CHENNAI: What would you do if you are a cattle owner and one of your beloved bovine friends didn’t turn up for the evening roll call? The logical thing would be to look around the neighbourhood and maybe scout the nearby streets.
However, for cattle owners in South Chennai, if their cows go missing, the first place they look out for it is Pudupet, far away in the north.
The Corporation has now upped the ante on clearing stray cattle from the streets of Chennai with its fleet of seven hydraulic cattle catching vehicles, but no matter where the cattle are caught, they are taken all the way to Pudupet or Perambur which are presently the only places that have a Corporation operated cattle pounds.
According to authorities, this ‘trend’ may soon change as the Corporation has planned to construct two more cattle pounds in the near future which will cater exclusively to the southern zones of the city. With the stray cattle menace more severe in the southern areas, the move has come after pressing public demand.
“Whenever they take the cattle, we are fined `1, 550, and moreover, we need to pay a large sum for transporting our cattle back home,” says K Vasanthakumar, a cattle owner from Alandur.
The two new cattle pounds will add to the Corporation’s capacity to clear stray cattle effectively. The Corporation catches stray cattle in all zones releases them as and when the owners come to claim them. An additional fine of `100 per day is also collected from owners, but there is an acute need for new cattle pounds as the number of stray cattle is on a constant rise, informed officials.
While where the new cattle pounds will be located has not been confirmed yet, the public are hoping for one in Alandur zone where the stray cattle problem is a big menace.