Crime up on WB border as source of income lost
NO ALTERNATIVE Truck loads of cattle arriving from across North India drove local economy in the villages around the porous border
BONGAON: A 10-minute window after 10 pm is all they need to escort a pair of cows across Ichamati river or dash through bare fields for about 1,000 feet, tether the cattle to a tree in Bangladesh and return to India.
A single cow fetches them between `200 and `500, and the cash is delivered the next day.
But over the past seven-eight months, BSF flashlights and guns have become more active. Speedboats frequently patrol the Ichamati that meanders through this area separating Bangladesh that desperately needs Indian cattle for its supply of beef.
Cow smuggling has been on for decades, until the NDA government took it up as a priority to stamp out the march of Indian cattle — an estimated 1.7-1.8 million a year — to the neighbouring nation’s slaughterhouses.
In April, home minister Rajnath Singh visited Bongaon and told BSF to stop the illegal trade.
Since then, the twin-engine BSF speedboats are overrunning country boats of rustlers. Locals are extremely afraid of these machines that often charge at them full-on in the river. “The propellers of these boats are so lethal that both cattle and those escorting them are cut to pieces if they get entangled,” said a woman near her home along the Ichamati.
Collateral problems have emerged after the drop in cattle smuggling. The local administration is grappling with rising crimes such as snatchings, burglary and dacoity — some by people from across the border. Trafficking of women from Bangladesh has apparently gone up, too.
“The people are poor here … there are no big or medium industries or the service sector to employ the youth. The only largescale activity, cattle smuggling, has also reduced to a trickle,” a onetime smuggler said.
A councillor of Bongaon municipality, Dilip Majumdar, said there is no industry in the area and the rate of unemployment is high. The crop, too, has taken a hit this year. “But still we can’t support cattle smuggling,” he asserted.
Villagers said leaders of all parties are in favour of the smuggling, but can’t say it aloud.
The cow racket used to drive the local economy. Truckloads of cattle used to come from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi to the porous border in the south Bengal districts that share a 9,015-km border with Bangladesh.
“A cow involves about 20 handlers from its origin in an Indian state, say UP, to the slaughterhouse in Bangladesh. An animal that costs `20,000 at its origin becomes `45,000 to `50,000 at the destination. Near stoppage of smuggling has deprived everyone of the income of `25,000- `30,000 per animal. The situation is more acute for the Bangladeshi handlers,” said Ashok Biswas, a local Trinamool leader.
Farmers who cultivate land across the fence complain that Bangladeshis steal the produce from their fields. “When the cow business was on, none would touch the vegetables I left on the field,” said Nishikanta Haldar.
Biswajit Mondal of Pratapnagar village depended heavily on cattle smuggling to run his family. “My son studies management in Mumbai and is in his final year. But with the drop in income, I have to now sell my house. If I can’t arrange `30,000, my son can’t complete his course.”
The fence bears tell-tale points where barbed wires have vanished to make way for the cattle rustling.
Strange sights greet one as one crosses Kalanchi bridge. The barbed wire fence suddenly vanishes for a few hundred metres, an obvious sign of smugglers uprooting it altogether.
Along the road that runs beside the border, the familiar sight of people speaking to handlers on their cell phones has almost vanished. After sundown, this area used to become active with only the cell phones glowing.
Once the cattle arrived, they would wait patiently for the nearby BSF guard to either doze off, or step aside to respond to the call of nature, before they began the 10-minute run.