Bihar: 87 cattle rescued by AWBI in Purnia, FIR lodged

PATNA: The members of

Animal Welfare Board of India

(

AWBI

) with the help of police, rescued 87 cattle stuffed inside three trucks and a pickup van from Mirganj and Baisi in

Purnia

district while they were being smuggled to West Bengal on Monday night.

Five dead bulls were also recovered from the trucks. The cattle were picked up from weekly animal fair which takes place Banmankhi in the district on every Monday.

Two separate FIRs were lodged with the Mirganj and Baisi police station in the district in this connection.

Mirganj police station SHO Menka Rai said that all the seized trucks were bearing registration number of West Bengal. “The truck drivers and other persons carrying the cattle fled from the spot. No documents related to the cattle transport were produced before police,” the SHO said.

AWBI member Neeru Gupta, said that out of the 87 cattle, 32 were male calves while rest were adult bulls.

“They were stuffed badly inside the vehicles which perhaps resulted death of five bulls. They were ultimately meant to be smuggled to Bangladesh for slaughtering after taking them across the borders of Bihar and West Bengal,” Gupta said alleging that continuous illegal cattle transportation is taking place from the weekly cattle fair right under the nose of police and district administration but officials have turned a blind eye towards it.

She said that the almost after continuously calling police officials for almost two hours, they received help to rescue the cattle.

“Our team continued to chase the trucks for more than 50 kilometres from the cattle fair until police reached for help,” Gupta added.