Cattle theft, more commonly cattle raiding or cattle lifting, is a property crime in India. In the ancient and medieval era India texts, stealing cattle is described as a crime and sin, a motif that appears in Hindu mythologies.
[
In the colonial and postcolonial eras, it has been a common crime but one marked with contradictions. According to David Gilmartin, the crime of cattle theft was perceived by the colonial-era British officials as a "potential political danger" that threatened "to corrupt the whole structure of the administration, for its pervasiveness threatened to undercut the position of the state as the protector and legal guarantor of the individual as a productive owner of revenue-producing property". In contemporary times, the demand for meat has led to cattle becoming a target of mass-theft.] According to ''The New York Times'' and other sources, cattle theft for beef production is a lucrative business in India.
India has over 30,000 illegal slaughterhouses that operate in filthy conditions.[ According to ''The New York Times'', cattle theft is partly a source of supplies to illegal slaughterhouses.]
Mythology, rituals and texts
Ancient myths in India such as those found in the Vedas mention cattle raiding, where it is described in terms of cosmogonic significance. These cow-theft myths trigger war and a cycle of retaliations such as in the story of Parashurama
Parashurama (), also referred to as Rama Jamadagnya, Rama Bhargava and Veerarama, is the sixth avatar among the Dashavatara of the preserver god Vishnu in Hinduism. He is believed to be one of the ''Chiranjeevis'' (Immortals), who will appear ...
, a warrior Brahmin avatar of Hindu god Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...
, who kills numerous Kashatriyas (warrior caste) after the theft of his father's mythical cow by the king.
In the ''Ramayana'', states Alf Hiltebeitel
Alfred John Hiltebeitel (born 1942) is Columbian Professor of Religion, History, and Human Sciences at George Washington University in Washington DC, USA. His academic specialism is in ancient Sanskrit epics such as the ''Mahabharata'' and ''Ramaya ...
, a myth speaks of the sins of "murdering children, sages and cows" leading to war, migration of communities and social upheavel. The story, states Hiltebeitel, not only condemns the murder of a sage and the theft of a cow, but also extends its analogy between calves and children.[ The ''Kamadhenu'' and Vasistha-Visvamitra conflict legend found in the ''Ramayana'', states Adheesh Sathaye, is based on cattle theft motif, where Visvamitra fails to steal the mythical cow, repents and transforms himself into a Brahmin sage.][Adheesh Sathaye (2007), How to become a Brahman, Acta Orientalia Vilnensia, Volume 8, Number 1, pp. 47-58]
Cattle are mentioned in the Vedas more often than any other animals. In the ''Rigveda'', the term ''Gavisti'' is mentioned in the context of conflict or battle, and this may be related to cattle raids state Macdonell and Keith. The penalty for injuring a bull was ten cows, according to Calvin Schwabe, for the theft of a cow, death. Stealing a cow, states Patrick Olivelle
Patrick Olivelle is an Indologist. A philologist and scholar of Sanskrit Literature whose work has focused on asceticism, renunciation and the dharma, Olivelle has been Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions in the Department of Asian Studi ...
, is one of the crimes and sins in ''Manusmriti
The ''Manusmṛiti'' ( sa, मनुस्मृति), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitution among the many ' of Hinduism. In ancient India, the sages often wrote their ...
''.
History
Cattle looting is mentioned as a form of warfare among pastoral peoples in the history of India. Competitive raiding a means to show prowess by youth and community solidarity in colonial era Punjab.
David Gilmartin states that "cattle were among the most ubiquitous and important forms of moveable property in India, and cattle stealing was among the most prevalent crimes in northern India during the colonial period" in the 19th century. However, adds Gilmartin, cattle thefts in India were "marked by contradictions" with many village and clan chiefs involved in cattle theft networks and shared in the profits in western Punjab. These were recognized by the colonial government as "key administrative intermediaries".[David Gilmartin (2003), Cattle, crime and colonialism: Property as negotiation in north India, ''The Indian Economic & Social History Review'', Volume 40, Issue 1, pages 33-56, Quote: "(...) 'The heads of villages and even the chiefs of clans,' the British reported, 'connive at the practice, and participate in the profits.’ In the late nineteenth century almost all the leading men of the pastoral bar, the arid interfluvial tracts of the western Punjab, including many of those recognised as key administrative intermediaries by the British, were rassagirs-men who protected networks of cattle theft."] The crime came to be known as "cattle lifting" (like shop lifting), and it was practiced by thieves, by organized mafia and by armies during conquest. Cattle theft were a source of riots and civil disturbances. Hundreds of riots erupted in colonial India over cow slaughter. The village ''"muqaddam
( ar, مقدم) is an Arabic title, adopted in other Islamic or Islamicate cultures, for various civil or religious officials.
As per the Persian records of medieval India, muqaddams, along with khots and chowdhurys, acted as hereditary rural in ...
"'' (chiefs) pursued peace in the village, and British administrators added laws aimed at preventing cattle theft.
According to Ramnarayan Rawat, a professor of South Asian History, cattle theft (or ''languri'') was the "most widely reported crime investigated by the Uttar Pradesh police
The Uttar Pradesh Police (UP Police), (IAST: ), is the primary law enforcement agency within the Uttar Pradesh state of India. Established in 1863 as the Office of the Inspector General of Police, United Provinces under the ''Police Act, 1861'' ...
in the 1880s and 1890s, and was considered the most organized and widespread agricultural crime because cows were regarded as the most valuable animal in Indian society." The convicted cattle thieves were from various Hindu castes such as Thakurs, Rajputs, Kurmis, Brahmins, Chamars, as well as Muslims. During this period and through the early part of 20th-century, the British administration routinely accused Chamar
Chamar is a Dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. ...
s (untouchables, Hindus) of large-scale cattle deaths by poisoning and of theft for the purposes of obtaining skins for leather trade. According to Rawat, these accusations were "standard bureaucratic response" that continued after the British rule ended.
In 1930, an elderly Hindu woman alleged that Bengali Muslims had stolen her bullock, for sacrifice during the Islamic festival of Bakri-Id
Eid al-Adha () is the second and the larger of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to Allah's comm ...
, when she saw her bullock in the Digboi
Digboi (IPA: ˈdɪgˌbɔɪ) is a town and a town area committee in Tinsukia district in the north-eastern part of the state of Assam, India
Crude oil was discovered here in late 19th century and first oil well was dug in 1866. Digboi is known a ...
market place. Hindus with sticks and Muslims with stones collected, triggering waves of riots in this part of Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
, accompanied by looting and killings.
According to David H. Bayley, a professor of Criminal Justice, the crime of "cattle theft is a matter of deadly seriousness in India," because it is an agrarian society where "many people live on the cheerless threshold of starvation". Cattle, states Bayley, are as important as children and grown adults "weep bitterly over the loss of their stock". In 1963 alone, over 20,000 cases of cattle thefts and arrests were reported in India.
Contemporary situation
The above graphs show: (a) the amount of cattle theft in India per 100,000 people, also called the ''rate'', during the years 1953–2015 (shown in colour seagreen) and (b) the share (as percentage) of cattle theft in total major (cognizable) crime during the same period (shown in colour orchid). The graphs are based on tables of statistics from NCRB reports 1953–2015, India.
According to Roshan Kishore, writing in ''Live Mint'', analysis of data published by India's National Crime Records Bureau shows that the proportion of cattle theft in overall theft in India declined during the period 1990–2014 both in the number of incidents reported and the value of the property taken.
The above graph shows the annual numbers of reported cattle theft in India during the years 1953–2015, also based on tables of statistics from NCRB reports 1953–2015, India.
A 2013 report by Gardiner Harris's in the ''Delhi Journal'' of ''The New York Times'' stated that cattle theft had increased in recent times in New Delhi, linked to an increase in the consumption of meat among Indians. The meat was primarily chicken, but included beef. Harris argued that cattle were left free to roam the streets, making them easy targets. According to ''The Hindu'' newspaper, analysis of data published by India's National Sample Survey 2016 shows that less than one per cent of Hindus in the Hindi belt
The Hindi Belt, also known as the Hindi Heartland, is a linguistic region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern and western India where various Central Indo-Aryan languages subsumed under the term 'Hindi' (for example, by the In ...
consume beef or buffalo meat. Over the ten-year period, 1999-2000 to 2011–2012, the consumption of beef or buffalo meat by Hindus in India declined from 19 million to 12.5 million.
According to ''The New York Times'', organized mafia gangs pick up the cattle they can find and sell them to illegal slaughterhouses. These crimes are locally called "cattle rustling" or "cattle lifting".[ According to media reports, India has numerous illegal slaughterhouses. For example, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the officials in 2013 reported over 3,000 illegal slaughterhouses.][ According to Nanditha Krishna, there are an estimated 30,000 such illegal slaughter sites in India, typically operating in filthy conditions. These illegal activities increases during the festival seasons and various religious rituals linked to animal sacrifice because of the shortage and high demand in Indian and International market. ][PETA asks for illegal slaughterhouses’ closure]
The Hindu (1 April 2017)
The theft of cattle for slaughter and beef production is economically attractive to the mafias in India. In 2013, states Gardiner Harris, a truck can fit 10 cows, each fetching about 5,000 rupees (about US$94 in 2013), or over US$900 per cattle stealing night operation. In a country where some 800 million people live on less than US$2 per day, such theft-based mafia operations are financially attractive.[ According to Andrew Buncombe, when smuggled across the border, the price per cattle increases nearly threefold and the crime is even more attractive financially.] Many states have reported rising thefts of cattle and associated violence, according to ''The Indian Express''.
Cattle smuggling in India
Cattle smuggling in India is the movement of cattle for slaughter and processing from the states of India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
where cattle slaughter
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
is illegal to those states where it is legal as well as to neighboring countries such as Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. It is widespread in India, with some estimates stating that over a million cattle are smuggled every year.[
Cattle smuggling, states Jason Cons – a professor of Anthropology with publications on India-Bangladesh border communities, is a significant source of communal tension as it implies "transportation of sacred cattle owfor slaughter in Muslim meat markets".] It is also a source of crimes, violence and has trigerred disputes between the border officials at the India-Bangladesh border.[
]
Within India
According to Frederick Simoons, cattle smuggling was prevalent during the colonial era such as to the Portuguese Goa
Old Goa ( Konkani: ; pt, Velha Goa, translation='Old Goa') is a historical site and city situated on the southern banks of the River Mandovi, within the Tiswadi ''taluka'' (''Ilhas'') of North Goa district, in the Indian state of Goa.
The ci ...
. It supplied the urban Goan demand for beef. In the post-colonial era, the reports and scale of cattle smuggling is astounding, where cattle is transported every day in thousand of trucks from Ganges Valley region to slaughterhouses in West Bengal in order to produce beef for exports.[; Quote: "In 1992, for example, there were reports of cattle sold in bazaars supplying large scale cattle smuggling operations by rail and truck in the very heartland of Hinduism, the Ganges Valley. The numbers are astounding: almost five thousand cattle trucks passed daily through one town on their way to slaughterhouses in the port of Calcutta, with frozen beef ultimately reaching consumers in the Near East."]
Cows are often smuggled from states such as Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
to slaughterhouses elsewhere, states Amrita Basu. Between January 2009 and February 2016, the Rajasthan police registered over 3,000 cases of cow smuggling, arrested nearly 6,000 people for the crime, and seized over 2,700 vehicles used for cattle smuggling over the seven-year period, states a report in ''The Hindustan Times''.
Cattle smuggling in India, states Reena Martins, is an organized and violent criminal network. In Bihar for example, cow smugglers chopped off the fingers of a railway crossing gate guard when he refused to allow smuggling trucks to pass through before a train.[ Corruption, bribes and cruelty to animals is a routine part of the operation. Martins states that the racket controlled by the "meat mafia" is worth $5 billion in India, and the smuggled cattle are sold for slaughter in ''khattals'' with much of the smuggling destined to supply the meat demand in Bangladesh.][A dark trade]
Reena Martins, The New Indian Express (23 July 2017)
The Indian state of Jharkhand
Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...
expanded its cattle slaughter-related laws in 2005 and has criminalized "killing, cruelty to and smuggling of cows". The Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
state officials announced in 2017 that they will prosecute cattle smugglers under the "NSA, Gangsters Act", which allows authorities to treat anyone caught smuggling cattle under its statutes for organized crime.
Bangladesh
Smuggling of cattle and other forms of trafficking is widespread across the India-Bangladesh border. Estimates place the number of illegally smuggled to over one million a year.[ Vested interests across all parties have failed to curb the large scale smuggling, with some Hindus also involved in the cattle smuggling operations. Cattle smuggling and trade is lucrative and it is a key means for the local elites at the India-Bangladesh border for raising money for politics and for acquiring personal wealth.]
Cattle smuggling from India into Bangladesh is akin to drug smuggling networks, states Debdatta Chowdhury.[ A portion of the smuggled cattle – mainly cows and ox – is obtained from the western and northern states of India with predominantly non beef-eating Hindu population, transported across India and smuggled across the West Bengal border to satisfy the demand in the predominantly Muslim Bangladesh.][ The states which serve as main sources of this smuggled cattle include ]Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
, Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
, Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
, Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
, Bihar
Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...
and Odisha
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...
. According to Chowdhury, between 5000 and 15,000 cows are smuggled everyday across the Bangladesh border. The smuggling generates an average of about US$20 per cow in income for the smuggler, about US$7 in bribes for Bangladeshi border officials and about US$8 in bribes for Indian border officials.[Debdatta Chowdhury (2016), ''Crossers of the peripheries: Some aspects of cross-border livelihood practices along the West Bengal-Bangladesh border'', Westminster Law Review, 5(1), pages 1-11] Another report by Ashish, Patthak and Khan in ''India Today'' states that the operation is a well organized racket of smugglers who use bribes, rampant corruption and evade the law almost every day. They smuggle "young and ageing" cattle from India to Bangladesh slaughterhouses, while the payment is handled through hawala
Hawala or hewala ( ar, حِوالة , meaning ''transfer'' or sometimes ''trust''), also known as in Persian, and or in Somali, is a popular and informal value transfer system based on the performance and honour of a huge network of money b ...
black market.
Other sources estimate the cattle smuggling volume at a different level. According to ''The Sunday Guardian'', "cattle smuggling is rampant in Bengal, with an estimated 60,000 heads of cattle being smuggled out of India into Bangladesh, every day" in 2015, but the rate of this smuggling has dropped because of rising surveillance at the international border.[Bengal’s cow smuggling business is drying up]
Dibyendu MONDAL, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, The Sunday Guardian, (11 June 2017) The cattle smuggling rate is placed at nearly two million a year by Robert Wirsing and Samir Das in a 2016 report, with an annual value of about US$1.5 billion.
Cattle smugglers, states ''The Times of India'', use dyes to recolor and camouflage the cattle. This makes cattle identification difficult to ease their smuggling across the border, while some groups use grazing pretext to evade the Indian Border Security Force.
Hundreds of thousands of cows, states the British newspaper ''The Independent'' in a 2012 article, are illegally smuggled from India into Bangladesh every year to be slaughtered.[ Gangs from both sides of the border are involved in this illegal smuggling involving an estimated 1.5 million (15 lakhs) cattle a year, and cattle theft is a source of the supply, states Andrew Buncombe.][ According to a 2014 report by ''The International Business Times'', criminal gangs steal and smuggle cattle from India into Bangladesh, an operation that yields them "hundreds of millions of dollars annually in illicit profits". Not only it hurts the cattle owners, the activity is dangerous as it leads to deaths of the "perpetrators and innocent bystanders", states Palash Ghosh.]
According to ''The New Indian Express'', the villagers near the Bangladesh border state that cow thefts in the region increase before and during the Islamic festival of Ramzan and then these are smuggled across the border nearby.
The New Indian Express, Aishik Chanda (2017) The Eid-ul-Zuha, or the Islamic festival of animal sacrifice, increases the demand for sacrificial cattle in Bangladesh and the illegal activity by the cattle smugglers across the porous border from West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
through Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
to Tripura
Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
, states ''The Economic Times''. Indian border officials have been using various strategies to reduce or end the smuggling across the Bangladesh border. They allege that their Bangladeshi counterparts are not doing as much as they could, states Katy Daigle, to prevent "illegal cross-border smuggling" of cattle. In contrast, some Bangladeshi officials state that cattle smuggling and associated crime would end if India would accept cow slaughter and legalize cow exports for beef production in Bangladesh.[
Bangladesh and India share over 4,000 kilometers of border, with many rivers, hills, highways and rural roads. The border is quite porous to goods and people movement. The border security is limited and cattle smuggling is a common crime, states Smruti Pattanaik. According to Zahoor Rather, trade in stolen cattle is one of the important crime-related border issues between India and Bangladesh. A 2017 ]Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
panel led by the Congress leader P. Chidambaram
Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...
criticized the West Bengal government for its failures related to rampant cattle smuggling to Bangladesh.
Government authorities and local residents in areas surrounding Bangladesh have stated that frequent cattle-smuggling across the border from India is causing an increase in cattle theft."
Hundreds of thousands of cows, states the British newspaper ''The Independent'' in a 2012 article, are illegally smuggled from India into Bangladesh every year to be slaughtered.[ Gangs from both sides of the border are involved in this illegal smuggling involving an estimated 1.5 million (15 lakhs) cattle a year, and cattle theft is a source of the supply, states Andrew Buncombe.][ According to a 2014 report by ''The International Business Times'', criminal gangs steal and smuggle cattle from India into Bangladesh, an operation that yields them "hundreds of millions of dollars annually in illicit profits". Not only it hurts the cattle owners, the activity is dangerous as it leads to deaths of the "perpetrators and innocent bystanders", states Palash Ghosh.]
(...) the illegal mass-theft of cattle is a huge problem thousands of miles away from the Chisum Trail – on the border between India and Bangladesh. Along the largely porous boundary between Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, cattle-raids and cattle-smuggling, often conducted by criminal gangs, raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually in illicit profits. The activity is so lucrative and dangerous that it often costs the lives of the perpetrators and innocent bystanders. (...) Bimal Pramanik, an independent researcher in Kolkata, told the Monitor that Bangladesh has an insatiable demand for beef. 'Bangladeshi slaughterhouses cannot source even 1 million cows from within the country. If Indian cows do not reach the Bangladeshi slaughterhouses, there will be a big crisis there,' he said, adding that he estimates three-fourths of all cows slaughtered in Bangladesh originated in India. In this thriving trade, erds ofcows worth 50 billion rupees are sent across to Bangladesh every year. (...);
Impact on cattle theft in India
Government authorities and local residents in areas surrounding Bangladesh state that frequent cattle-smuggling across the border from India is causing an increase in Cattle theft in India and other crimes:
*According to a 2011 article in ''The Telegraph'', "people living in the border areas in Dhubri district complained that unabated smuggling of cattle resulted in cattle theft".[Bangla profits up cattle smuggling](_blank)
The Telegraph, Sumir Karmakar (2011)
*According to a 2016 report in ''The Tribune'', "rampant smuggling to Bangladesh had triggered cattle theft in many parts of the state, especially in eastern Assam".
*In West Bengal, rival cattle smuggling gangs have killed and burnt people and cattle alive. According to Clive Phillips, stealing of cattle from northeast India is a source of the smuggled cattle and the operation is "rife with bribes, corruption and murders of rival smuggling gang members".
Incidents
*In November 2015, a man in Manipur
Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanm ...
was spotted by locals walking with a missing calf. They accused him of theft and lynched him.
*In Uttar Pradesh, four people were arrested after they threw away bovine carcass and confessed to stealing and slaughtering of cattle.
*In March 2016, villagers near Nagpur
Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...
(Maharashtra) reported 60 thefts of cattle within a year. The cattle owners alleged that gangs were behind the theft and they were selling the stolen cattle to slaughterhouses.
*In January 2017, villagers in Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
chased a truck carrying stolen cattle, caught two cattle thieves and handed them over to police. The truck toppled over, killing one of the cows inside the truck.
*Riots broke out in Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
when local people discovered a partially decomposed calf head near a road side butcher shop.
*In West Bengal, according to a June 2017 Indian Express report, villagers of Durgapur showed "copies of nearly two dozen police complaints of cow thefts", then claimed that the police asked them to take care of such "petty matters" themselves. Further poor farmers complained of economic calamity from the thefts and a willingness to beat anybody they catch with stolen cattle. In northern region of the state, a gang of about 10 men came in a van in an alleged attempt in a village to steal cows, and a few of them were shot dead after they had entered a cowshed and had already taken cows from two homes.
*In Assam, two Muslim teenagers were killed, after they were caught untying two cows in a pasture and then suspected of trying to steal those cows. According to The Financial Express, cow smugglers use cruel methods such as dumping them in fast flowing rivers to transport cows into Bangladesh.
*In Uttar Pradesh, three suspects were caught stealing a buffalo by villagers and beaten up according to an April 2017 report. In June 2017, a farmer was killed by a gang of cattle thieves near Agra
Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...
at night when the farmer protested.
*In Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
, a 5-member gang was arrested on charges of cattle theft after tip off and surveillance in July 2017. The police accused the gang of "sedating the cattle, piling more than 10 of them in one vehicle, filling the edge of the vehicle with stones and making two people stand at the back to mislead the police", and they shot at the police when challenged. A cattle theft gang was caught with illegal weapons and was reported to have been involved in over 100 cattle cases.
*On 29 October 2019, three suspected cattle smugglers were reported dead after a crude bomb they were handling exploded. The smugglers used to attach these bombs to the neck of the cattles, to attack the Indian BSF guards.
See also
* Cattle slaughter in India
Cattle slaughter in India, especially cow slaughter, is controversial because of cattle's status as endeared and respected living beings to adherents of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism; while being an acceptable source of meat for Muslims ...
* Cow protection movement
* Cow protection-related violence
* Article 48 of the Constitution of India
Article 48 of the Constitution of India is one of the Directive Principles which directs the state to make efforts for banning animal slaughtering of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle. It further states to organise agriculture and ...
References
Footnotes
Citations
{{Reflist, 30em
Crime in India
Cattle in India
Hinduism and cattle
Animal theft