State-based officials involved with the anti-cow smuggling drive say that out of 149 Bengal villages in eight districts which share their border with Bangladesh, organised criminal gangs have continued their activities in around 50. The difficult nature of the border terrain in some areas, where the international boundary runs through rivers or creeks, poses problems for law enforcing agencies. The criminal nexus between smugglers and a section of local politicians and officials also affects the performance and morale of the Border Security Force(BSF) in some pockets.

But the overall success of the recent efforts made by the central and state governments to stop cow smuggling is beyond dispute. At a recent meeting of the BSF in Delhi, Union Home Minister Mr Rajnath Singh said that from an estimated 23,00,000 or so heads of cattle smuggled to Bangladesh annually earlier, at present the figure was around 300,000 or thereabout in recent times.

The Indian ban on beef exports has had a great effect in Bangladesh, where the price of beef (not buffalo meat) has risen threefold, from Taka 150 to around Taka 350/400. During major festivals such as Eid, etc, prices go up much higher.

This naturally hits most pockets in Bangladesh very hard. The demand for quality livestock there can be gauged statistically: during Eid a few weeks ago, over 30,000 cattle(mostly cows) were slaughtered in the greater Dhaka area only.

Quite apart from making a major difference for the worse in terms of the food intake of the people in Bangladesh, the reduced supply of beef has hurt some sectors of the economy, such as the production of leather goods, which were being exported earlier. Workers have had to be laid off as production slumped in the absence of raw material. The export of beef from Bangladesh has also gone down sharply.

Bangladesh is currently trying to buy cows from Nepal, but the effort has not succeeded because cattle found in Nepal is not of the same class as those imported /smuggled from the North Indian States.

However, the ban on illegal cow smuggling has also added to the tensions of the West Bengal police and the BSF as well. This is apart from the overzealous activities of ultra-right Hindu organisations, which have begun an unofficial census of cows in the state. Apprehending communal tensions in a state where Muslims account for around 27 per cent of the population, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lost no time to warn and condemn such activities in public meetings.

According to one analyst, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has to tread with great care in handling this issue. ‘Unable to ignore Hindu majority sentiments, the Chief Minister has issued strict orders to the police and other officials to curb firmly any smuggling of cows. She has warned offenders that their political affiliations if any, would not save them from punishment. On the other hand, she cannot afford to offend her Muslim support base, which has stood by the TMC both in the 2011 and 2016 State Assembly polls. It would be interesting to see how long the ruling party can keep both sides happy over a highly sensitive issue,’ he says.

Mainly state-based Muslims were organising cows to be sent to Bangladesh, along with some Hindus. Commercial interests have trumped religious sentiments. Influential people have been working in tandem with their contacts and fellow traders in other Indian states. The long chain of operatives is a powerful entity as it suborns some policemen, officials and politicians at every level.

Estimates of cattle smuggled daily from India to Bangladesh vary widely, from 25,000 to 60,000 heads a day, depending on the seasons and special occasions like festivals. The annual turnover in the illegal cattle smuggling is an estimated Rs 15000 crore.

The recent ban on cow slaughter in some states has affected the prospects of tannery owners and the leather trade in India as well. But in West Bengal, the immediate reaction has come directly from the underworld itself.

Only weeks ago, State Food Minister Jyotipriya Mullick told newsmen that as he was going out on his usual morning work one morning, he was almost run over by a speeding car, which appeared out of nowhere! Attributing this to illegal livestock traffickers, he said that they had also sent threatening messages to him, as the state government began co-operating with the Centre in the matter. He filed a complaint with the police.

Elsewhere, especially Anuradhapur in Malda and Phansidewa in north Bengal, the BSF and the police have been attacked by criminals using firearms as they intercepted trucks carrying cows, meant for dispatch across the international border. A few hundreds of animals have been saved, while the miscreants involved mostly fled under cover of darkness when clashes occurred.

However, BSF personnel have been injured as the escaping criminals used their firearms and several arrests were made.

The Malda incident led to an ugly situation where the criminals could organise a big local mob in their support, which forced the police to retreat. The crowd then destroyed documents in the local thana, attacking it and setting some vehicles on fire. The situation remained tense for several hours in this communally sensitive, Muslim-majority border district, which also accounts for the circulation of almost 80 per cent of fake Indian currency seized by different agencies.

Bangladesh is trying to regularize the cattle trade by organizing legal sale and purchase of animals through local fairs. The move would bring in revenue that is lost by Governments on both sides of the order. It has made a suggestion to India to this effect. However, a similar effort made by Dhaka when Mrs Khaleda Zia was heading a BNP-led Government some years ago did not succeed. (IPA Service)