Dart guns sought to catch stray cows in Banda
KANPUR: In remote parts of Banda, stray cows have become so aggressive that the district administration has requisitioned dart guns and experts to tranquilise and catch them.
The farmers are not able to work on 1500 bighas of land in villages of Tindwari, a dacoitinfested part of the Bundelkhand on account of cow menace.
As the hungry bovines continue to be on the prowl, the authorities have written to UP’s principal conservator of forests for dart guns and tranquilising experts.
“Each day these cows are damaging crops on 25 to 30 bighas of land; groups of 500 men try to catch them and fail. We have informed the authorities and showed them the videos of how cows violently repulse our attempts to tame and catch them,” said Virender Singh, a retired army personnel now into farming in Jauharpur village, along the Yamuna river.
Last week, the people of no less than 10 villages pooled in money and hired the services of professional horsemen to help contain the cows.
The horsemen were so badly charged by the cows that they returned the Rs 10,000 paid to them. “Cows ran better than
the horses and their response was so violent that two horsemen were injured. We have not seen such behaviour in cows,” he said.
At present, the people in several villages are guarding their fields with axes and guns.
Sinh said the farmers in Paragi Dera, Sarvahan Tala, Hukum Singh Dera, Pathri, Baseri, Kaithi Dera, Mahjitiya and other villages were unable to do farming on 1500 bighas of land for the past one year.
Recently the villagers met district magistrate Anand Singh and informed him about how everyone from the forest department teams to professional horsemen had been unable to get hold of a single cow from a herd which had hundreds of such bovines.
“Their problem is genuine.
We have written a letter to the principal conservator of forests for dart guns and experts,” said Singh who had the whole thing looked into by chief veterinary officer Dr Rajeev Dheer.
Dheer said the cows were prolific runners and extremely violent.
“I have submitted my report to the authorities,” he said. District forest officer Sanjay Agarwal said the cows had not come from elsewhere but were abandoned by their owners.
“They venture into the forest area in a herd and get aggressive when someone tries to chase or catch them. The forest department is looking into it,” he said.