PLEASE ENFORCE…

Free roaming or wandering stray cattle come from bootleg or illegal or unauthorised or unregistered or unlicensed roadside dairies and cattle sheds.

Delhi High Court (HC) has ruled that their menace to the city dwellers is a violation of the Fundamental Right `Right to Life' guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

Herds of strays:

01) Block traffic and cause traffic jams / hazards / snarls / accidents.

02) Scavenge for mounds of garbage dumps in the polluted streets/roads in order to graze / eat / gorge it.

03) Give milk that spreads diseases such as tuberculosis, which causes 5,00,000 deaths each year (in India).

04) Defecate on roads and clog sewers with dung.

05) Make people who drink their garbage tainted or polluted milk sick.

06) Chase, attack/injure people and gore/trample them to death.

07) Are let loose by the owners to feed themselves untended.

08) Cause blockage of sewerage system and health hazards.

09) Add to the cities' garbage problem by rummaging through dustbins or garbage bins, spreading / littering trash, looking for food.

10) Can be seen tearing open plastic garbage bags in search of food and leaving trails of dung.

11) Squat and nap on busy roads / highways / intersections, and mingle among vendors in city markets.

12) Occupy parks and land in residential areas. Share public spaces with humans.

Unscrupulous owners of illegal cattle sheds or dairies provide regular clandestine income or bribes to a lot of vested interests.

Municipal leaders, are reluctant to rein in the strays because the "dairy dons'', or cattle mafia also control large vote-banks needed by politicians to retain their seats.

Cattle's stomach has 4 compartments.

The 1st stomach / compartment is called rumen. Food is swallowed and stored in rumen, to be regurgitated and chewed later at leisure.

The 2nd one is called recticulum. Recticulum is best-suited to store hard objects without hurting the animal.

Tiny computer microchip ID (used in Delhi and Punjab):

Has been developed by the Spanish company Rumitag.

Costs Rs.500/600/900 ($10/12/22)

Is hidden or put in an oral chalk-white and round-tipped ceramic capsule or pill made of a non-toxic inert metal of the size of a shotgun shell. Is shaped like a roll of dimes. Capsule is heavy enough so that it settles down in the rumen or recticulum and doesn't slip into the "fourth stomach", where most of the digestion takes place.

Mode of insertion or embedding into the animal's abdomen / stomach:
Gun is long-barrelled and spring-loaded. Capsules are placed in one end of a/the gun, which a cattle hand firmly shoves or forces it down about 2 feet down the cattle's throat, pulling a spring-loaded handle to release the capsule. The computer chip is shot down its stomach.

Capsule lodges or sticks in the second stomach, or recticulum, so it doesn't get excreted. Sometimes it'll be lodged, ticking, inside the cattle's rumens.

Each chip has a Unique Cattle Identification (UCI) or serial Number that reveals / carries all relevant details like data on age, breed, owner's name and details, dairy to which it belongs, the health history, vaccination details and sale/purchase details.

Whenever a portable scanner or an electronic wand or a hand-held reader is passed or waved near / across the cattle's stomach / belly, it picks up a signal from the chip and displays all the details.

This information is downloaded to a central database, to identify and fine negligent owners.

Buyers of auctioned strays pay for the chip. The new owners' names are listed in a computer database, along with their cattle's/cows' serial numbers.

Chip rids the cities of garbage-eating cattle and the polluted milk they produce. It saves both human and bovine lives.

The owner in Delhi is fined Rs.10,000 to Rs.15,000 each time his animal is caught wandering the streets/roads again. He's even arrested and prosecuted for the second offence.

Delhi High Court (HC) order / directive dated March 02, 2005

Unhappy with the mode of raids, the information about which is passed on to the owners of illegal dairies or cattle sheds in advance, the Delhi HC Bench directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) that its officers should not disclose the plan to every officers of the department.

The Court said care should be taken that even the police be not informed in advance about the plan and top officials of MCD should talk about the plan with police officer of the rank of DCP so that confidentiality about the raids be maintained and success could be achieved.

We request each and every state and union territory to amend its/their respective Municipal Acts / Laws so that the fine amount for each stray ranges from/between Rs.10,000/- to Rs.15,000/- and above and to ensure that the stray cattle owner is arrested and prosecuted each and every time he lets his cattle loose.

The author of this petition has personally experienced since 2004 that:

01) This menace is never taken seriously.

02) The stray cattle owners are alerted at least 1 or 2 days in advance about the arrival of veterinary inspector or the cattle catchers.

03) The cattle catchers are scared and disinterested in cattle catching. Instead of treating the complaint as a general or public complaint they intimidate, threaten and blackmail the complainant himself and take his signature under duress. They even threaten to lead the stray cattle owner to the complainant's residence if the stray cattle owner questions them. Isn't it the duty of the Municipality to solve the problem by itself without the need for the citizen to complain?

03) Malicious feedback is given to the municipality that not even a single stray could be found within a radius of 0.25 Kms from the complaint location/spot.

04) The stray cattle owner(s) listen(s) to the Municipality only for 1 or 2 days and for 10/15/25/30 days to the Police after giving a oral/written undertaking that he/they wouldn't let his/their cattle loose.

The Delhi HC in 2002/2003/2004 has ordered / directed the Delhi government to:

01) cancel the licence of a dairy or cattle shed in case the cattle belonging to it stray out of its dairy's or cattle shed's premises.

02) prosecute the stray cattle owners who let their cattle roam the city streets freely, under Section 289 of the Indian Penal Code.

03) disconnect water and power connections to all illegal dairies and cattle sheds (April, 15, 2004).

The section 289 IPC provides a minimum jail term of six months and maximum of one year and imposes a fine ( for/on each animal/stray ) on the owner if he fails to prevent his cattle/animal from causing any "probable" danger to human life, or a probable danger of grievous hurt to any other person.

In July/August 2005 the Delhi HC directed/ordered the Delhi Police to use Section 133 Cr.P.C. [Criminal Procedure Code] (for removal of nuisance or illegal dairies or cattle sheds). Several cases have already been filed in this regard.

We request each and every city Government, Municipality and Police to do the same.

In 2005 the Delhi HC had directed the MCD to publish advertisements in local newspapers giving the personal mobile phone numbers of Veterinary Officers and veterinary inspectors and two dedicated landline numbers on which members of the public could give information on stray cattle to MCD anytime.

We request the other Municipalities to do the same.

Tranquilliser pneumatic blowpipe used by MCD:

1) Is a stun/dart gun to subdue and capture violent stray cattle or bulls.

2) Is supplied by Noida-based company, Helpro Health Products and Services.

3) Costs Rs.33,000, range=20 meters, injects a combination of two drugs - xyaline and ketamine - to put the animal to sleep for nearly 45 minutes (antidote=antagozil).

4) Dosage 2-5 ml. depending upon the approximate size and weight of the animal.

In March 2002, Gujarat HC, following a writ petition by the Consumer Protection Council, had ordered that a committee for the Ahmedabad city be set up. The committee is headed by the DCP (Traffic); municipal commissioner, AUDA CEO and others are its members.

On June 29, 2005, the Gujarat HC issued notices to all the members of the committee comprising of retired HC judge S.D. Shah to prevent cattle menace in Ahmedabad.

The Delhi HC on Thursday, July 21, 2005, has set up a committee comprising the Delhi chief secretary, the commissioner of the MCD, the chairman of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

On Monday, July 25, 2005, the Gujarat HC has also appointed a eight-member committee comprising the government pleader; secretary, roads and buildings; secretary, revenue; secretary, urban development department; deputy commissioner of police; deputy commissioner, AMC; and two advocates - A Clerk and Harin Raval (member) - to look into the matter.

The Delhi HC has set up a six-member panel in 2005, to rid the city of stray cattle and to file status reports after every two weeks before it.

Those on the panel are: Delhi government's UD secretary, its divisional commissioner, MCD chairman, NDMC chairperson, Delhi Police joint commissioner (Traffic) and vice chairman of DDA.

We request other cities to set up similar committees.