The Hindu : New Delhi News : Dairy owners, politicians to blame for stray cattle menace?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 06, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Dairy owners, politicians to blame for stray cattle menace?

By Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI, FEB. 5 . The death of an elderly man and a woman - besides battering a Maruti car -- in the Preet Vihar area of East Delhi by a violent bull early on Friday morning has once against underlined the dangers that stray animals pose to citizens. It has also reflected the indifferent attitude of Municipal Corporation of Delhi officials in tackling the problem.

In fact, the MCD has a full-fledged department to catch stray animals and has even constructed shelters for them, particularly cattle and dogs. But every time the civic body tries to carry out a drive against stray animals on the Capital roads or localities, it is thwarted either by the cattle and dairy owners or politicians.

Interestingly, in May last year the MCD had launched a drive against stray cattle and unauthorised dairies across the Capital, but it called it off under pressure from the influential dairy owners' lobby and politicians. The Corporation had to stop the drive midway despite that the fact the Delhi High Court had directed it to take action against stray animals.

Stray animals including cows, buffaloes, bulls and dogs can be seen roaming on the city roads and the most affected areas are those located near urbanised villages, illegal dairies, slums, unauthorised colonies and parts of Outer Delhi. Due to lack of cattle- rearing fields, cattle owners leave their animals to roam on the streets.

During 2004, the MCD employees caught 26,565 stray animals and sterilised 13,725 dogs. It even purchased 12 hydraulic vehicles, 13 vans and three ambulances for catching stray animals. The result from the entire exercise has so far remained highly unsatisfactory.

The problem can be resolved by shifting illegal dairies being run from various colonies and areas including Uttam Nagar, Rohini, Khayala, Madipur, Shahdara, Jehangirpuri, Najafgarh, Ambedkar Nagar, Okhla, Palam, Dwarka, Maujpur, Kalyanpuri, Kondli, Mandawali and Mehrauli. The development of the city around urban villages has further aggravated the problem. Traffic jams in several areas can be attributed to the stray cattle menace.

In fact, there is a long-standing proposal to relocate dairies from different parts of the Capital. But work is progressing at a snail's pace. Plots for two such dairies have been identified at Ghoga near Narela in North-West Delhi and another at Sabhapur in the trans-Yamuna area. But the search for a plot to set up two more dairies in South Delhi and South-West Delhi is still on.

Meanwhile, the Delhi unit of Bharatiya Janata Party has held the Congress-led MCD directly responsible for the two deaths and asked the State Government to pay Rs.10 lakhs ex-gratia to the kin of those killed. Targeting the Congress Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, the Delhi BJP chief, Harsh Vardhan, said while on one hand she talks about making Delhi a truly global Capital, while on the other people get killed by stray bulls on the city road.

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