UP villagers lock up stray cows and bulls in school, disrupt classes for the day

“Strays from other villages too were pushed into our village and the animals had made life miserable by damaging crops and also occupying the lanes and by-lanes of our village.”

Angered by stray cows and bulls roaming around their village and even damaging crops, residents of Sakethu village in Nakha block of this district on Tuesday herded all of them into a school compound and locked it up.

The villagers were pacified to withdraw their agitation after the authorities assured them of appropriate action.(HT Photo)

The unique protest may or may not help the villagers find a solution but there was an immediate casualty – the about 100 students and teachers of Sakethu primary and upper primary school, where the dozens of stray animals were locked up, were forced to stay outside the school and so there was no teaching.

It is alleged that villagers, unaware of the new rules for selling ageing cattle for slaughter, are leaving their animals in an old orchard nearby. The strays then make their way into the village and cause problems.

The bizarre protest got the block education officer (BEO) Ram Janak Verma into action and he immediately informed basic shiksha adhikari (BSA) Buddha Priya Singh, who sent police and the nayab tehsildar to the school to talk to the villagers and persuade them to free the animals.

Sub divisional magistrate (SDM) Nagendra Singh told HT that the villagers were later persuaded to drive out the animals from the school.

“All the animals have been taken out and things are normal now,” he said. He assured the villagers of appropriate action to solve their problem.

Sakethu villagers said that the menace was not only due to stray animals of their village.

“Strays from other villages too were pushed into our village and the animals had made life miserable by damaging crops and also occupying the lanes and by-lanes of our village,” they said.

On August 13 Pakariya villagers (in Isanagar block) had held a similar protest at their village school and locked dozens of cows inside the school campus to highlight the problem of stray animals.

There, too, the villagers were pacified to withdraw their agitation after the authorities assured them of appropriate action.