FROM: brij khandelwal

AFTER THE SIMIAN MENACE IT IS NOW BOVINE NUISANCE THAT IS MAKING URBAN LIFE UNSAFE

Agra/Vrindavan December 7 (IANS)

After the simian menace that remains largely unaddressed, a new challenge to urban centres now comes from the bovine nuisance, thanks to drastic restrictions on cow slaughter.

In past fortnight several people have been seriously injured, one old man died, as a result of a rampaging bull charging full speed in a crowded market.

The lanes are full of stray animals, dogs, monkeys and cows. Bulls have been attacking tourists outside the Taj Mahal and Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra. “The Agra Municipal Corporation is supposed to capture these animals and house them in enclosures, but the officials are not at all serious,” complained Vijay Nagar colony resident Sudheir Gupta. “Our colony is daily visited by dozens of cows and bulls. This is in addition to monkeys and dogs,” he adds.

The subzi mandis were earlier the chief shelters of cows and bulls, but now since their number has increased alarmingly, they are all over the place. “In many cases hungry cows consume polythene, leather cuttings and other waste material, and when they are in agony they go berserk attacking anyone who comes in the way. We can do nothing,” said Bheeka Mal, a potato seller of Belanganj Tikonia market.

The faithfuls feed bananas to the monkeys and green leaves spinach bundles to the cows on the Yamuna Kinara road early in the morning. Later these animals enter the busy market places and start attacking people, said temple priest Nandan Shrotriya.

A municipal official said “where can we keep them and who will feed them.”

In Mathura and Vrindavan the bovine menace has taken alarming proportions, as Gaushalas are already full. Truck loads come from the rural hinterland and “deposit the unwanted animals close to the garbage dumping grounds of landfill sites. Its bizarre scene,” said Jagan Nath Poddar, convener of Friends of Vrindavan.

Poddar adds “one can find 150 – 200 cattle, mostly bulls, at the main landfill site of Vrindavan. The job which pigs are supposed to do is being done by the holy bull out of hunger. It has been a general practice that people abandon the male calves which then wander around in search of food. Hundreds of bulls and cows die or gets injured on road accidents while there move around in search of food.”

Some months ago the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath had launched in Vrindavan the  Mahamana “Gau Gram” scheme for the agrarian development of 108 villages. The state government also  announced opening of ‘Gaushalas’ and cow sheds in phased manner. But so far the result is zero.  .Former divisional commissioner Pradeep Bhatnagar had declared Mathura district as Gau Kshetra, but nothing happened. Recently the government again announced a plan to establish  ‘go-ashrams’ for homeless cattle on the lines of old-age homes. Planned at the block-level, these ‘go-ashrams’ will be made self-sustaining so that they are not a burden on the government.

Villagers no longer support or feed cows that go barren. The bulls are chased away towards cities. “The grim question is who will feed these animals and for how long?”