BSF in action: Cattle seizures near Bangladesh border drop from over 1.5 lakh in 2015 to 20,000 in 2021

In what is a striking signal of the central government’s efforts to eradicate cattle smuggling, cattle seizures by the Border Security Force (BSF) on the Bangladesh border dropped down to 20,415 till November 2021 from 153,602 in 2015.

In fact, the numbers have been falling consistently from the last three years as they had plummeted 50 per cent from 1,19,299 in 2017 to 63,716 in 2018.

Then the seizures further reduced to 46,809 and 20,415 in 2019 and 2020 respectively, Indian Express reports.

The BSF has stationed extra personnel in order to monitor the border properly and also put an end to cattle smuggling in the region.

They stepped up their tracking of smugglers across the river by acquiring more speedboats and by taking strict action via the lethal and non-lethal weapon firing on the trans-border criminal. The BSF even referred to cattle smuggling as a form of sedition in an official statement in 2021.

“The Haryana breed of cows are hardly seized at the border now. But those from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are still turning up. If state governments act, BSF will not have to do this job,” a BSF official was quoted in the publication.

Source : Swarajya Magazine