Coimbatore : The frequent incidents of cattle theft in which pregnant milch cows are being targeted by a ring of thieves has sent shock waves among the dairy farmers who live in a cluster of villages along the Tamilnadu- Kerala border.
Coimbatore : The frequent incidents of cattle theft in which pregnant milch cows are being targeted by a ring of thieves has sent shock waves among the dairy farmers who live in a cluster of villages along the Tamilnadu- Kerala border.
The villagers complain that despite many such cases of cattle theft, the police inaction has compounded the problem further, as no theft cases have been cracked, as yet.
The villagers living in Navakarai, Mavuthampathi, near Valayar dam have been traditionally farmers who also rear cattle in good numbers to supplement their meagre income that they get from their farm produce.
The recent spate of theft incidents in which pregnant milch cows are targeted has become a cause for worry to these farmers who live in poor socio-economic conditions and are dependent on the sale of milk from the milch cows to supplement their income.
While the milch cow of Balasubramaniam was stolen a few days after it gave birth to its calf, three such milch cows owned by Chinnasamy, another farmer was also stolen from his back yard a couple of weeks back.
Farmers Aiyyasamy and Selvakumar have also lost their cows to the thievery, which has become a recurrent problem for the farmers of these villages. Another farmer Kailasamurthy has lost his cow to the thieves only on Tuesday.
“Even though we have made formal complaints to the KK Chavadi police station, the police inaction is compounding the problem further” the farmers alleged
Balasubramaniam the farmer speaking to Simplicity said that “we depend on the milch cows to supplement our income, as agriculture has fallen on evil days”.
“However the recent spate of theft incidents in which milch cows have been targeted and stolen by a ring of thieves have dealt a death blow to our livelihood measures.”
The Police have not cracked even one cattle theft case and brought culprits to book.
When we asked the police to securitize the CCTV footages in Velanthavalam check post, they said that the CCTV surveillance system is not functioning there due to frequent power cuts.
Over 10 milch cows have been stolen from these villages in recent weeks, which has dealt a deathly blow to the dairy business, in which the farmers sell milk. All the stolen cows belong to hybrid cows with a high yield of 20 litres per day.
Alleging that the stolen cows are being sold to cattle farms for a premium in Kerala, the affected farmers alleged that the Police are hand in glove with the ring of thieves who are operating in the cluster of villagers targeting only the milch cows.
Farmer Aiyyasamy said that “at a time, the Tamilnadu Government is distributing free milch cows to farmers to supplement their income, the milch cows which are reared by us are being stolen in broad daylight and night time by a set of thieves”.
“The callous attitude of the police is also contributing to the continued theft incidents. The Police should arrest the thieves involved in cattle lifting and book cases on them. Only then we could heave a sigh of relief” the farmers said in one voice.