Visakhapatnam: Police seized 13 tonnes of beef from a truck on the national highway near P.L. Puram Junction, Payakaraopeta, Anakapalli, on Sunday morning, even as animal activists contended this was just one of the hundreds of trucks transporting the meat using this highway.
Payakaraopeta Police and local revenue officials later buried the meat. The police said the meat was hidden under iron rods and covered with a tarpaulin sheet in the truck, which bore an Odisha number plate.
The destination of the meat remained a mystery as the driver fled when the vehicle was being searched.
Speaking to this newspaper, founder and president of Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals, Pradeep Nath said his society volunteers estimated that every day at least 10 trucks carrying cattle pass through Anandapuram Junction in Visakhapatnam.
He said gangs from neighbouring Odisha and northern Andhra are engaged in the illegal transportation of cattle to various destinations from north coastal districts AP.
He said smugglers procure the cattle from Pedamanapuram, Alamanda, Kandivalasa, and a few other locations in Vizianagaram district and ASR district where weekly ‘shandies’ (weekly markets) are organised and the cattle is transported to other states.
“The cows are sent to Rajasthan, Odisha, West Benagl (Kolkata) and Telangana (Hyderabad), while the buffalos are sent to Kerala and Karnataka. This is the first time beef was caught,” Nath said.
He said the mode of transport of livestock was atrocious, crammed in containers without food and water and transported long distances.
Many of them die before reaching the destination, he added.
He said the Animal Welfare Board as mandated setting up of the District Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for all districts to rescue and put them in shelters.
Nowhere a shelter has been established till now, he said.
Nath said he had asked the local administration to give him land to establish a shelter but did not get any response. His society shelters more than 500 cows, he said.
A local official said land has been acquired in Madhurawada area of Visakhapatnam city but due to paucity of funds, the shelter could not be opened.
