating these animals,” the functionary said on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, the committee also discussed issues of mental health faced by BSF jawans posted in border regions.
“We may also suggest extensive counselling and mental health check ups for BSF jawans. We have also noticed that women comprise just 3% of the BSF, there is a need to address gender parity too,” a third functionary said.
