Guwahati: The increased surveillance in central India’s “cow corridor” has led to sharp decline in cattle smuggling to Bangladesh though international border in Assam and Meghalaya. Informing that seizures of cattle brought for smuggling has come down by about 97 per cent in Dhubri sector alone this year in comparison to the record of last year, security sources said that between April and July, 158 cattle heads were seized and 88 smuggling cases detected whereas during the corresponding period of 2017, the number of cattle heads seized was 4,511 and cases detected was 278.
Sources in the custom department equate the number of seizures to the flow of cattle to the border for smuggling implying that drop in seizure also reflects a decline in illegal trade. The decline in smuggling was identical along the international border in Meghalaya too. The records of BSF reveal that while 1,74,469 cattle heads were seized during 2016, it dropped to 1,11,615 in 2017. The BSF which guards 444-km long international border with Bangladesh in Meghalaya has seized 16,847 cattle heads till May 31 this year.
Sources in BSF attribute the sharp decline in cattle smuggling to multiple-factors including the pro-active approach of the ministry of home affairs to stop it. While supply lines were also blocked by security agencies, cow vigilantism in Central India – from where the cattle is supplied – was another key factor that led to a drop in the illegal trade. Pointing out that both the BSF and state police have increased its strength on the border and enhanced vigil, sources in the BSF said that the BSF was also implementing the BOLD-QIT project (Border Electronically Dominated – QRT Interception Technique) in unfenced riverine area of Brahmaputra and its tributary rivers in Dhubri.
