Chennai: 17 cattle ‘poisoned to death’ for destroying millet crops

CHENNAI: At least 17 cattle were poisoned to death for allegedly straying into millet and destroying the crops at Kilambakkam, near Urapakkam in Kancheepuram district on Wednesday Night.

Officials said 13 goats, two Delhi buffaloes and two calves were lying in drowsy condition near the field on Kilambakkam lake bed and initial reports suggested that they might have been poisoned for allegedly destroying the millet crops. Officials found a bag of livestock feed alledgly mixed with a pesticide near the field though the farm owner said that he had not applied pesticide recently.

According to police, the livestock belonged to J. Kanchana(33) , Mariammal-Velu Raghavan, Paneer Selvam of Aringar anna colony of Kilambakkam. The incident happened on Wednesday evening when the cattle were grazing on the field.

One of the owners said " Usually the cattle will return home in the evening after grazing. However, on Wednesday, they did not come home till night. When we went to search, they were lying in a drowsy condition on the millet field. Within a few minutes, one by one, 17 animals died".

Guduvanchery police arrived at the spot and conducted inquiries. Someone might have poisoned the cattle to death as they destroys the village farming fields, police said. Based on a complaint lodged by the J.Kanchana the Guduvanchery police registered a case. The carcasses were sent to a veterinary clinic for post-mortem. Police said further action would be taken after getting the post-mortem report.