Even in the dog days of summer, the quiet
paddy fields that mark the border between India and Bangladesh look as supple
and green as the soft stems of herbs grown in a window box. But the daytime
tranquillity belies a stark reality. This delta region of the Ganges river is a
place of often deadly conflict that underpins an activity many in India would
rather not discuss. Every year, hundreds of thousands of cows – considered
sacred in India, with export of the beasts banned – are illegally smuggled into
Bangladesh where they are turned into shoes, belts, bone china crockery and, of
course, meat.
"There is smuggling here
every day," said Umesh, a member of a three-man Indian Border Security Force
(BSF) team on duty at a watchtower near the village of Kaharpara, just a few
hundred yards from the Bangladesh border. "The smugglers will take 50, 100
or 200 cattle at a time. We try to create an ambush and surround the
smugglers."
The story of the annual smuggling of an
estimated 1.5 million cattle says much about modern India – about the sometimes
hypocritical treatment of supposedly sacred cows, the political power of
right-wing Hinduism and the corruption that allows the £320m illegal trade to
flourish. But ultimately this story is about supply and demand. Hindu-majority
India has an estimated 280 million cows but killing and eating them is legal in
only a handful of states. Meanwhile, Muslim-majority Bangladesh, where beef is
eaten with relish, suffers from a shortage of cattle. Half of the beef consumed
in Bangladesh comes from its large, western neighbour.
The snaking border that divides the two
countries runs for 1,300 miles. Here in the Murshidabad district of West
Bengal, 150 miles north-east of the state capital Calcutta, large sections of
it are unfenced. It is a lure both for human traffickers and gangs from both
sides of the border smuggling cows.
Villagers, who claimed not to know any
smugglers but appeared to know the intricacies of the operation, said cattle
were brought by truck from states across eastern India such as Bihar, Orissa
and Jharkhand. Some may even be brought from further away. Despite the effort
involved, the mathematics is persuasive. An animal that might sell for £60-£80 in
the country's cow-belt hinterland will here fetch £130. Once inside Bangladesh,
they could change hands for £225 or more.
"Those buying the cows always look to
see how fat it is. They feed them husks from the paddy," said Mohammed
Ashraf, a blacksmith who was hammering into shape a glowing curved sickle that
locals use to cut the rice crop that is harvested three times a year.
Yet the trade comes with a deadly price. The
BSF has been accused of killing hundreds of cattle smugglers, as well as
civilians not involved in the trade. A 2010 report published by Human Rights
Watch (HRW) suggested that more than 900 people had been killed with impunity
by the BSF over the past 10 years. It also said locals claimed some BSF members
were complicit with the smuggling and took bribes. This year, an incident in
which an alleged smuggler was badly beaten by the security force personnel was
captured on video.
"Over the last decade, they used
excessive and indiscriminate force, shooting at villagers on suspicion that
they were smugglers," said Meenakshi Ganguly, HRW's south Asia director.
"While many may have been engaged in cattle rustling, the BSF ignored the
most basic principles of protecting the right to life. Instead of arresting
suspects, they shot and killed them. The BSF claimed they had to use lethal
force as self-defence, an argument hard to believe since the police reports on
the weapons recovered usually [refer to] sickles and sticks."
Asked about the allegations, a BSF spokesman
said: "The BSF is a disciplined and professional force [and] exercises
utmost restraint in the use of any force. The BSF has also an impeccable record
of upholding human rights."
Ms Ganguly said that since issuing its
report, the BSF had started using rubber bullets which led to a drop in
fatalities. But, villagers said their evenings were still sometimes disrupted.
"We hear the gunshots at night-time. Sometimes the smugglers get shot.
It's mainly people from the other side of the border," said Mr Ashraf.
Locals said the smugglers often used teenagers to transport the cattle across
the border in the belief the security forces were less likely to shoot a
youngster.
There is a clear antagonism between the
guards and the villagers. Some locals said the BSF troops retaliated against
anyone they could find. Matir Rahaman, a rice farmer who was cycling back from
the fields, said he had been badly beaten by BSF personnel. "One night the
cows came over the border and the paddy got smashed. I went to the BSF and
said, 'Why is this happening'. They said, 'You are smugglers' and they attacked
us with [metal-tipped bamboo sticks]," he alleged.
Ashfaqur Rahman, a retired Bangladesh
diplomat who now chairs the Dhaka-based Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies,
said the matter was sensitive but that legalising the export of cows or beef
would put an end to corruption and violence. "There needs to be wise
counsel on both sides," he said.
An irony is that India is expected to become
the world's largest exporter of beef – from non-sacred buffaloes, rather than
cows – by next year. According to an estimate recently published by the US
Department of Agriculture, India is likely to export 1.5 million tons of beef
in 2012, a 25 per cent increase from last year. Its biggest markets are
south-east Asia, the Gulf and Africa.
Cows have been considered sacred in India for
centuries, and in only a few states is killing and eating them legal. More
recently, a movement by Dalits, or so-called untouchables, demanding the right
to eat cows has gathered pace. In 2004, Indian historian DN Jha published the
controversial The Myth of the Holy Cow, which argued that during the period
when a number of the most important Hindu religious texts were produced, people
in India ate cows.
Kancha Ilaiah, a Dalit activist and a
professor at Maulana Azad National Urdu University in Hyderabad, believes Aryan
invaders of Hindu promoted the (white) cow over the (black) buffalo. "The
buffalo predates the Aryans," he said.
There have been attempts by the Indian
authorities to review the ban on cow exports. Earlier this year, a report by
the government's central planning committee suggested changing the law to allow
the export of beef. The plan was hastily dropped and explained away as a
"clerical error" amid an angry backlash from right-wing Hindu organisations
such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and so-called "cow protection"
groups.
Among those who complained was the
UN-affiliated International Organisation for Animal Protection. The group's
India director, Naresh Kadyan, said: "It is the fundamental duty of
Indians that [everyone] should respect all animals. We strongly opposed the
lifting of the ban and the government made a U-turn," he said. "The
cow is a very important animal for Hindus."
Revered and worshipped: Saintly beasts
Elephants
In Thailand, the elephant is considered the
national animal, and it is also revered in Burma, Cambodia and Laos.
Particularly auspicious is the white elephant
– not a distinct species but an albino or elephant with particularly pale skin
– which Buddha's mother is said to have dreamt about before the birth of her
son. The appearance of a white elephant in the reign of a monarch or leader is
meant to signify good fortune and power.
Cats
The ancient Egyptians took their worship of
animals to artistic heights with statues to honour their feline gods, which
frequently featured cats' heads on human bodies.
Cats were prized for their useful
rat-catching abilities, and some argue they were first domesticated in the
region.
While cats are no longer worshipped as gods
in modern Egypt, they are certainly preferred as pets to dogs, which are
traditionally considered unclean in Islam.
Monkeys
Their association with the Hindu faith – the
monkey god, Hanuman, helped Lord Rama defeat the evil king Ravana – has largely
protected India's monkeys in the face of much annoyance at their mischievous
and sometimes aggressive ways.
Delhi's tens of thousands of monkeys are a
frequent nuisance, stealing food, breaking into homes, and even attacking
people. But residents continue to feed them.
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