At least ten Bajrang Dal members suffered wounds when cattle smugglers who were transporting livestock to West Bengal had a violent dispute with them early on the 28th of December in the Balasore region of Odisha. According to police, the activists from the Salepur neighbourhood of Cuttack pursued at least three vans containing cattle for around 200 km before attempting to halt them in the Fuladi area on the outskirts of Balasore town on National Highway 60.
The vehicle soon came to a stop and a scuffle broke out between the two sides. A police official of Balasore Sadar police station revealed, “As a fight ensued between the Bajrang Dal workers and the men carrying cattle, the latter sought help from local villagers.” He stated that at least ten of the Bajrang Dal members were assaulted when the nearby villagers targeted them with bamboo sticks along with other weapons. Three of them suffered severe injuries including head gashes and fractures. Furthermore, the two automobiles carrying them incurred substantial damage. The Balasore Sadar police station has submitted a case in the matter.
The people of a ‘particular community’ wanted the cows to be transported to West Bengal. Nevertheless, Bajrang Dal workers persisted in preventing the unlawful activity. The two parties then argued about the same and soon the issue escalated into a major fight. The injured were brought to the Baleshwar District General Hospital and immediately referred to the Cuttack General Hospital for treatment given their critical condition.
A substantial police force has been deployed in the region because of the tense environment, however, no arrests have been made so far. Sadar police station in-charge Jayant Behera disclosed that two trucks full of cows have been seized and more than fifty cows have been recovered out of which forty-seven are alive while four are dead. In addition, two further four-wheelers have been apprehended but nobody has been taken into custody.
After a string of similar instances involving hundreds of animals throughout the state, in September an enraged crowd set fire to a vehicle transporting cattle in the Keonjhar region believing that it was being used for cattle smuggling. The same month, when they discovered three vans transporting about 100 animals to West Bengal in three separate vehicles, residents of the Balasore district set fire to three of the vans hauling livestock along the Kamarda-Baliapal route.
The Odisha Crime Investigation Department (CID) informed the Orissa High Court in an affidavit last year that throughout the previous five years, there has been a gradual increase in cases of cow transportation that fall under the category of animal cruelty. According to the document, the number of instances of illicit cow transportation has grown by 217% since 2017.
