Stray cattle menace haunts villages near Bir Talab Zoo

Sumeer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 17

Residents living in villages near Bir Talab Zoo are a troubled lot these days as the number of stray cattle has increased in the area, posing a threat to commuters on roads and crops in the fields.

Residents of Bir Talab and Multania village rue that the problem of stray cattle have persisted in their area for the past few years. Lately, the number of stray cattle has increased manifold, posing a serious threat to their crops.

The area residents say people from other villages carry their cattle in trucks and drop them near the Bir Talab Zoo area. They said the number of such cattle was less as compared to last year. Now more people have started dropping stray cattle at these villages.

According to residents of these villages, the number of stray cattle in the area around Bir Talab Zoo has crossed well above 1,000 now. Left with no alternative, residents have now started hiring guards to protect their fields from stray cattle. The residents of Multania village have paid around Rs 5 lakh to guards in the past one year.

Harnam Singh, a farmer from Multania, said, “We are left with no choice but to pay money to hire guards otherwise our crops would be lost. A sum of Rs 2,000 is charged by the guard for one acre of land every year. I own around 15 acres of land and have to pay Rs 30,000 every year. Moreover, we have to feed the grass and husk to these stray cattle to keep them away from our fields.”

Harsewak Singh Gill, former sarpanch of Multania village, said, “The area around Bir Talab Zoo has become an ideal place for many villagers to drop stray cattle in bulk now. The availability of canal water, tree cover and easy availability of feed (grass offered by area people) have turned the area into a favourite place for stray cattle. People from not only nearby villages but also from distant places have started releasing stray cattle into the area for the past few months.”

Gill added, “Trucks laden with stray cattle are unloaded near the area during late night hours. We have hired private guards to keep a vigil but people from other villages often outsmart them and drop these stray cattle around three to four kilometres away from the periphery of our village.”

As stray cattle roam most of the roads in the area for most part of the day, commuters find it difficult to negotiate their way through herds of cattle. A number of road accidents have been witnessed in the area in the past.