Cow Smuggling: Pay 500 Taka and Your Cow is Legal in Bangladesh

The choking of cow smuggling has resulted in an increase in non-milking cows in India.

Captured cattle at the unfenced Indo-Bangladesh border. (Photo-Reuters)

Even as politics over the beef ban continues to rage, the smuggling of cows across the India-Bangladesh border continues unabated.

The Quint had earlier reported that two million cows were smuggled annually till 2014, and that this year, that figure has come down. But The Quint has now learned more about this illegal trade.

500 Taka to Regularise Cows

A source at the Border Security Force (BSF) says the Bangladesh government has set up a ‘Cattle Corridor’ at the border. At this corridor, smugglers pay 500 Bangladeshi Taka (approximately Rs 417) as custom duty for every cow that is smuggled from India. This is how smuggled cows are legalised and sold in Bangladesh.

Cows are smuggled right under the nose of the Bangladesh Government. For them, beef is a big industry. What we fail to understand is - while on one hand they run the Cattle Corridor, the Bangladesh Rifles and BSF also jointly patrol the border to control illegal activities. Patrolling during the night has been successful.
– Senior BSF Official to The Quint

The Non-milking Cows Conundrum

An increase in vigilance at the border has curbed smuggling, but it has raised another problem - what to do with non-milking cows. Smugglers in India buy them for roughly Rs 5000 and sell them across the border for 30,000-50,000 Taka.

In the absence of smuggling, India will have to find ways to care for these cows, who account for a significant chunk of India’s cow population. Government records state that out of 12 crore cows in 2012, 2.51 crore of them were non-milking cows.

“Kisi ke maa baap budhe ho jayenge toh kya wo unhe kasayiyo ke haath beech denge. Koi bhi gaye non productive nhi hoti. Unke surakhsha ke liye Sarkar ko gaushala bana chahiye. Inhe kasayiyo ke haatho nahi de dena chahiye. Ek gaaye kitne bhi budhi kyu na ho wo phir 100 rupayee din ka apne gobar ke jariye kama ke de sakti hai” (If your parents are old, you won’t sell them to a butcher. No cow is unproductive. The government should make arrangements for a cowshed. Even an old cow can fetch Rs 100 a day through cow dung.)
— Yogi Adityanath, BJP, MP to The Quint

According to Adityanath, a proposal has already been sent to the government to set up shelters to protect non-milking cows. He says the government is considering this proposal.

Why Cattle Smuggling on the Border Can’t Be Stopped

BSF Jawan at the India-Bangladesh border. (Photo-Reuters)

Increased vigilance against smuggling alone does not help.

Once cattle is seized at the India-Bangladesh border by the Border Security Force, it is handed over to custom officers for auction. But at auctions, the cattle is once again bought by smugglers, who smuggle them across the border.

What helps smugglers is that less than 50 percent of the Indo-Bangladesh border is fenced. Even the fenced areas have more than 800 gaps.

Yet another challenge for the BSF are the Indian villages — 40 of them — on the border.

For us, many-a-time it becomes difficult to identify whether someone is Indian or Bangladeshi without his identity papers. It is impossible to find out how many cows are there in a particular village and how many of them have been smuggled.

— Senior BSF official to The Quint

The BSF says it has identified 64 corridors in West Bengal and Assam which are vulnerable to smuggling. It conducts operations, especially at night, when cattle are smuggled. The BSF claims that so far 25 smugglers have been killed.

Yet another challenge are the eight illegal cattle markets in West Bengal. These markets are illegal because as per law, no such market can be established within 7 km radius of an international border. The BSF official we spoke to says, “It’s not just our duty to stop cattle smuggling at the border. State Government should also immediately shift these markets to assist us in curbing smuggling.”

Advanced Measures Adopted by BSF to Stop Smuggling

• BSF claims it has reinforced fencing at the Indo-Bangladesh border.
• Alarm systems have been placed a few steps from the fence, which go off the moment someone tries to approach it.
• Deep trenches have been dug at the border to make it inaccessible.
• Surveillance activity at the Indo-Bangladesh border has been increased

The BSF says it has also caught several of its own jawans taking bribes from smugglers. Some of them have been suspended and even terminated from the job.