CHENNAI: A customised truck illegally carrying 45 cattle heads, mostly buffaloes including young calves, was seized in Chengalpattu and the animals were sent to a Tamil Nadu Animal Welfare Board-recognised shelter.
Chengalpattu police told TNIE that information was received about a truck illegally transporting cattle from a shanty in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. “We intercepted the truck near Acharapakkam in Madurantakam on Wednesday evening. The animals were rescued and an FIR has been filed.” The case has been filed for many violations, including under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Activists said that this was just one of the many trucks that are allegedly picking up cows and buffaloes from different shanties in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and supplying them to illegal slaughter houses in Kerala. Cattle from the state also are illegally transported in these trucks, they alleged.
The complainant was R Raghuram Sharma, president (South India), Gau Raksha Dal. “We helped police seize about 80 such cattle trucks across Tamil Nadu in the recent past. Chennai is the main gateway for this thriving illegal business,” he said.
TNIE had recently published a detailed article on how these trucks were modified to carry the maximum number of cattle and the inhuman practices adopted such as rubbing cut green chillies in eyes to keep them alive.
In Tamil Nadu, animal slaughtering is allowed on ‘fit-for-slaughter’ certificates. The certificate is given if the animal is over 10 years of age and is unfit for work and breeding or has become permanently incapacitated for work and breeding due to injury, deformity or any incurable disease. But, most of the animals that are rescued are healthy and in working condition.
PIL against illegal transportation
The first division bench of Acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq will be hearing a PIL on Tuesday filed by animal rights activists Elephant G Rajendran and M Vignesh in a related matter.
Police had filed a counter affidavit before the high court stating that action was being taken against illegal cattle transportation, but Rajendran said not enough was being done.
Advocate Kadambri Suresh, appearing for Vignesh, said cattle is being trafficked across state borders in identifiable modified trucks, and up to 50 such illegally altered trucks pass through Tamil Nadu and enter Kerala daily.
“Usually, trucks from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana enter Tamil Nadu through the Arambakkam check-post, and reach Vandalur through the outer ring road. They then travel to Kerala via Salem-Coimbatore-Palakkad or Trichy-Theni-Kollam. Even cattle that are being trafficked into Kerala from within Tamil Nadu such as Manapparai, Vellore, and Krishnagiri take the same routes.”
Vignesh said anonymous people informed and photographed at least five trucks on Thursday that entered Tamil Nadu borders carrying cattle.