Cattle impounding team member gored to death by bull in Gujarat’s Surendranagar

“He was attacked by a bull during a cattle-impounding drive on 80-Feet Road. He had suffered serious injuries on one of his thighs and was rushed to hospital in an unconscious state,” a relative said.

This is the second death in a cattle attack reported in Surendranagar district this year. A six-year-old boy was trampled by rampaging stray bulls at Nana Timbla village in Limbdi taluka in March.

Bharwad’s death comes amid urban local bodies in Gujarat intensifying their cattle impounding drives to contain the menace of stray cattle on roads as per directions issued by the Gujarat High Court last week.

Jinga Pandya, president of the Surendranagar-Dudhrej municipality – ruled by BJP – told The Indian Express that Bharwad was injured around a week ago.

However, Pandya underlined that Bharwad was not an employee of the municipality. Jignesh Barot, chief officer of the municipality, also said that Bharwad was an employee of an outsourcing agency that was tasked by the civic body to impound cattle.

He said that the municipality had intensified its cattle-impounding drive and outsourced the job to Chhelabhai Bharwad. “In normal course, staff from our sanitation department tackles the issue. However, after directions from the Gujarat High Court, we had hired an outsourcing agency to provide cattle impounding services. The person who was injured in the drive was an employee of this outsourcing agency,” Barot added.

“The civic body has impounded 379 cattle in recent months and among them, 180 have been sent to panjraploes (shelters for animals run by charitable organisations),” he said.

Officers of Surendranagar district police said they had not received any intimation about a medico-legal case in connection with the cattle attack and subsequent death of Bharwad.