Cattle death count kicks up row

Tribune News Service

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Mohali, July 28

Three days after the death of milch cattle at Kandala and Safipur villages, the owners and the local administration differ on the number of animal deaths.

While Jarnail Singh and Tarsem Lal, who own the farms where the tragedy occurred, claimed that they had lost around 125 head of cattle — 80 buffaloes and 45 cows, the administration asserted that the total number of dead animals was just 27.

Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, Mohali SDM Jagdeep Sehgal said 27 animals had died so far in both dairy farms. “Of the 27, 19 were buffaloes, five cows and three calves,” said the SDM while refuting the claims of Jarnail Singh and Tarsem Lal.

“All animals have been buried under the supervision of our staff; so we know the exact number of dead animals,” said the SDM, adding that around 80 animals had taken ill.

“The treatment of the ill animals is being supervised by teams from Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University and Regional Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Jalandhar,” said Sehgal.

Jarnail Singh alleged that the administration did nothing to help them. “They (officials) visit our farms without any medicine or other paraphernalia. We were asked to arrange medicines on our own on which we have spent around Rs 12 lakh so far. Still our animals are dying,” claimed Jarnail Singh.

Asked about compensation, the SDM said the police were investigating the matter after registering a case against the supplier of hotel food, which was being given to the animals by their owners.

“Earlier, the owners did not let our teams collect samples of the food in question. We learnt that the food was having fungus. Then the owners were not ready for the postmortem of the animals, but later they relented following the intervention of Cabinet Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu. I will able to comment on the compensation only after a proper inquiry,” said the SDM.

He said the hotel food, which was usually oily and full of fat, was being given to animals just to increase the quantity of milk.