Cattle statistics
VIJAYAWADA: The Krishna district police launched a special weekly drive to put an end to the stray animal menace and eventually, reduce the number of accidents due to stray cattle roaming on the streets. A team of 60 members deployed for the task captured 112 cattle from Machilipatnam in the late hours of Saturday. Earlier, in the last weekend, which was the first week of the drive, 110 cattle were captured from Machilipatnam and 50 from Gudivada. While all of the 110 cattle were returned to their respective owners, no one has claimed the 50 cattle captured from Gudivada and 112 cattle captured in the second week’s drive.
One of the owners of the cattle, Y Ram Babu, who got his cattle back, said, “We had tied our cattle in the backyard. Supposedly becoming restless from mosquito bites, the cattle somehow managed to untie the ropes. We found them missing in the morning. When we inquired in our surroundings we got to know that the police had taken them to the municipal goshala. We went there, identified the cattle and brought them home.”
“The drive will be conducted on weekends in various parts of the district and surrounding areas. The cattle are taken into custody and kept in two of the cattle yards till somebody comes to claim them,” said Krishna district SP Ravindranath Babu. The seized cattle are kept at the Municipal Office Cattle Yard and Mustakanpeta Goshala. He also said that the drive would continue through this month at the initial stage and would be continued further if necessary.
While the stray cattle put their own lives at risk, they also hurt the motorists. In the last three months, a total of 57 accidents were registered, caused due to the cattle loitering on the roads.