The Delhi-based Gau Gyan Foundation (GGF) and the Bharat Raksha Manch (BRM) have sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in checking cattle smuggling through Odisha, particularly through Baleswar.
In a four-page memorandum submitted to Modi during his June 2 visit to Baleswar, the GGF mentioned, “The cattle mafia has links with terrorists, a fact known to the Union Home Ministry for the last decade, and no State or Central Government can afford to take the crime of cattle-smuggling lightly.”
It said that 4,000 cattle in a cavalcade of trucks are smuggled each day from Baleswar to the slaughter houses of West Bengal and Bangladesh.
“It saddens me to tell you that Odisha, as the single largest conduit of cattle-smugglers, is the number one facilitator in the heinous crime of cow slaughter,” said GGF spokersperson Jagpreet luthra.
luthra, who has been in Odisha for the last seven weeks, said though she has received “affirmative support” from individual SPs, yet the enormity and the gravity of the crime and the doggedness of the cattle mafia necessitate positive action at the highest Government level.
luthra, a journalist, had camped at various places along the east coast of the State for almost 200 days over the last three years. Even she with help of police had blocked the smugglers at the Seragarh tollgate in Baleswar thrice.
BRM co-convenor Murali Manohar Sharma said terrorism, organised crime, gun running, drug smuggling and human trafficking are closely linked with the cattle smuggling mafia. He had recently met Home Minister Rajnath Singh l and proposed for setting up a Cattle Taskforce.
According to the memorandum, a strong section of the Odisha Police is “hand-in-glove with the cattle mafia, the main reason why the crime is thriving.” However, it would be “unfair” to lay the entire blame on the police, as they have genuine problems of the shortage of human and material resources, the memorandum pointed out.
luthra said there hardly any animal rescue shelters in Oidha and the district Collector are not serious of it.
Murali Sharma added that the case of the Rayagada Collector in the matter of Tirtha Sahoo is just an example of how Collectors are serious on taking measures to check cow smuggling and protecting activists.
The GGF has trained hundreds of volunteers in lawful cattle rescue work all over the country, has got almost 2,000 FIRs booked across 12 States and saved lakhs of cattle.