| Police rescue bovines from smugglers, abandon them to roam on roads | | |  EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Feb 19: In a routine affair, Jammu and Kashmir police patted its back for foiling bovine smuggling bids and rescued the bovines but these innocent creatures are usually abandoned to roam on roads, eat garbage or to barge into farms, inviting wrath of the farmers.
Almost each day, the Police spokesperson sent press-releases to the media houses, praising the police personnel to rescue the bovines smuggled by the smugglers in various districts of Jammu province. Photographs of the smugglers and bovines are also published but where the rescued bovines go is a million dollar question.
According to police personnel, police usually handed over the rescued bovines to some identified persons, who take care of the bovine till the Court orders for the release of bovines in favour of the smuggler. “When the smuggler approached police for the bovines, we instruct the smuggler to approach the person, looking after the bovines and after paying at the rate of Rs. 100/cattle/day, the smuggler gets the bovines”, a senior police official claimed but in reality the things are not so simple in every district.
Sources in the police department informed that in case of oxen, bulls many times the smugglers never came for taking the animals from the person who kept it. “If for example a smuggler was smuggling 10 bovines and after he get caught by Police, the challan was presented in the Court after a minimum time of one month, the Court finally ordered the release of animals after two months, then in the three months, the smuggler had to pay Rs. 1 Lakhs for release of his bovines and at the same time, the smuggler will not be able to smuggle the bovines to its customers due to Court orders”, sources said, adding that in such a situation the bovine smuggler would not come for bovines and police has no funds to pay for the bovines.
Moreover, many times the bovine smugglers run away and didn’t catch by police for months together and in such a way, the bovines are at the mercy of police, which has no funds to feed the animals. “In such situations the bovines have been abandoned by the police to roam on roads to eat garbage and waste. The abandoned animals barge into farms in various areas, inviting wrath of the farmers. Many oxen could be found roaming on national highway and met with accidents or roam near the villages of a police chowki or police station”, sources said, adding that after rescuing from the smugglers, there is no policy of the government for proper rehabilitation of the rescued bovines and police has noty Superintendent of Police pleading anonymity said that they handed over to an identified person to take care of the rescued bovines, who would be paid by the smuggler. He accepted that many times the smugglers didn’t come for the bovines and in such condition, police has no option but to abandon the animals. |
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